Sean Nigh
Hi, I'm Sean. Born in Perth to American parents, I spent the first year of my life in Australia, but grew up in Columbia Missouri, a small town in the heartland of the Midwest. I washed dishes and mowed lawns for pocket money growing up while passing the time playing sports and going camping with my father the Conservationist. In 2003, disappointed in the direction the USA was heading and flabbergasted that a 96% GPA (OP 2) wouldn’t even get you a partial scholarship in the States I decided if I was going to pay for my own education I may as well do it somewhere that is not 16 hours drive to the nearest beach so I set my eyes back to my homeland. New construction plumbers make a killing in Australia, but in Missouri it took me 2 years to save up to get here. I landed at the University of the Sunshine Coast in 2005 where I majored in Financial Planning with a minor in International Business and getting surfed by waves.
I have worked my backside off to get to where I am today and I like working with people who are the same.
Starting Intelligere
In February 2010 I got my foot in the door at a large suburban firm where I met Sharan, my now best mate and business partner. Back then, being a degree qualified Financial Planner was rare. Academia was all about deeply getting to know your client and matching financial strategies to their life goals while the industry was all about shoving life insurance and super rollovers down peoples throats for commissions. We both knew from the beginning self-employment was our only long term option.
It’s true what they say, good things come to those who wait. We bided our time and planned for a decade before launching Intelligere Wealth in August 2020. Not even a global pandemic was going to stop us from providing financial advice the way we think it should be done. The way we have been trained to do it by the brightest minds in the world academically and practically by the best financial planners in the country through our Certified Financial Planner studies. The way it always logically should have been done had it not been for the greed of financial institutions and poor regulatory controls.
My thoughts on financial advice
Scary Fact - did you know that legally speaking financial advice is only considered advice and regulated if it is “…intended to influence a person or persons in making a decision about a particular financial product…..”!!! (ASIC RG 175.42) No wonder the industry is focused on product sales - there should have been a Royal Commission into whoever wrote that legislation if you ask me…
Qualifications
I hold the following qualifications and meet the competency requirements under ASIC’s Regulatory Guide RG 146.
• Bachelor of Business (Financial Planning) – University of Sunshine Coast
• Certified Financial Planner CFP® - Financial Planning Association of Australia
Memberships
I am a member of the following professional bodies and abide by their code of professional conduct and ethics:
• Financial Advice Association of Australia (FAAA)