Bendigo’s golden boy strikes it lucky

It is now four years since George Flack won the Money Management Financial Planner of the Year. Jason Spits caught up with the high profile planner in a brief reprieve from his busy schedule.

It has been quite a year for Bendigo financial planner George Flack. In the past 12 months, Flack has carried the Olympic torch, been named his town's Citizen of the Year and been invited to speak at the US FPA conference.

Somewhere in all that he has been involved with local athletics group, a brass band and volunteer fire brigade and run a successful RetireInvest planning business.

This year marks the 28th year that Flack has been involved in providing financial information and advice. His first decade and a half was spent with the Department of Social Security as an accountant dealing with people struggling to understand their entitlements.

In the late eighties, Flack made the move away from the DSS. He says he saw a need to work with the same people but to offer them advice about their retirement savings. The reason he felt it necessary to leave the world of public service was that at the time there were restrictions on advice which could come from DSS employees.

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"It was not a sudden move but a plan made over 12 months after I saw a real need for a person with knowledge of the social security system to give advice to retirees," Flack says.

"Many planners in the area at that time did not understand the system and while I remained within the DSS I could not give advice."

Even though he kicked off his planning career in November 1987, one month after the crash of that year, Flack says the crash was not a stumbling block.

"We were fairly confident it would work and the business was good as it was primarily driven by word of mouth," Flack says.

His first stint as a planner was with Beyson Financial Planning but after two years the group was sold and Flack made the move to RetireInvest.

He now holds the Bendigo franchise with 16 staff working within the practice, mainly servicing the pre and post-retiree market from a strong referral basis in the old mining town which numbers around 85,000 people.

This year marks Flack's twelfth year with RetireInvest. In that time, he has qualified as a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) in 1990 and has also staked out a beat which takes in a large part of central and northern Victoria.

Flack says the reason he gained his CFP so early in the development of the mark in Australia was that he felt that education was critical to the industry and its long term development.

"I have always had an interest in education. That was one of the reasons I went into planning, to help educate investors about their retirement income," Flack says.

"I still strongly support education standards and this extends to being involved with industry events such as conferences."

A measure of his insistence on education standards is that Flack encourages staff to gain industry qualifications and at present four staff members are studying for the Diploma of Financial Planning (DFP) on company time.

An equal measure is his insistence on attending the Financial Planning Association conference each year. Flack is coming up on his ninth conference this year and says that not even "hell and high water will stand in the way of my attending the 10th next year."

Flack has stayed close to the development of the knowledge in the industry and was involved in the writing of the estate planning units in the DFP course from 1992 - 1994. He was also involved with the DSS and FPA working group from 1994-1995 and was instrumental in setting up, and is still involved with, the north central Victoria chapter of the FPA.

In June of this year he also signed up for the newly formed national savings and retirement incomes policy taskforce set up by the FPA which will examine future savings patterns of Australians.

"Education and information is paramount to our success as planners. I feel there is a need to provide education and want to put that across and help people avoid making mistakes," Flack says.

Flack has also made a name for himself outside his practice and is well known in the Bendigo region for involvement in and sponsorship of clubs, charities and tourism initiatives. He also pens a column in the local newspaper, has written a number of books and by his own admission says these things have been a boost for his planning business.

However, Flack says it would be difficult for him to separate each of these as they have been the driver behind the way he works at being an effective planner.

"Planners should try to be community minded. Being active in the community is an easy way to let people know who you are and what you can offer," Flack says.

"At the same time planners have to stay abreast of changes as they occur and ensure they protect their client base. It is surprising how much business comes from existing clients, if you look after them, they will look after you."