Peter Hawker, you explain things properly and use terminology that we understand. You also keep in contact with us, keep up regular contact on how things are going, which we think is terrific. The ability to have meetings in the office as well as home is valuable for us, it is a good thing. You know and we know that we are not good at managing money, you are not a smart aleck about it, but include and understand the situations that happen, and then offer solutions to the problem and situation. When we implement the strategies we are always in a better financial position, which makes us feel more confident within ourselves as well as our relationship between Mark and I.

BradSmith looked at our Superannuation and Allocated Pension and also the fees we were paying which were definitely not working in our favour and he totally reconfigured them providing a workable fund for us. We are very happy with the service that Brad has given and continues to provide us with. He is always just a phone call or email away when we need him and responds immediately to all our inquiries, his service has been invaluable and we have every confidence in him. We would highly recommend him to anyone seeking financial advice.

I just wanted to take time to thank my Oak Financial guy Jeremy Douglas! In my opinion he went above and beyond to help and sort out a situation for me. Well it might have been just normal operation for Jeremy, maybe just another day in the office… but for me was literally and actual a life saver!!I had hired a lawyer to help with disability claim and boy was that a mistake. Jeremy got an answer to the question of what I was converted for with my insurance through Oak Financial with AMP the same day I asked. My lawyer took SIX WEEKS to get the same answer! Furthermore what took my lawyer 9 months to get absolutely nowhere Jeremy had the money and back payment in my bank account in TWO WEEKS!! If I had gone to him sooner! But anyway thank you for what you have done so far and what you will do it the future!

Following a meeting with Richard Owen as part of our normal BNI process of getting to know each other's business, at Richard's suggestion, I went through the Value Model. Whilst I already had a financial planner, I was quite happy to see what the process was all about. It initially involved just myself but as we went further into it, my wife, Tran also had to be part of the process. Jason Andrew, one of Richard's Partners, went through the process with us. Whilst I would have been happy to go through the process with Richard, as it was a personal as well as financial journey, I thought it showed a nice level of sensitivity for Richard to have Jason go through the process with us. Whilst it was challenging and at times confronting, it provided great insights and provided great clarity around what was important for both myself and Tran. And, I learned a few things about Tran's priorities which I must confess I was not fully across prior to these sessions! We are still working with Jason on this journey but I thought it was useful to compliment Richard and Jason of course for their time, patience and expertise in bringing clarity to an area of our lives which we normally don't want to deal with. I look forward to the balance of the process enriching my life even further!

We met Alex O’Neill to discuss our multiple super accounts. We found him to be very professional and knowledgeable. He was personable, sincere and we felt extremely comfortable with the advice he provided us. Our knowledge around super was minimal and Alex was able to explain each step of the process. We would not hesitate in recommending Alex from Oak financial to our friends and family.

We didn’t have a huge amount of spare cash in the beginning and so didn’t think we needed any “financial advice”, originally we just wanted to better manage our tax! But Cameron Vallve has helped us build a clear and flexible wealth strategy to achieve our short and long term goals. I have referred him to endless friends, family and professional colleagues who proclaim the same personal and quality service and I would highly recommend Cameron to anyone seeking to build their future – no matter what age, status or life stage.

BradSmith has made a real difference in our lives by providing advice to better understand our needs in retirement. We now have strategies to pay our house off within 2 years and a management plan to have a secure financial future in retirement.

As someone who has focused their attention on building their own business over the past decade, superannuation and financial planning is something that has often taken a back seat. Jeremy Douglas and the team at Oak financial have been able to identify opportunities and savings whilst simultaneously organising my insurances and business needs. With such a hands-on approach, I wouldn't think of going anywhere else.

A Mentor of mine Ian Taylor, who was a Chartered Accountant, Registered Auditor & Liquidator, Finance Broker, and a Rails Bookmaker who is not with us anymore once said to me: “Mike when dealing with people, who you wish to advocate for you, you've got to find someone who is willing to put their heart into it”. I can safely say I have found such a person in Richard Owen. Since first meeting him at BNI I transferred all my Life & Trauma Insurance Policies over to his company for my wife & I, Richard suggested that I may have a claim against my Trauma Policy which I never gave a thought about for Prostate Cancer which I was diagnosed for and since removed two years ago. He was successful in going in to bat for me and gaining a pay out on my policy this week. I think I have found such a person in Richard, many thanks Richard for a great result!

I'm a single parent working full time two hours away from home, so making appointments to do anything is pretty difficult. Time is something I don't have much of, so it's very important to me. Alex drove out to my place to meet me after 6.30pm on a weeknight, and I live two hours out of the city. He didn't just come in and show me some brochures and leave me to it. He stayed around, had a drink, worked around me doing the dinner-bath-bed routine with my kids, and didn't leave until he did everything he needed to do and got all the information he needed, to make sure that the job was done right. Then he went away and worked on my file, came back and did it all over again. There are two things I don't have much of – time and money. Alex gave me his time and used it to show me how to make more money. You gotta be pretty happy with that.

BradSmith had to work for my business! My initial intransigence, for which I am thankful since I can now transition into retirement knowing that things have been sorted. I think Brad's affable nature is one of the reasons that he has been successful with a person such as myself. I also found Brad engaging - our conversation often wondered into the wider financial and political territory that surrounds superannuation. This made an otherwise tedious process more enjoyable which in turn prompted me to engage with the job at hand. It's seems clear that in order to be successful in Brad's profession, the primary job description is 'to help'. Brad does this well. He has helped me move from a position of skeptical negativity into feeling positive, informed and in control of the superannuation process. And, given the importance of retirement planning, my life in general has a more positive outlook. I would not hesitate to recommend Brad as a very helpful and effective financial adviser.

Richard Owen is not your average, boring and dry Financial Planner. Richard uses Values-Based Financial Planning which means the human and their values are at the center of the whole planning process. As a Business Coach this aligns really well with my own approach to serving clients. I had a great example the other day of how this is such a 'no brainer' approach. I recently left a copy of the Values Based Financial Planning book Richard gave me on the front table of a client's premises with a hand-written note. (It was late at night when I was checking in to their hotel and I did not want to disturb them). The next morning one of the owners greeted me by thanking me for the book. She had read half of it during the evening and found it very interesting and refreshingly holistic. I am guessing very rarely would someone read a document that a Financial Planner had given them at bed time, so this is a great testament to the power of the approach. This approach makes it easy for me to recommend Richard's services and no doubt it makes it easy to engage Richard's services too. So I have absolutely no hesitation in recommending Richard to those within my valued network.

I have transitioned from being an AMP customer to an Oak Financial customer purely on the efforts of BradSmith. Putting it bluntly I was dramatically overcharged and under-serviced with the previous management group and Brad patiently listened, addressed and responded to my concerns. Since our rocky start, he has been professional, empathetic and gentle in shaping my TTR (his recommendation) to my benefit in the long term and my feelings of confidence in his thoughts, advice and follow-up.

Ryan and I first used Alex O’Neill’s service one and a half years ago when we turned to him for help in sorting out Ryan's Super. Ryan, over the years, had accumulated a few different super accounts and we were not sure what was in them or in fact how many accounts he had. Turns out he had 3 different ones. Well, Alex sorted out Ryan's super in next to no time. While we chatted about super, Alex spoke to us about our goals for our family. What would we like to see our money do in the next 5-10 years. My main goal was to be able to live comfortably while building my business and being able to afford schooling for Livi, as we only had her at the time. Alex listen to our needs and feelings about investing- we wanted something that would grow our money but fairly low risk, we didn't need it to go crazy! 7 months later we realised that Dallas was on the way, and with babies there are extra costs. So, I spoke to Alex and was able to pull funds from our investment portfolio really easily without it affecting the account too much. It was such a simple process. So last month when the vacuum cleaner, fridge, desktop computer, laptop and oven decided to all stop working (which considering they were all purchased at the same time- kind of makes sense) I had no issues contacting Alex and requesting a withdrawal from the account. It was all sorted in a matter of days and was so painless. I would strongly recommend Alex.

Engagement with Brad Smith was excellent and made me feel like a valued customer.

We have been clients of Brad Smith for several years now, and would like to express our satisfaction and support for him. My husband and I have always known how to earn and spend money, but had little understanding of how to manage our money and prepare for retirement until we met Brad. Brad listened to our needs and worked with us to develop the best strategies for us, adjusting them when needed. He has answered our many, and often repeated questions with infinite patience, and has the ability to explain complex situations clearly. His assistance has helped us set achievable financial goals and provided us with more confidence in our future. We are very comfortable with the style of consultation and the manner in which our superannuation and transition to retirement are being handled. Additionally, he has always been very responsive to email and telephone communications, and visits us personally at least once each year.