07 4957 1600 // info@efsmackay.com.au // 54 Gordon Street, Mackay QLD 4740
Founded in 2007, Enlightened Financial Solutions (EFS) was built on the belief that people deserve a fulfilled and enriched life, at every stage.
Having grown our team from two to sixteen staff, we collectively support our clients to define, shape, and plan their future - particularly pre-retirees (50 and over) and retirees (60 and over).
Our qualified and experienced team service our diverse and growing mix of over 400 client profiles, based within the Mackay Region and beyond. We are extremely proud of the relationships we have fostered over the past two decades.
Our focus is on building meaningful relationships with our clients, with their ideal future kept at the forefront. We rely on our core values to guide us, which we have proudly stood by since our doors opened and that have set the foundation for our extensive and widespread referral base.
The services we offer include:
We understand that everybody’s situation is unique, and we create tailored solutions for your individual needs.
We work with you to plan your retirement and focus on how you truly want to spend this time. We develop and maintain a strategy that’s clear on how to put your money to work, so that you eventually won’t need to.
While most of us don’t know when we will pass away. We can work with your solicitor to put strategies in place to make sure that your wealth is distributed with as much certainty as possible. We will meet and work with your solicitor to ensure your wealth is distributed to who you want, when you want, while paying the least amount of tax as possible.
We work with your accountant to ensure asset ownership is structured effectively for tax and there are high levels of asset protection. We will communicate with your accountant prior to strategies being implemented to ensure your long-term wealth and tax plan are on the same page.
We deal directly with Centrelink on your behalf. Our role is to maximise your entitlements and never waste your precious time on the phone or in a Centrelink office.
Our expertise is working with people aged 50 and over with complex affairs. Complex Affairs can include anything from blended families with large wealth and estates, tax and life planning needs, business owners with diverse ownership structures looking to sell their businesses, retirees looking to simplify their affairs, and many, many more!
We help you understand the tax impacts and opportunities of taking care of these items. We also factor in aged care advice and how that will impact wealth transfer.
James has over 25 years’ experience in the Finance Industry. He is the founder of Enlightened Financial Solutions, an award-winning financial advice business located in Mackay. In 2021 & 2022, he made the list of Australia's Top 100 financial advisers in Australia, nominated in the 2020 FS Power50 most influential advisers in Australia, a finalist in the 2020 FPA Awards for Advice Innovation and most recently Daily Mercury’s Power50: Mackay’s Most Powerful People.
James is an active member of the Mackay Rotary Club, as well as a member of the Resource Industry Network and past Chairman of the Mackay Chapter of the Financial Planning Association.
James' main areas of expertise are centered on businesses and high net worth client's financial planning needs. This includes investment advice, wealth creation, retirement strategies and specialised advice in self-managed superannuation funds, companies, and family trusts.
James is a Certified Financial Planner and holds a Diploma of Financial Planning. He also holds a Bachelor of Business (Accounting) degree from Central Queensland University.
James has been married to his lovely wife Helen for over 22 years and they have two beautiful girls Sarah & Claire. James is a keen runner and spends his downtime gardening, watching movies, walking his dog Bella & supporting the North Queensland Cowboys.
Scott has over 15 years’ experience in the advice industry. Scott has a passion for helping high net worth individuals and business owners prepare for retirement with tax effective strategies to help them live their best life.
As a Mackay local born and bred, Scott believes it is critical to give where you live. He is an active member of the Mackay Region Chamber of Commerce, having served as a committee member for three terms. He is an active member of the Port of Mackay Rotary Club and Flagon and Dragon Committee, as well as a member of the Resource Industry Network and Mackay Chapter of the Financial Planning Association.
As much as Scott is proud of what EFS has achieved to date, his biggest achievement is fathering three beautiful daughters. Just as Scott preaches the benefits of a healthy work/life balance to his clients, he knows it is important for him as well. Scott loves nothing more than wetting a line at the reef, attending live music concerts, or catching up with friends and family. Scott holds a Diploma and Advanced Diploma in Financial Planning, a Certificate IV in Financial Services and has a Bachelor of Financial Planning through Central Queensland University.
Mike moved up from Victoria in 2014 and now happily calls Mackay his home. Brought up in Glen Waverley and then bayside Black Rock and Beaumaris, he attended St Leonards College in secondary school then on to tertiary education at Monash University – finishing in 1988 with an economics degree. A career in banking and finance started with NAB in 1989 – graduate program leading to a foreign exchange dealer role over the next 13 years. Some highlights over this time were getting married to Fiona in 1994, 2 ½ years living in Singapore (son Harry born there in 1996) and daughter Charlotte born in Melbourne in 1998.
The family moved to Maffra, East Gippsland which became home from 2003 to 2014 – enjoying a laid-back lifestyle, strong involvement in sport and the local community. Mike worked in banking and finance roles up until 2008, when he commenced a role as financial planner for NAB. In 2014 the family decided that the warmer climate of Queensland appealed, and Mike joined WBC in Mackay – providing financial advice to clients locally as well as west to Emerald, south to Rockhampton, north as far as Cairns.
After discussions with James and Scott, there was no hesitation for Mike to take up the opportunity to join the EFS team in March 2019. What attracted him to EFS then and now is that he loves being part of a proactive, well respected local business that above all else always put clients first. On 1st July 2021 Mike became a director and partner in EFS.
Mike’s continuing interests outside of work are his family, wine, music, going to the gym, long walks on the beach with wife Fiona and their crazy Jack Russell terrier Zeena and being on the water – kayaking, fishing, stand up paddle boarding.
