Client Profile: Wayne & Jenny Hunter

Wayne and Jenny have kindly written the article below on their family, working life, retirement and the relationship they have had with our company since 2005. We greatly appreciate their contribution to Trade Secrets.

Jenny and I have been with GFM since I retired in 2005 and with the GFM team’s help, we have been able to enjoy our retirement.

I met Jenny whilst training for my Pilots Licence, she had just started in the office at the flying school where I was doing my ground subjects and we have been together ever since. We have a son and a daughter who are married and have families of their own.

I worked in Aviation for ten years as a Flying Instructor, High Altitude Photographic/Mapping Survey Pilot and Corporate Pilot. Jenny & I were living in Sale when a flying contract finished and the opportunity to work on the Oil & Gas Platforms in Bass Strait for Esso Australia arose and I stayed with them for 29 years. Jenny has done secretarial work, been a stay at home mum, busy taking care of the children while I was away working. Jenny worked in retail before we retired.

We have always had an interest in club motorsport and that remains our main hobby and social interest. We help with the administration of Major Victorian and Club events and compete in Hillclimbs and road events with the MG Car Club. Whilst Jenny loves her gardening we also enjoy our caravanning and overseas holidays. Of course time with our family and babysitting our grandchildren is a great joy.

Part of being employed by Esso Australia was their compulsory super scheme and this became the major part of our retirement savings. Rather than opt to take an Esso funded pension, we decided to look after our own affairs. We had an association with a financial group but the advice did not suit, so we started the search for another financial planner.

We had a recommendation from a car club friend to look at GFM and we included them in the five companies we looked at. We found two that impressed but Paul’s plan for our future was the one we were most comfortable with. Paul’s professionalism and his ability to include Jenny in the conversation were also a major consideration for us. We also liked the fact that GFM is privately owned and all their advice was based on our personal circumstances.

After joining GFM, we were impressed with the technical abilities of not only Paul, but of Witi and the GFM team. GFM helped facilitate our transition to retirement and also was able to take on the task of managing our share portfolio through to our newly established SMSF. In the beginning we had many questions and were thankful that Paul and Witi were always available to help with advice. We have now settled into a stable routine and we always act on their timely advice regarding our portfolio.

By being with GFM we have been able to really enjoy our retirement and know that we will be financially secure for many years to come.

We wish we had been with GFM years before our retirement and our advice to others, because of our relationship with GFM, has been to put all your retirement savings in superannuation well before you retire. Some have taken our advice and are now long term clients of GFM, including our son and daughter in law who started their SMSF with GFM this year.

We are actively involved in our SMSF and use the GFM website to monitor our portfolio between our appointments with Paul. We also enjoy attending the frequent seminars that are run by GFM because the calibre of the presenters is excellent and they are a very useful way to keep up to date.

To those that are saving for their retirement, we advise the lesson we have learnt from GFM is that money contributed into super is the most tax effective way to save for your retirement, and that it is never too early to plan for retirement.