One thing that is apparent to me on a daily basis is that most people rarely review their financial products and often have inappropriate mortgages, insurance and Superannuation policies simply because, once in place they never review the product again.

Financial planners should drive this process, and to some extent they do encourage people to review their financial products, but often do not chase this as hard as possible, therefore it is necessary for us ensure our product are still appropriate for us.

A number of factors result in our financial products becoming out-dated. The first and most obvious, our circumstances change, of course if our circumstances change the product we have is designed to suit our previous situation, and may no longer be relevant. Therefore when your situation changes it is necessary to review your insurance, superannuation and mortgage.

Products improve over time, Superannuation funds and insurance policies that were once considered quality, will eventually be surpassed by more modern products, these products are often cheaper as well as offering superior features. Much in the same way as a flat screen TV from the early 2000’s is now considered poor quality and expensive.

Further to this introductory rates and alike can make some mortgages and insurance policies initially very attractive, but less so down he track. This makes reviewing doubly important, once the introductory rates expire, the existing policy is probably too expansive, further to this to this there is likely to be a new introductory offer that can be used to your advantage.

Virtually every client I see that has not reviewed either than insurance, Superannuation or mortgage in the previous 2 years is usually in the wrong product. In most cases they are paying more in fees, interest payments or insurance premiums than they should be, and furthermore almost always have inferior features.

The best news is though, under almost all circumstances there is no cost to review these products, a financial advisor, bank or mortgage broker will almost always happily review these for you as it is likely to result in more revenue for them and they will not be able to make changes unless you are better off, there is literally only upside for you, yet most of us do not regularly review our situation.

It is very sound advice to review your Insurance, Mortgage and Superannuation annually.