Looking for a retirement financial adviser who’ll help you actually enjoy retirement, not just survive it? Direct Wealth’s team of award-winning advisers in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Cairns and across Queensland helps Australians plan, transition into, and live a comfortable retirement on their own terms. Whether you’re a decade out, a year out, or already there and want a second opinion, we’ll build a retirement plan around the life you want, not a generic template.
Explore our full financial advice services or read on to see how we help.
Direct Wealth is one of Queensland’s most reviewed and most awarded financial advice firms. Our advisers have been recognised at the national Financial Adviser of the Year awards for seven straight years, including a 2022 win, and we’re 2025 IFA and Women in Wealth Awards finalists.
More importantly, our clients keep coming back. We’ve earned 365+ five-star Google reviews, many specifically from people we’ve helped plan, transition into, and live retirement. Our advisers – Erin, Ben, Nathan, Alaina, Lyle, Andrew, Jacinta, Sam and Levi – work with people across every retirement stage, from early-career savers through to retirees managing pension drawdown.
We hold offices in 11 locations across Queensland and offer remote retirement advice Australia-wide, so wherever you are, you can work with a retirement financial adviser who knows what they’re doing.
Our financial advisers have been recognised nationally for delivering straightforward, practical financial advice that helps locals make smarter choices about their wealth and future.
Erin is one of our senior financial advisers and works with clients across every stage of retirement planning. Watch the short video to hear how we approach building a retirement plan.
Erin Truscott:
Hi, I’m Erin and I’m a financial advisor at Direct Wealth, and one of the big things we focus on at Direct Wealth is personal insurance. It’s really important to have personal insurance because as we go through our journey of building and accumulating our wealth, we need to make sure that it’s protected if something goes wrong, and not only are we protecting ourselves, we’re protecting our family members also. Because if something goes wrong and one parent can’t work or a child gets sick and we need to be there for them, this allows us to have the insurance to provide that financial support as we get through what would be considered a really tough time in our lives. So, one of the insurances that we offer is income protection insurance. This is a really important insurance to have throughout your entire working life. And what it does is allows you to fund a monthly benefit to ensure that should something happen, and you are unable to work for either the short or long-term, that you have a monthly income.
Income protection will pay you after a certain wait period up to a specific benefit period. And this could be anywhere from two years right through to your retirement. And what happens is, once you stop work via injury, illness, or accident, income protection kicks in after that set weight period and pays you that monthly income until you are ready to go back to work, and this helps fund vital expenses for both you and your family whilst you are unable to work for that period of time.
Another area of cover is life insurance, and this is pretty straightforward, is if you pass away, a lump sum is paid to your family members in order to be able to fund your debts, if you had any, but also ensure that your family are now going to be okay. So if you have young children, for example, or a partner that was relying on you for income, we can build into that lump sum all of the amounts of money that we need to ensure that they can continue to move through their life without having financial stress.
Another area of insurance we provide advice on is trauma cover. Trauma cover is paid out as a lump sum upon the diagnosis of trauma events in your life that can be quite devastating. Things like cancers, heart attacks, strokes. The way that this is paid out is that upon diagnosis, you get that lump sum so that all you need to do is focus on getting better. But also ensure that in the background there’s money funding your lifestyle expenses and those non-discretionary costs that we know we all have to keep up with even when you are sick and things aren’t great.
So when we are focusing on insurance with a client at Direct Wealth, it’s really important to understand their personal situation and where they’re currently at to identify not only the types of insurance we should be applying for, but also what those levels of cover should be. For example, if you are a single person with no debt, your levels of cover and what you need are going to be vastly different to a young family owning their own home where the father or the mother is the key breadwinner. So it’s really important that we focus on getting these levels of cover right, so that should you need to go through the claims process and claim on some insurance, that you have the right amounts there to ensure no financial stress as you go through what could be a really difficult time.
So once we have the insurance policy in place that’s right for you, it’s really not set and forget. We have to review this regularly and each time we sit down to do a review, we need to make sure we check in on the changes you’ve had in your life to assess if we need to make any changes to that insurance. These could be things like taking on a large debt like the purchase of a home. It could be the increase or decrease in income. And it could be that you might’ve added a new family member to the household or you have extra things to cover. We need to always ensure we’re on top of this to make sure that we increase and, or decrease your cover over time to adapt it and make sure that you’ve always got the right levels of cover for the stage of life that you are at.
Claims happen all the time. We see this a number of times, a week in our office, and none of this is fun stuff to deal with, but what we are able to do is reduce the financial stress and pressure that people have as they go through either the loss of the loved one or receiving bad news about their health. So it’s really our job to then help work through the claims process for whatever cover it is that they’re claiming on, whether it be death, income protection, total and permanent disablement or trauma, and allow that client to have the confidence to know that there’s going to be some money there coming in, whether it be via lump sum or a regular monthly payment to help life go on in that aspect while they deal with something really difficult.
So I often refer to insurance as this necessary evil. We don’t want to pay for it, but we need it. And if we do get to that point in 20 years time where we’re having this conversation about what a waste of money it was, to me, that’s a great thing because you’re healthy and you haven’t needed to claim on that insurance. But the reality is things do happen and we do need the cover. So it is really important to make sure we’re constantly thinking about how we’re protecting ourselves and our families, should something happen where we need to make a claim.
If you’re thinking about reviewing your insurance, it’s really important to take that first step, reach out to Direct Wealth. We’ll put you in touch with one of our advisors. We’ll get you in and we’ll really unpack what it is that you’ve got, your whole financial situation currently. And then we can talk to you about what the different types of covers are, and what would be beneficial for you to have. And then we can make a plan around that. Not only will we make a plan, but we’ll make a plan to review that on an ongoing basis to ensure that it’s constantly moving with the life that you have throughout the life stages.
If you’re thinking about starting your financial planning journey, or perhaps you might be looking for a new financial advisor, please do reach out to the team at Direct Wealth. We have a number of wonderful advisors here who can really help you on your journey and give you peace of mind that the plan you have in place is going to make sure that you are okay now and into the future. We really look forward to hearing from you.
Retirement planning is the work of figuring out the retirement income you’ll need, where it’ll come from, and how to make sure it lasts. It pulls together your superannuation, investments, age pension entitlements, property, savings and any other income streams into a single coordinated plan.
A good retirement financial adviser does more than run the numbers. They help you decide when you can realistically stop working, how much you can spend each year without running out, how to draw from super in a tax-effective way, and how to plan for the things people forget – healthcare costs, helping adult kids, market downturns, longevity.
Curious about shaping your future with our expert guidance? Find a financial advisor near you to get started.
Retirement isn’t a single moment; it’s a transition. We help people across four broad stages:
Here’s what working with a Direct Wealth retirement financial adviser covers:
Our retirement planning services offer benefits that go beyond financial security:
Look forward to a retirement that’s not only secure but truly fulfilling. Ready to plan the retirement you deserve? Get in touch with us today.
Ready to secure your dream retirement? Contact us today to get started.
We provide retirement financial advice from 11 offices across Queensland and remotely Australia-wide.
If you’re outside one of our office regions, our advisers regularly work with clients remotely. Find your nearest adviser using our find a retirement financial adviser near you tool.
Jamie F.
Satisfied Client
“I had a fantastic experience with Direct Wealth! From the very beginning, I felt comfortable with the entire process. Kirsty and the team were professional, knowledgeable, and always available to answer my questions.
They took the time to understand my needs and provided tailored advice that I could trust. I highly recommend Direct Wealth to anyone looking for expert financial guidance. Thank you for your exceptional service.”
The first step is an easy welcome call. This quick and painless chat is all about getting to know one another. You can ask questions and get a feel for whether we’re right for you.
To get started, simply fill out the form and we’ll be in touch ASAP.
Direct Wealth offers a free welcome call with no obligation. From there, fees depend on the scope of advice you need. A one-off retirement strategy is typically charged as a fixed project fee, and ongoing advice is charged annually based on the complexity of your situation. We’ll give you a clear quote upfront before any work begins, so there are no surprises. Cost is always discussed openly in your welcome call.
The earlier the better, but it’s never too late. Most clients come to us 5 to 15 years out from retirement, which gives us the most room to optimise super contributions, structure investments, and reduce tax. That said, we regularly help people one year out, in their first year of retirement, or already a decade in. A retirement financial adviser is useful any time your situation changes or you want a plan checked.
The figure depends on your lifestyle, whether you own your home, and whether you’re single or in a couple. As a rough guide, ASFA’s Retirement Standard publishes regularly updated benchmarks for both modest and comfortable retirements. We can help you work out your specific number based on your goals. For more detail, see our guide on how much super you need to retire comfortably.
A retirement financial adviser helps you plan and manage your finances so you can retire on your terms. That includes modelling how long your money will last, structuring super and investments for income, optimising tax, navigating Centrelink and the age pension, planning for healthcare and aged care costs, and adjusting the plan as life changes. The point is to give you confidence about the future, not just a spreadsheet.
Yes. Age pension and Centrelink rules are a core part of most Australian retirement plans, and the assets and income tests can be tricky to navigate. We help you understand what you’re entitled to, structure your assets to maximise eligibility where appropriate, and handle the application process. Our guide to the age pension assets and income tests covers the basics.
Yes. While our head office is in Milton, Brisbane, we have 11 offices across Queensland – Capalaba, North Lakes, Bundall, Robina, Maroochydore, Cairns, Innisfail, Ipswich, Toowoomba, and Townsville – and we provide retirement financial advice remotely to clients Australia-wide. Wherever you are, you can work with a Direct Wealth retirement adviser by phone, video, or in person.
We’re here to create personalised retirement strategies built around your ideal outcome.
Whether you’re just starting to plan for retirement or refining an existing strategy, our retirement financial advisers help you organise the moving parts so your retirement plan is effective, tax-efficient, and tailored to you.
Ready to secure your retirement? Contact us today to get started.