Why I use North with Mina Nguyen, Director of Essense Wealth

In the latest instalment of our interview series with leading advisers, we caught up with Mina Nguyen, Director of Essense Wealth in Melbourne.

After starting her working life in banking, Mina cut her teeth in AMP’s renowned Horizons Academy.

Essense Wealth, the advice business she founded, has quickly gone from strength to strength, recently achieving an impressive win at The Adviser Games. The growing team of four are continually upskilling to deliver the best possible outcomes for their loyal clientele.

When it comes to down time, there’s precious little after Mina’s finished advising her clients and being a Super-Mum! But the gym is non-negotiable, and Mina’s also a bit of a foodie, with a preference for a spot of Asian/Western fusion.

What was your first experience with North?

I’m fairly new to the platform. About a year ago I came across MyNorth Lifetime on Ensombl and immediately thought ‘Wow, this is powerful’.

I thought it would work particularly well for clients on the borderline when it comes to getting the age pension. And I was right.

The bottom line is if clients are referring friends and family and telling them about how my fees are great value, I think that means we’re doing a lot right.

What are the top three reasons you use MyNorth Lifetime?

Longevity, lifestyle and peace of mind. It’s given clients clarity they can retire early with the level of income they need for a long period of time

What aspects of North have made the biggest difference to your business?

Definitely MyNorth Lifetime. You can’t really compare it to other products as it’s so new and unique. I like innovative products like these as they make us think differently about how to achieve the best outcomes for our clients.

What's been your best client outcome with North?

The first two clients we’ve brought on to MyNorth Lifetime are single women without beneficiaries. They’re both keen to maintain their lifestyle so their quality of life doesn’t go backwards if they run out of money.

The first client is in her early 50s and has about $300K in super. Our modelling has shown that by utilising the various MyNorth Lifetime account types at different life stages for this client, we can generate an income of $50K a year in retirement, and we could have gone higher.

The second client is already 65 and has just gone through a divorce. She also doesn’t have much super and wants to ensure longevity of income.

MyNorth Lifetime has given both clients greater potential to access more Centrelink benefits.

It’s worked really well for our single clients so far and we’re now testing it out for couples.

What's North’s biggest timesaver?

I like the access to technology – the mobile view makes it really easy to see things from the client’s perspective.

How does North’s support team help you get things done?

Someone’s always available to help when we need it – I work a lot with New Business Manager Ha-Dieu Ford and the team is so passionate and fantastic at their job.

Our experience has been very positive across the board, and we absolutely love your Retirement Specialist Julian Place.

As a former adviser, he’s very insightful. I asked Julian to model four different client scenarios, and not only did he come back with all four, but he also provided some alternative strategy options for consideration regardless of the outcome in terms of North inflows.  We really appreciate that level of integrity and ‘client-first’ approach.

What would you like to see from North in the future?

Just keep changing with the times and improving the technology, administration and transaction capabilities.

I’d like to see MyNorth Lifetime popping up on adviser platforms like Adviser Logic so we can model more easily. Basically, anything that makes my life easier!

Would you recommend North?

Absolutely, I’ve already been doing this and recommended MyNorth Lifetime to other advisers at PD days.