4 Places to Find A Financial Planner in Malaysia

Here’s something I observed, after being in the personal finance space for a while: everyday Malaysians want more guidance in their money management from an unbiased professional (aka not agent). But MOST people don’t know where to find a financial planner or financial advisor, or even start the process.

I got you. Here are 4 places to find and hire a professional financial planner in Malaysia. #1 is the cheapest option (ie FREE).

At the end of this article, I also included the kinds of questions you can ask your financial planner or financial advisor.

#1 – Through free consultation at InvestSmart’s #FinPlan4U event

Cost: Free

The first method is to let the universe pair you up with your fated financial planner or financial advisor (jk jk but actually kinda true).The public can book a one-to-one financial planning consultation under the #FinPlan4U initiative, which is completely FREE.

Why free? Because every year, Securities Commission Malaysia holds the public education event InvestSmart, which includes a collaboration with the Financial Planning Association of Malaysia (FPAM) and Malaysia Financial Planning Council (MFPC).

The only catch is the event only happens sporadically and if you missed it, you missed it, you have to wait for the next round. However you can reasonably expect an event around Quarter 4 every year.

I attended a session back in 2018 and had a good experience with my assigned financial planner or financial advisor, and I’d recommend you take advantage of this initiative too – if you like your financial planner’s vibe, you can proceed to hire them, but if not you can use the other options in this list.

UPDATE: #FinPlan4U is back! All you have to do to claim a free financial planning consultation is get your fine self to Mid Valley Exhibition Centre on 11-13 October 2024. FREE one-on-one financial planning sessions are available across 3 days on first come first served basis, no pre-registration are required.

#2 – From financial planner/content creator hybrids

Cost: Varies. RM3000++ is a good starting point. Expect higher fees for complicated financial situations, or if you are a high net worth individual

Nowadays, there is more financial content in Malaysia than ever before, produced from konon-terer personal finance bloggers like myself to financial companies to financial planner/content creator hybrids (and more).

While I believe ANYONE can and should talk about money and personal finance, the general rule of thumb you can use is to prioritise financial advice from financial planner/content creator hybrids over anyone else. They are much less likely to overclaim/oversell financial products and services.

Who are these Financial planner/content creator hybrids, you ask? They are people who offer financial planning as a service and choose inbound marketing strategies to get clients, instead of outbound marketing.

(Simplistically, inbound marketing = clients chase you; outbound marketing = you chase clients.)

In Malaysia, some notable financial planner/content creator hybrids include:

• KC Lau (the OG)
• Pakdi (Malay language)
• Stev Yong of Wealth Vantage Advisory, who also runs top personal finance website MyPF.my
• Farah Adira
• Saidah Asilah Abdul Shukor
• Ikhwan
• Sofina Johari

I’m sure there are more but these are the names I can think of atm. I admire them for creating free beneficial financial content and prioritising their audience. If some of those audience members turned to customers, that’s a win-win situation all around.

P/s – if you’re a (licensed) financial planner/content creator hybrid yourself, please comment and I’ll add you to the list.

P/s – Reminder than while I completed all 4 modules of Certified Financial Planning course, I am NOT a financial planner. So prioritise their advice over mine, too.

#3 – Through SmartFinance.my platform

Cost: Varies. RM3000++ is a good starting point. Expect higher fees for complicated financial situations, or if you are a high net worth individual

If you prefer to search for your own financial advisor, you totally can at SmartFinance.my, the platform to find and book financial planners. Financial Planning Association of Malaysia (FPAM) is behind SmartFinance.my, so it’s legit.

The cool thing is you can select financial planners based on location (if you want face-to-face consultation), language (English, Mandarin, Bahasa Malaysia, Cantonese, Hokkien, Tamil) and fees.

Even cooler is you can select your financial planner based on their specialisations, such as:

• Emergency Savings
• Estate Planning
• Comprehensive Plan
• Health Care Planning
• Financial Security
• Credit Protection
• Child Planning
• Retirement Planning
• Succession Planning
• Family Office
• Child Tertiary Education Planning
• General Accumulation
• Wealth & Investment Portfolio Management
• Islamic Financial Planning
• Cash Flow Management
• Wealth Protection
• Estate (Will, Trust and Power of Attorney) Planning and Implementation

#4 – Through Mula app

Mula – run by the same folks behind RinggitPlus’s now-innallillah Financial Planning service – is a financial planner service with a tech twist. If the idea of straightaway meeting a financial planner scares the shit out of you, then you might want to try this first.

You can download and take a 3-minute personal financial health check through this link. If you choose to continue to get personalised action plans, it costs RM999/1399 for individuals and RM1499/2099 for couples.

Ok, those are the 4 places to find financial planners in Malaysia. Now, what to ask them? Lots, actually.

Q – What to ask your financial planner?

Here is a non-exhaustive list of questions to ask your financial planner:

• Am I overpaying for house loan/car loan/insurance
• I want to buy a car/house/something expensive. Can I afford it?
• How to lower my monthly commitments
• Is there a better debt repayment strategy I can use
• Is my investments and asset allocation good enough
• How can I lower fees for financial products/services I use (investment, etc)
• Are there better insurance out there more suitable or affordable for me
• What other insurance do I need
• What estate planning tools do I need and how do I go about it
• Can I afford to retire with my current contribution
• How much should I earn and save to retire early in Malaysia
• Should I pay of my PTPTN loan with my savings

And more. If you have exhausted online resources and still can’t find answers, then it’s time for you to hire a financial planner for professional advice.

My unsolicited advice – Even if you think you’re good at this money thing, you could also hire them to confirm that yes, you’re doing the right thing. There’s peace of mind in knowing you’re on the right track.

Here are some more bonus Q&A for you.

Q – How much do financial planning services cost?

If you want to get personal financial planning for yourself, the cost for comprehensive financial planning ranges FROM RM999 up to a few thousand ringgit.

(Note: this excludes the free FinPlan2u event in #1 – that’s just a 1-hour session)

Q – When should you consider getting financial planning services?

Personally, I think one should consider getting financial planning services if you fall into one or more situations below:

• You can afford the fees (see ‘How much do financial planning services cost?’ section above)
• You have a minimum of 6 months’ worth of expenses
• You keep all/most of your savings in bank account/a single type of investment and afraid to venture out due to lack of knowledge
• You are are afraid of being ‘sold to’ by agents
• Your finances are messy and all over the place
• You have done DIY research and don’t know what else you should optimise financially

If you can’t afford the fees, it’s completely fine to use the free services offered, such as the FinPlan2u event.

If you are in debt, you CAN contact a financial planner, but you can also refer to my The Ultimate, No-Guilt Guide to Paying Off Your Debt guide.

Q – Where to find retirement planner in Malaysia?

You can find a retirement planner in all of the options above. Just let your financial planner know about your retirement goals and they’ll chart your current progress and suggest an optimised and more efficient method to get there.

Q – Where to find Islamic Financial Planner in Malaysia?

You can find Islamic Financial Planner in all the options above. If they have IFP in their name, that means they are Islamic Financial Planner.

However, you should also know that financial planner and Islamic financial planner is like, 90% similar. Chances are your financial planner will be able to advise you on Islamic financial planning too, or know where to find the information you need.

Protip for Muslims – Do ask your financial planners about Hibah, Wasiat, Takaful and other Syariah-compliant financial products and services.

The Hibah Takaful instrument, for example, can help you leave an inheritance to non-Muslim loved ones, and to female family members who may be financially abandoned by male relatives after your passing.

I said what I said.

Q – What if I prefer DIY financial planning?

There’s nothing wrong with doing DIY financial planning – doing own research and getting financial advice from friends, family and companies. But you must know MOST advice out there is biased:

• Someone who made money from property will tell you property investment is a good idea
• The dude who made money from the stock market will tell you investing in stocks is awesome
• That person who made money from cryptocurrencies/digital assets will say it’s the best
• A wealth planner, also a unit trust agent (representing one company) will tell you unit trusts are the best investments
• A life advisor, also an insurance/takaful agent (representing one company) will only recommend products from their company
• Not to mention network marketers (MLM and Ponzi), scammers, high-risk-high-reward opportunists and self-proclaimed financial gurus who have totally bastardised the phrases ‘financial freedom’ and ‘financial independence’ until they now become red-flag phrases instead

Financial planners, on the other hand, are the best possible professional option. They are bound by Code of Ethics where they first and foremost serve you, the client, and not their financial interest (ie commissions).

Btw, ‘Financial planner’ is a protected term. It is NOT the same as wealth planner or life advisor. Not everyone can use the CFP title – one needs to complete the Certified Financial Planning course plus pay yearly membership to FPAM to call themselves a financial planner in Malaysia.

Any of you have hired a financial planner in Malaysia before? Why did you select them? How was your experience like with the financial advisor? Share with us in the comments section 🙂