George Iacovou: the financial conversations you should be having

In episode 29 of Raising the Bar, George Sourris from Empire Legal sits down with George Iacovou, Principal Financial Adviser and Founder of Great Advice, to unpack the financial decisions that shape long term success for Queensland property owners.

After founding Great Advice at just 23 years old, George has spent more than a decade helping individuals, families and business owners navigate investment, superannuation, insurance, retirement planning and wealth creation.

We cover:

- Building Great Advice from scratch: why George walked away from the traditional financial planning model, the lessons he learnt working for AMP, starting a business in his early 20s and how Great Advice grew through trust, referrals and long term client relationships.

- What Queensland property owners get wrong: the financial habits every homeowner should establish after settlement, why automation matters, the role of property in long term wealth creation, investment strategy, negative gearing, superannuation and the conversations property owners should be having before retirement.

- Trust, standards and the future of financial advice: the impact of the Royal Commission, why the number of financial advisers has almost halved, the importance of specialisation, avoiding property spruikers and how consumers can identify professionals who genuinely have their best interests at heart.

George shares practical insights on wealth creation, property ownership, retirement planning and why doing the non-sexy things today can completely change your future.

If you own property, are planning for retirement, building wealth or simply want to make better financial decisions, this episode is packed with practical advice on creating a plan, avoiding costly mistakes and building long term financial security.

Contact George: https://greatadvice.com.au/contact-us/
Follow us on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/empirelegal/
More podcast episodes: https://empirelegal.com.au/podcast/
Check out our blogs: https://empirelegal.com.au/blog/
Website: https://empirelegal.com.au/

Transcript

George Iacovou:  It's either you sort it out or the government will sort it out for you. So get it done. It's a non-negotiable. We want to be part of the reason they win. We're invested in them winning. Life is all about doing non-sexy things for your future.

George Sourris:  Most Queenslanders buying property have no idea what they're walking into financially. No structure, no strategy, no plan for what happens after the settlement. Today's guest has spent over a decade fixing that, one client at a time. He's a financial planner, a business founder, and a fellow George. Welcome to Raising the Bar, George Iacovou from Great Advice.

George Iacovou:  Thanks, Georgie. Thanks for having me on.

George Sourris:  Mate, thank you for being here. Fun fact, I think the first podcast I ever did was with you, four years ago, maybe in your studio. And I'd spoken about wanting to do a podcast and mate, you were a very early inspiration for me because you were light years ahead of the rest of us. You, you were doing it when I was thinking about doing it.

George Iacovou:  Yeah, thanks. I've always been a little bit crazy and trying new things. So, but yeah, it was a lot of fun and super happy and feel privileged to be on your podcast as a guest.

George Sourris:  Well, mate, we're friends first, and now we're blessed to be able to do some work together, helping out some mutual clients and yeah, fighting the good fight.

George Iacovou:  Yeah.

VOICEOVER:  Welcome to the Raising the Bar podcast, where we story tell excellence in Queensland Property. I'm your host, George Sourris from Empire Legal.

George Sourris:  George Iacovou is the principal advisor and founder of Great Advice, a boutique financial planning firm based in Springwood, Brisbane, specialising in investment, superannuation, insurance, and wealth strategy for individuals and families. With over a decade of experience and multiple awards, Great Advice has built its reputation entirely on referrals, goals-based advice, no product commissions on super or investments, and a first meeting that's always free. Prior to founding Great Advice, George worked as a financial planner at AMP Limited and as a client manager at WPS Financial Group. You founded Great Advice in 2012, so what's that? 14 years ago?

George Iacovou:  Yeah, a long time. And

George Sourris:  you haven't looked back?

George Iacovou:  Never looked back. It's not worth it, and, nothing would change looking back anyway. So it's been a lot of fun, a lot of learnings and we're super proud of what we've built and, and overcome.

George Sourris:  Mate, you've built an amazing business, and you've just done a fresh fit out in your office, which is really cool. It's looking amazing.

George Iacovou:  Thank you. Yeah. It's starting to look how I envisioned what my office would look like when I first started and fitting it out with IKEA furniture and, doing little handyman things myself, like going to Bunnings and patching up holes, and trying to get it all to look the part while we're in the build phase. It's super exciting and it's great to see that our environment is also growing and upgrading and reflecting who we are today. And yeah, it's part of the fun.

George Sourris:  It's part of the journey, isn't it? Mate, we started off in a spare bedroom, and now we've got a couple of offices, and yes, it's an evolution. It's a constant journey.

George Iacovou:  Yeah. It's super cool.

George Sourris:  And we'll unpack this a bit more, but you started very young. Like, how old were you when you started your business, mate?

George Iacovou:  So I started the business when I was 23, and I was working in Sydney prior to, for AMP, and then I moved back. So I went from living on my own, to living back with my parents at 23, which was a lot of fun. And it's hard to go from being independent to being dependent and Mum telling you to pick up your clothes and eat your dinner and those sort of things. So-

George Sourris:  Any European will know that story all too well. Yeah. Especially as a boy, as a bloke.

George Iacovou:  Yeah. It was a lot of fun. But yeah, I started quite young, Someone asked me about this the other day, and, I was young enough and naive enough to not think about all the things why it wouldn't work. I had no obligations, I had no commitments, and yeah, I looked at the world a completely different way, as a young man trying to figure out what they're doing and what they love.

George Sourris:  It was an untraditional way of doing it, wasn't it? Like, most people work in a career in a place for decades before they take the plunge, whereas you did it backwards.

George Iacovou:  Yeah, I figured out early on that it's not necessarily a job where, yes, you need experience and you need proper training. But I felt like, I could add value outside of the norms of of financial advice. And financial advice was completely different back then, compared to what it looks like today. And early on I knew that traditional product pushing of, rolling over someone's super or selling them an insurance product was not really how I wanted to be remembered. It's not

George Sourris:  particularly memorable, is it?

George Iacovou:  No. Like, clients always forget what you said, but they never forget how you made them feel. And I'm lucky that I built trust with them and always did the right thing by them. That my earlier advice that they trusted me with, got fine-tuned and bettered over the years. Because my earlier work, I did it to the best of my ability and to my experience level at the time.

George Sourris:  Of course, yeah.

George Iacovou:  But I never stopped, self-development in my profession, and I always loved what I did.

George Sourris:  Yes.

George Iacovou:  I genuinely was invested in their journey as well as they were invested in me. And I think,

George Sourris:  Yeah, genuinely. Genuinely Yeah That's the piece you got to pull out here, I think, listeners, is it's not about how many numbers of clients or anything like that, is it? Yeah. You care about these people. Yeah. It's a long journey, as with planning clients, isn't it? Decades-

George Iacovou:  Yeah ...

George Sourris:  sometimes.

George Iacovou:  We're now being able to bear the fruit of all of that because it's very difficult to add value when talking investments and sacrificing, because people are foregoing their cash to inject into things, investment vehicles like super, exchange traded funds, investments of all different sorts. So- Yeah,

George Sourris:  property, it's a long game.

George Iacovou:  It's a lot. Yeah.

George Sourris:  You think, "Oh, I want to go buy a better car now, or I want to have a fancier place, or that European holiday," to actually go, "No, no, I'm not going to take the instant gratification," it's a long

George Iacovou:  game. Yeah, definitely long game. And most investments, generally hold a 7 to 10 year minimum investment horizon. Even property's a 10-year plus play as well. So, to

George Sourris:  get a good return out of it or to make it worthwhile?

George Iacovou:  Yeah, just statistically. When you look at property as an investment you might be fortunate enough, like a lot of Queenslanders and Brisbane investors in particular who were able to buy over the last, you know, five, six years, or even most recently we saw another property surge. So yes it depends on where you are in the cycle. But if we look statistically over the last 30 years, property grows at a rate of around 6%. And Brisbane property, even though we have seen double digits in a single year, has only grown 7.1% in that time period as well, in a 30 year period. On average. Yeah.

George Sourris:  Wow. So you hear all these terms like super cycle and the Olympics and all this sort of stuff, but I think - correct me if I'm wrong, it's your job to look past all that noise and you're looking way out onto the horizon about what has time told us looking backwards in terms of how you can forecast. Like, you're not selling the dream going, "Oh, you're going to get 20% growth," or anything crazy that the spruikers out there are doing. You're looking at what's a long-term plan to help put these people in a great position.

George Iacovou:  Yeah, because I always go off worst case scenario, 'cause if my clients are good in worst case scenario, when things go great I look like a superhero, number one. But number two is also when you are looking at property investment in its entirety, there's a lot of different things that come into play. And one of those is gearing. And it's a very topical conversation post-budget, but-

George Sourris:  Took the words out of my mouth, mate. That's all I've been hearing for the last couple of weeks.

George Iacovou:  But gearing was the best tool for the middle class to forego cashflow today to be able to claim the deduction at the end of financial year, and also participate in the growth of a property over their working life. So there's a lot of changes, like current interest rates for investment at the moment are mid to high sixes. If property growth is 7.1%, and gearing is not applicable, how many people will forego their cash flow, in order to invest in property- for the longer term? So there's a lot of things that are up in the air. Obviously, the budget hasn't passed law yet. And we as advisors have already started whiteboarding strategies on how and where to invest, post-budget as well. So obviously a lot can change, until it passes law. But we are reading and running scenarios and talking with accountants also lawyers on restructuring, what would that look like if things fell on this side of the ledger, what would that look like? What does the long-term indexation method actually look like in dollar terms? What

George Sourris:  does that even mean? Like you need to explain that to your clients, right? There's a lot of that I think where there's a lot of fearmongering in the media. Like it's up to you. I'm sure your phone's been very busy. Ugh. Like, yeah, you and the accountants would just be getting absolutely pumped at the minute with like people freaking out going, "George, what do I do?" And yeah, good planners are going to have a strategy.

George Iacovou:  Yeah. I think for us, it's just to call it what it is. Let the numbers speak for themselves. Let's steer clear of the media and the fearmongering. And people get caught up in if they have a particular view and they like or share a particular video, even on social media, then it hits the algorithm and then they're kind of stuck in a bit of an echo chamber of just that.

George Sourris:  Yeah.

George Iacovou:  So as advisors we try to remove ourselves from that as much as we possibly can so that we can look at things with a clear mind. Because at the end of the day, we get paid to think, and we do that we do that in a way that hopefully adds value to our clients and gives them that peace of mind that, hey, even though things have changed, instead of looking at the negative aspects of the budget and how we are missing out, let's talk about how we can adjust and find the opportunity in all this muddy water.

George Sourris:  Yeah. And move forward with a plan.

George Iacovou:  Yeah.

George Sourris:  Yeah. Yeah. And it's a really serious job that you have. I think that's another thing that people need to remember. Like you are responsible for someone's retirement. Like, you're giving advice on how people get to retirement and build a better life. Like, it's a really, really serious job, hey. Like, you had to go to uni for a long time to get all qualified up to do your role.

George Iacovou:  I've got a big sense of responsibility. The weight of it in the earlier stages was quite heavy. But I think as you evolve as an advisor, it really comes down to people have trusted us and now they're referring us, because we've done the right thing year on year by them. And the journey for people in general, especially navigating the current landscape, is very difficult and people generally don't act in times of uncertainty, and we've seen the property market retract - its auction clearance rates dropping. Even Sydney was in the 30s recently.

George Sourris:  But I just came off the back of the Australian Real Estate Conference, AREC, over the last two days. So it's end of May we're recording right now, 2026. They Alex Phillips, number one agent in Australia, I think statistically. He's down in Sydney. He was saying that their market's slowed, it's in trouble, compared to what it was. A bit of a knock-on effect, hasn't hit Brisbane as hard, but it's certainly coming. I think it's already happening from all the agents I speak with. We're talking clearance rates under 40%, for four weeks in a row now.

George Iacovou:  Yeah, I look after some of the biggest real estate agents in Brisbane.

George Sourris:  Yep.

George Iacovou:  Real estate agents on their, you know, worst month doing 15 odd sales, right?

George Sourris:  Yep.

George Iacovou:  And, uh- So

George Sourris:  high volume, good

George Iacovou:  performers ... high volume.

George Sourris:  Top of their game.

George Iacovou:  Very high performance. Yes. And the recent conversations that I've had with my clients who are these high performance agents is, they sold two last month, instead

George Sourris:  of at least

George Iacovou:  15. At least 15.

George Sourris:  Wow.

George Iacovou:  Which is concerning. But also the investors are not showing up to open homes. So open home numbers have dropped from our conversations, and it's not the fact that property is dead or stagnant, it's just people make decisions when they have the full picture. And right now we do not have the full picture, and that is why we've seen it reflect in both auction clearance rates and who's showing up to the open homes. And as advisors, our job is to provide that clarity for people to make decisions. So, people tend to make good decisions if they've got the full picture and the right professionals in their corner, like your conveyancers, your brokers, and your advisors. So it's about being the professionals that we are, showing them that we care, and the fact that we are invested in their journey as much as they're invested in growing and living happy lives as well. So yeah.

George Sourris:  On the back of that then, because this first point, we're pretty much about to wrap this up and move on to next.

George Iacovou:  Yeah.

George Sourris:  We're talking about your journey. So I'm hearing a theme of words: being on a long-term path with them, best interests of the client. You've been out on your own for 14-odd years. Before that you were in Sydney at these other places, cutting your teeth, learning. For George Iacovou for Great Advice, is that the secret sauce? Like I, I'm not going to put any words in your mouth, but mate, you've built an amazing business and you've run a really lean operation as well. Like I know at one point you had a, a big team, a lot of overheads and stuff, and now through a series of refining, refining, refining for years, you've built a really well-oiled machine, which, you and Dan just are just spectacular at what you do. Like if you can-- If we can peek behind the curtain a little bit...

George Iacovou:  Yeah, so I learnt I learnt that you can't be everything to everyone. As much as you can add value to everyone to some degree, you've got to be able to add value beyond your fee. And in the early stages of my business, it was a "be everything to everyone" and add value selling insurance or consolidating their super, or helping them with their budgeting and things like that. What I'm very good at is problem-solving and planning to win. So I figured maybe four, five years ago that instead of going broader to capture more people, to go deeper and specialise, because I was very good at investments. I remember statistics from my first lectures at, at uni.

George Sourris:  Yeah. Wow.

George Iacovou:  Photographic memory

George Sourris:  sort of stuff or something like that?

George Iacovou:  I deep dive into things, and I love problem-solving and life hacks. And I realise that I'm not somebody who can work broadly across a lot of different things. I'm very good at going more specialised and deeper into the things that I'm good at. And there was a lady who sparked me on this, when I first started as a junior cadet in Sydney for AMP. So Helen Chow, said her grandma told her when she was a kid as a piece of advice was, "If you focus on what you're bad at, you can be good, but if you focus at what you're good at, you can be great." I still remember that conversation. Didn't make sense to me in to the level it does today, but it makes a lot more sense to me today because I specialised. I built a business which is outcome driven for our clients. And that transition piece from working to to retirement, and once you're in retirement, what that looks like and how to make money in that stage of life, that is where I was meant to be from the start. So by doubling down on what I was good at I became, some of my clients would say great at it, and we're kind of, you know, it's weird. I hate self-compliments but yeah, it's... We're Great Advice. That's our firm, and that's what we, we try to do, is provide great advice in times of uncertainty and transition from, you know, whether it be from work to retirement or from retirement to intergenerational wealth and family, asset management is where we're really strong in.

George Sourris:  And that stuff takes years. You plan this stuff. You can't just say, "I'm ready to retire now, George. What do I do?" It's a long game to get a successful plan, right?

George Iacovou:  Yeah. So it is a long game. Clients work really, really hard to build what they've built, and they sacrifice everything. As you know, being a business owner the sacrifices that business owners make, the the constant phone calls, the having dinner with your wife or your kid, and your mind is running nonstop. You're trying to engage in those conversations to be present because you should be clocked off, but-

George Sourris:  You can't ...

George Iacovou:  you can't because sometimes those conversations could be the difference between, your business succeeding or sinking.

George Sourris:  I'm very grateful for Anna, my wife, mate, because she's very patient with me because I think I'm like you, where I'm just, I'm always thinking about work and how to do better and how to improve and how to just refine it a bit more. I'm always thinking about it.

George Iacovou:  Yeah. It's very difficult because we're problem solvers. As a lawyer, you're trying to solve future problems if the paperwork is not done properly, and if the searches aren't done correctly, then you could miss something that could impact them, their lives. And then as advisors, as life events happen, we've got to problem solve for them.

George Sourris:  Yeah.

George Iacovou:  So people's problems, we inherit them, and a lot of advisors, they genuinely do care. My ex-colleagues, fellow business owners in advice, they genuinely care. They're invested in you. Sometimes we come across very clinical, but we have to be because in times of stress, we have to show that we are the rock-solid professional who's going to get you through. And when you leave, it's emotionally drained our energy. But we have to somewhat put a face on to get you through those moments, because it's emotions that lead to good and bad decisions, and we've got to navigate that to, to help you. Because without having your finances in order, the stresses that brings onto your family your kids but even your career as well, because it will consume you and you can't focus on what matters, and that's, being the best human that you can be and adding, value to your family and...

George Sourris:  very hard to do if you can't put a roof over your head and feed your family.

George Iacovou:  Yeah, of course. Yeah. So-

George Sourris:  Yeah, it's great to say, "Oh, I'll go on a holiday or kick the ball in the park," but I think if you are the breadwinner, if you're responsible for people, mate, you can't just put... You can't just bury your head in the sand and go kick the ball around and enjoy that experience because you're stressed about making ends meet.

George Iacovou:  Yeah.

George Sourris:  Yeah.

George Iacovou:  Yeah. So it's, yeah, the weight of it's there, but we don't take it lightly. We take it very serious. We definitely do everything in our power to help make those dreams realities where we can.

George Sourris:  Well, mate, let me toot your horn for you. If you just Google these guys and have a look, like, you've got spectacular reviews. Every client that has had interactions with your business is a raving fan. So, mate, you're doing something right. Good on ya.

George Iacovou:  Thanks, George.

George Sourris:  Let's switch gears now into the second point, which is talking about property a little bit deeper. So I feel like there's mistakes made by people that probably don't even know they're making mistakes when buying a property. The first point I want to touch on is, let's just say you're a first home buyer, or just a home buyer. You bought your place, you got the keys, you move in. I feel like there's probably mistakes that are made at that point because people have sort of, checked out. They're emotional, they're happy, they've just moved into the place. What do they need to consider?

George Iacovou:  Yeah, this is a common a common thing that people talk to us that have purchased property after, three to five years. The one thing I would do off the bat is I would make sure that I could automate things like payment frequency. So if you pay more frequent you can get on top of your loan in regards to the interest liability on it. Also, if you want to pay it off in, 20 rather than 30 years, do the numbers up front, see whether you can service that, and then just do a direct debit and pay the loan off. So people who are successful in finance do the right things consistently.

George Sourris:  And- And in life, mate, probably. Yeah. Because that's a trend, it's a consistency game.

George Iacovou:  It's a consistency game.

George Sourris:  Yeah.

George Iacovou:  And you can automate that now. A direct debit, you can increase your loan repayments just from your app, in one minute. Yeah. So you're excited, you've bought the property. It's a stressful process, buying a property, especially first-time buyers. If you use good professionals, it's less stressful.

George Sourris:  There's a lot going on.

George Iacovou:  There's a lot going on. And,

George Sourris:  and that's where it's so important to have good people that care about you.

George Iacovou:  Yeah.

George Sourris:  Yeah.

George Iacovou:  So yeah, we did a lot in that space. We worked close with a broker earlier on, and the clients found it very difficult to talk about the future and goals and things like that because their number one priority was to get that loan settled. They're

George Sourris:  not thinking long term, especially if you're new to market, if it's your first place, if you're in your second place. I don't think people are in the right mindset of thinking about retirement or planning. Like, they're just getting onto the field, aren't they? Yeah.

George Iacovou:  Yeah, but I also feel that the people who are prudent enough to save to get into the property market are also smart enough to know that if you set the right things up at the beginning, things are going to be a lot easier. Because to save the deposit in the first place was the same principles we're talking about. So it's just the emotional side of getting it all done and settled, and the back and forth with the real estate agents. With the buyers, with trying to coordinate insurance for settlement, trying to coordinate, all the millions of things... the building and

George Sourris:  pest, pre-settlement and going unconditional.

George Iacovou:  It's a lot.

George Sourris:  Yeah. There's a lot, there's a lot happening. Yeah. Like, even after it settles, how does it happen with my... where do I pay the money to? Do I set up direct debits for the loan? There's just, there's a lot, a lot of learning. Principal and interest versus interest only. Yeah, the, the list goes on, mate- as we know. So building systems is important, which that translates into your role as a planner, right? Yeah. Is helping people build good habits and systems.

George Iacovou:  Yep.

George Sourris:  Hey guys, just interrupting the show just for a quick second. We're trying to get some more reviews, so whatever platform you're listening on, if you can please give us a review, that'd help us find more people. Okay, back to the show. We were talking off air about wills, which I don't want to deep dive into it, but let's, I think that's a very commonly missed one with property transactions.

George Iacovou:  Yep. Yeah. So everyone thinks that they don't need a will, until they need a will. Generally people go, "Oh, no one's going to contest the will. I've only got, my partner and, a dog and maybe two kids," or whatever it be.

George Sourris:  Yeah.

George Iacovou:  But you just don't know that when... Like right now everything's great, but in, in the future it just gets added to the pile of things that you didn't get done. I find that, yeah, we spoke that 50% of people don't even have a will. Which is a

George Sourris:  wild stat ...

George Iacovou:  it's a crazy stat because a will, for a small fee can eliminate all stress for the family, number one. And number two is you're not leaving it to the government, the state trustee, to administer your funds and charge a huge percentage of your estate just for processing simple transactions on your behalf, because you didn't spend $1,000, $2,000 on a will, and your family ends up paying tens of thousands of dollars depending on the estate Yeah, depending on the size of the estate. We also typically see this with disability payouts as well. So if, if there is a client who's had a disability payout and the state trustee administers the funds, it costs tens of thousands of dollars, to manage people's transactions for them, just their admin on

George Sourris:  that regard. Just that piece alone. But I think the part that people may not have awareness on is - I want to choose where to leave my stuff.

George Iacovou:  Yeah.

George Sourris:  You know, my, my wife, my child, whatever. Maybe I have a, a special family heirloom, like an old ring or something like that, that I want to give to my brother. Who knows, right? There's all sorts of... It's up to you. It's choose your own adventure. Yeah. If it gets to the public trustee, they just have a playbook, which is, let's follow what the laws of intestacy say about, which is legislated, about next of kin and where it's going to go. So, you don't actually get your wishes fulfilled, they just get to fill them as to what they, what the law says. So yeah, I mean, to me, it just makes no sense. And in modern times, there's blended families, there's stepchildren, people have multiple marriages, because you know, more than one in two marriages fall over these days. There's a lot there to pack up and put into a document of your wishes, because otherwise, it's not going to be your wishes, and it's going to get sucked up by the people distributing the estate.

George Iacovou:  It's a simple fix. Book in. You fill out the questionnaire, think about, who you want to leave the things that you hold and you've worked for. And just, it literally takes an hour of your time to sit down and get it done. Just get it done. Just

George Sourris:  get it done ...

George Iacovou:  just get it done.

George Sourris:  And look, we obviously offer it as a service 'cause it centers around property law. Usually when a transaction happens with property, someone buying or selling, it's a really good time, that should be a good trigger to investigate if you need to update your will. Other high-level updates would be if your circumstances change in terms of marriage, divorce, children, if one of the executors or beneficiaries passes away, need to address it then, because otherwise it becomes a problem later.

George Iacovou:  Or your medical directive too.

George Sourris:  While you're alive, advanced health directive. Enduring powers of attorney.

George Iacovou:  Yes.

George Sourris:  This sort of stuff people don't even think about!

George Iacovou:  The fact that we're talking about it and trying to promote the benefits of it it's not even that. We do not need to sell getting a will. It's either you sort it out or the government will sort it out for you. So get it done. It's a non-negotiable. It's like having insurance.

George Sourris:  Yes, and that's what I wanted to... Let's bring it back to financial planning and what you do for your clients. Surely that's part of the big picture of the conversations you're having? Do you meet with your clients every, I imagine every year or something? You do like a catch-up to make sure everything's on track?

George Iacovou:  Yeah. We do an annual checkup depending. Some clients are quarterly, some are biannual. The majority of our clients are on an annual meeting basis. Although we have our door open all year round.

George Sourris:  If a circumstance

George Iacovou:  changes or you need help. If circumstances change or they need something- Yeah. Yeah. Great ... or they've got a question. I think that is the thing that makes us different, is the fact that I've always got an open door policy for my clients. They're always welcome. Book in an appointment direct into my calendar, call me direct on my mobile. If I'm in a meeting, text, I will get back to you. We are there for those life events. It's easy to be there when things are going great, but our job is to be there, even more importantly, when things aren't going great. That's the sauce, I think. That is the sauce. Our clients are not afraid to call us. Our clients are going to run things past us. We want to be part of the reason they win. We're invested in them winning.

George Sourris:  Because you care. Because you care. I've had, dozens of guests in this seat, and only great people are allowed in the seat, mate. That's the rule. We're trying to storytell excellence in Queensland property here because the industry deserves better. That's the mission. The mission is to raise awareness on the fact that not all professionals are the same. There's great ones and then there's not so great ones, and everything in between.

George Iacovou:  Yeah.

George Sourris:  You're a great one. Oh, thanks, Georgie. Like, pun intended.

George Iacovou:  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thanks, George.

George Sourris:  But it's the truth, man. Yeah. So look, a will is not a sexy topic. Let's just call a spade a spade. It's not. No one gets excited over getting a will done. No one gets excited over engaging a conveyancer. Like, it's not something where you go, "Oh, hell yeah." You know, you're not going to the beach or going for a nice steak or fancy dinner or whatever it might be that makes you happy, or planning a holiday. This is what would be considered traditionally "boring" sort of stuff. But you know what? You can make boring sexy, if you will, because the other side of the coin is, don't do a will, leave a nightmare for your family, don't get your wishes sorted. That's the other side.

George Iacovou:  Life is all about doing non-sexy things for your future. And whatever you can automate, get it done. By just getting it done and moving it off your to-do list, the level of weight, it's liberating. Just get it done. Like, there's some things you need to do, you know? You need a conveyancer when you, when you buy a property. You need a will as soon as, you're old enough to have the responsibility of another person as well.

George Sourris:  Can I just debunk one myth with you quickly here? I just got, it just popped into my head to round out point two.

George Iacovou:  Yeah.

George Sourris:  I think the stigma is, and I believe it's wrong. People think that financial planning is only for middle class, upper class, wealthy people.

George Iacovou:  Yeah.

George Sourris:  I completely disagree. Can we just spend maybe two minutes on this, mate, and then we'll move on to the last point? Because I think the stigma's wrong.

George Iacovou:  Yeah. The stigma's right and wrong at the same time, okay? And, and the reason I say that is, it's not the problems we're solving, it's the system in which we're in. So the reason why advisors typically will have a barrier of entry is because before I get up in the morning, it costs me $105,000 a year in licenses and insurances just to wake up to say, "I'm an advisor."

George Sourris:  Just to clarify that, are we talking about, like, your insurances and compliance and all the stuff you need to be able to be a licensed-

George Iacovou:  Advisor ...

George Sourris:  advisor in Queensland?

George Iacovou:  Yes.

George Sourris:  So- Okay. That's a pretty expensive barrier.

George Iacovou:  Yes. It's a very expensive barrier. Our software alone is tens of thousands of dollars. Our research tools that we invest in, because you need it.

George Sourris:  Yeah. Yeah.

George Iacovou:  For us to do the best at our job, we need to have the best tools available in the market right now to provide, vetting protocols to get the right investments.

George Sourris:  Well, mate, there's no way you could hang your hat on the hook at the end of every day and go, "I'm doing great work, I'm doing good stuff," if you didn't have these tools.

George Iacovou:  Well, yeah, it's our point of difference as well. I triple check everything. I was a junior advisor during, the post GFC, and I saw that a lot of unlisted assets that were more privatized, that were more mid-size, small cap stock orientated, whether it be tax effective investment schemes, buying pine trees or whatever it is- they were the ones that took the biggest hit. And if you had great research vetting tools, you wouldn't put the client in them in the first place. Yeah.

George Sourris:  Yeah.

George Iacovou:  As an advisor, we're led by the organisations in which we worked for, right? Right.

George Sourris:  Right.

George Iacovou:  And most advisors started off at a bank or a financial institution. I started off at the largest wealth manager in Australia. I was very blessed to be trained by the biggest, best in Australia.

George Sourris:  You say blessed, but mate, you had to uproot your life and move to another state as a young fella, right?

George Iacovou:  I've been very fortunate because I was the youngest licensed advisor for AMP Australia in 2010, 2011.

George Sourris:  But again, that wasn't handed to you. You uprooted your life, and you moved somewhere else on your own to learn this stuff, right? You took a plunge.

George Iacovou:  Yeah. I didn't know any different. I'm the kid who grew up in the back of a takeaway shop, working, afternoons, coming home from school. My mum, she finished school in year nine, grew up in North Queensland. She never had a father. My grandma lost her husband while pregnant with my mum. She left Cyprus, came to Australia, didn't know the language, raised four daughters in North Queensland, fruit picking and tobacco picking. So yeah.

George Sourris:  We've got nothing to complain about,

George Iacovou:  do we? No, what have we got to complain about? Yeah. Yeah. We're

George Sourris:  working professionals, grew up with a bloody pretty, pretty good leg up.

George Iacovou:  Yeah, I grew up in the back of a takeaway shop. My parents worked their asses off. Your

George Sourris:  dad's from Cyprus?

George Iacovou:  Yeah, my dad's from Cyprus. He came 21. He had no clue. He met Mum she was in Brisbane at the time. He thought he was coming back to Australia to move to Brisbane, but poor guy, she hoodwinked him and took him to far North Queensland in a place called Mareeba. And the guy had no way of getting out because he was so- In the tablelands in the ta- yeah. Yeah. So he was tobacco picking. And yeah, he had to find a way to get back to the city. He nearly went crazy up there.

George Sourris:  Wow.

George Iacovou:  Yeah. Then they came to Brisbane. They worked their asses off. First

George Sourris:  generation, right? This is the equivalent of my grandparents' generation. So yeah, what you experienced being in the back of the takeaway shops and stuff, that's what my parents experienced.

George Iacovou:  Yeah. They sent us three kids to good private schools. We got educated. My parents had no clue on how to navigate any of that, but they just worked hard and trusted that it would work out and, luckily for them they did. My mum retired when she was 40. My dad retired at 51, and then went back to work for two, three years because he got bored, but at least he had the option to. But to cut a long story short, I always felt privileged, because I went from working in a takeaway shop to working and wearing a nice suit, not smelling after my shift. Even though I couldn't afford a nice suit, it was a box suit. And I looked ridiculous, but at the same time, it was a far better environment to be in than a stinky takeaway shop.

George Sourris:  And that's thanks to the prior generations, mate, which I've spoken about that a couple of times on the show. And I think when I was on your podcast all those years ago, we spoke in depth about that, just the gratitude of them taking that plunge or mate, I'd be on a little backwater Greek island that no one's ever heard of, with no English. Not being a lawyer, no way in the world, probably never being able to leave, never having the opportunity to be where I am today.

George Iacovou:  Yeah.

George Sourris:  Yeah.

George Iacovou:  , I think that's the great thing about Australia is, you have the ability, if you've got the will and the love and, you're willing to sacrifice, you can do some cool stuff.

George Sourris:  We'll pull out of the rabbit hole, but just to close it out, I think the difference is, at least in my observation, is a country like Australia, if you're corrupt, if you're doing dodgy stuff, it will be revealed, and you will end up getting in trouble for it.

George Iacovou:  Yeah, of course.

George Sourris:  Other countries, I've seen it in Greece, I've seen it all over Europe, man, you can grease the right palm or whatever, or the cousin of the mayor gets all the contracts. Like it's that level of corruption. It- I don't think it's legislated to the point where there's major repercussions. So if you're in Australia, yeah, it is a level playing field. Yeah. You got opportunity to get ahead. Yeah. Yeah. I think the prior generation's a living proof of that. So thank you. Thanks to yiayia and pappou. Yeah. Prior generations, grandma and grandpa. Thank you.

George Iacovou:  Yeah, yeah.

George Sourris:  Mate, last point. I'm going to read this out because I don't remember all these stats off the top of my head, unlike some that know numbers really well. I've got: the advice industry standards trust and what needs to change. So Royal Commission, those reforms cut the number of advisors in half in Australia from about 28,000 to 15,500 between the years of 2019 to 2024. Was this a good thing for consumers, and how did it change the industry? So some topical words red tape, time on deals, getting rid of poor operators.

George Iacovou:  And it's probably the best question after I went on this giant tangent talking about grandmas and parents and all that sort of stuff. It was a good thing. Not the way it was delivered. So from my understanding, the Royal Commission was into banking and finance. Banking first. The difference that the government did not anticipate is how strong the banks were during the time that they brought forward the Royal Commission.

George Sourris:  Go on.

George Iacovou:  So they lobbied, had the best lawyers that you could possibly imagine.

George Sourris:  Are we talking like big four, like CBA, Westpac-

George Iacovou:  Big four ... ANZ, NAB. Because they were the ones why the Royal Commission was put in the first place. Finance and advisors or wealth managers were supposed to be a by-product of after going to the banks, because who owned the insurance companies? Who owned the super companies? The banks did. Okay?

George Sourris:  They had in-house people at one stage. Oh. Is that what this was all about? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, that was the, the norm. Traditional pathway was you go in and sort of sell insurance and stuff out of a, out of a spin out of the bank.

George Iacovou:  That's exactly right. So they came after the banks, but they were too strong, and in the end, the independent advisors got smashed. I think it was a good thing, but how it was delivered... Because the thing is, is most advisors were one-man bands who serve their local community. They go and have conversations over the, the dinner table with people to get them... it's a lot different to how I advise. But that's what the industry was built on. AMP was around since 1849, and started from one guy knocking on doors, and built a whole industry on it as well. So that's how the industry was built. The reason why the Royal Commission was good is because all the big advisors at the time were generally an older demographic. So they were sitting on large commission trail books, and they would send a letter, have a meeting, have a coffee. I don't want to speak bad, because I do believe that advisors do their best, but there was a certain proportion of our cohort at the time that, maybe should have exited and given, maybe a younger advisor a bit of opportunity.

George Sourris:  Yeah. They were sitting on cruise control basically.

George Iacovou:  They were on cruise control. Right. Right. So the government basically said, "Upskill or retire." So some upskilled and some retired. So that allowed, those clients to be dispersed a bit more freely. So that was good. Another thing was it got rid of a lot of the cowboys out of our industry.

George Sourris:  Beautiful. That's very on, on trend for this podcast and the theme.

George Iacovou:  Yeah.

George Sourris:  My passion point.

George Iacovou:  Yeah. So I love our industry. I really care about adding to our industry, because I feel that the sacrifices we make as a collective are going to better our clients, and therefore our country. So we are changing lives and our environments and our communities in large scale by working together to build the industry, as opposed to pointing out, this guy's not, not so great. Because I don't want to tear anyone down. But it's more the fact that if we work at building and setting the standard and saying, let's work on who we are in terms of our individual businesses and core values and the people who we want to help have better lives, then we'll elevate together.

George Sourris:  Mate, I'd say for me, the word is courage. I think there's a lot of practitioners in my space that maybe don't have the courage or maybe the want or the fire in their belly to have a voice about raising the bar. And again, it's not about pointing fingers. Because truly, a lot of practitioners, the vast majority are good. The vast majority, they care. That word "care" keeps coming up as a trend. Not everyone cares though. And the ones that don't care, the ones that are treating people like numbers and building sausage factories and doing high volume and not actually caring about these people, that's what we need to be able to shine the spotlight on, in my opinion, and that is a harder road to travel. It's easier for me to do nothing and say nothing and just get on with it, and not build the machinery to create a podcast like this. We don't make money off this podcast- at all. It takes a lot of time. You know? It's these hands, and we're doing it. Like it's boots on the ground stuff, but no one else is talking about it, and I feel like, mate, it's not going to get better or we're not going to be able to bring up the minimum standards, which ultimately helps the everyday Joe. That's what it comes down to, in my opinion. You just don't want the everyday Joe to somehow get referred or end up with someone that doesn't care about them.

George Iacovou:  You're bang on. You're bang on. As much as we want to elevate, it's also we don't want to see people get hurt as well.

George Sourris:  Takes a lot of time to save a deposit, mate, and then they end up with the wrong person and it goes, or they, back in the day, they'd get with a, a dodgy bloody planner and their money would go. You remember Storm Financial? It was a little bit before our time.

George Iacovou:  I went to one of their seminars.

George Sourris:  There you go ... with my

George Iacovou:  parents.

George Sourris:  Mate, that's horrible. Yeah. For anyone that doesn't know, it was basically, it was a bit of a ponzi scheme and all the money disappeared.

George Iacovou:  Yeah, so that's a whole nother podcast. I'm with you on everything you said. I think the way to vet whether you've got a professional that you trust and want to work with more longer term is the depth in their operation in regards to their specialisation.

George Sourris:  When Abi and I started the business, we knew it was going to be property focused, but we didn't have a North Star. Shout-out to Peter Dracakis from Dracakis Advisory. Worked with Pete for a few years, and he taught us a lot.

George Iacovou:  Yeah.

George Sourris:  We kept coming back to this North Star. Yeah. We'd sit in his boardroom. He's like, "Abi, George, what's your North Star?"

George Iacovou:  Yeah.

George Sourris:  And mate, we couldn't articulate it, and through session after session after session working with Peter, we realised it was: to :deliver an amazing conveyancing experience to the people that enter our doors. And then we dropped all other services, mate, and we just did that. Every other service we worked so hard to get off the ground, we cut it and just did residential conveyancing for years.

George Iacovou:  And that's why you guys are great because instead of going wide to be everything to everyone, you went deep and specialised because you knew the specialisation into the fine print and the experience directly into property, but also once the journey ends of that property journey and making sure that that property and asset that they built and worked hard for goes to the people that mean the most to them as well. So it's all about depth, specialisation. As a small business, you got to go and specialise because the big companies, they're everything to everyone. They'll do mass market stuff. But the real difference between going to someone who's good versus someone who's great, is the depth and the care that you invest your whole life trying to achieve. We just want raving fans. That's all we want. I don't know whether it's a young person, our generation thing, we just want a pat on the back. So we want to do the work and get the results. It may take 10 years to get, "Hey George, you did a great job."

George Sourris:  You know what it is. You're talking about depth. Yeah. I'll tell you what I think it is. Yeah. I'll tell you what I think it is for Empire Legal for, for us. Abi and I said from the start, "We will not take on anything that we can't deliver a five-star experience for." You hear that word being thrown around a lot, five-star experience. Here's the difference. We have 3,000 five-star experiences, and I can't even count on my hands anything less. Yeah. And that's all publicly available, right? That's by design. You don't ring George Sourris if you're going through a divorce. You don't do that. You do not do that. If you have just got locked up, you don't ring George Sourris. Traffic fine, don't ring George Sourris. Property, ring George. That is what we do, because I want to go home at night and take my hat off and hang it on that hook and go, "We've done good, honest work, and I feel good about what we've done for the people that we've touched." Be it the clients, the professionals that we work with, all of that stuff, and that gives my team and I job satisfaction.

George Iacovou:  Yeah, that's everything. I want to be the expert and know everything. I don't want to have a conversation with a client and not know what was going on, 'cause every morning, I get in, I read up what is going on in the world. I see your snippets man. Oh. I think it's great. I'm obsessed. I deep dive into everything. Like, I wake up 5:00 every morning and I need time before the day gets hectic to be able to, think clear and read and be across it.

George Sourris:  And that's how you've built your business, right? Is that word of mouth referral of you guys doing an exceptional job. It's not some fancy landing page where you go, "Oh, this looks good. I'll click the button." It's not that. It, it's you're doing good stuff for real people that tell their family and friends.

George Iacovou:  I would go one step further and say, be the person and try build the person that people would be proud to refer their friends and family to. And I can't control much, but what I can control about doing my due diligence, working super hard on people's cases, and building and learning about how to be the best version of myself in my profession, so people are happy and trust.

George Sourris:  Trust trust, trust. Trust. The people you refer, mate, it's not because you're getting a kickback. The people you refer is part of the Great Advice operation, isn't it? Am I fair to say I'm on the money with that? Like, you're not referring to Empire Legal or to your broker pals or all these other, whatever accessory services your clients need because of a monetary payment.

George Iacovou:  Oh, zero. That was the one thing. I had no money to pay my, my phone bills when I first started. You know, I would sit in my office and wish for the phone to ring. Now phones drive us crazy, but... What a

George Sourris:  great

George Iacovou:  problem to have, mate- Yeah, yeah ... better than the phone

George Sourris:  being quiet.

George Iacovou:  Yeah, like even when I chat to Dan sometimes I go, "Mate, remember when the phones didn't ring?" And I say, "We are so lucky and blessed that people trust us enough to refer us." And I don't take that lightly, because I remember the journey and how hard it was to be here. And for someone to refer their family and their loved ones to us is, phwoar, that, it means the world to us. The

George Sourris:  greatest compliment of all, mate. I firmly believe that. Yeah, it's the greatest compliment of all, because that referral is a direct reflection on you.

George Iacovou:  Yeah. And it's hard because people are scared. For them to have that element of trust. You can say you're genuine, you can do things that are perceived as genuine you can promote yourself as genuine, but people they can feel it. People aren't stupid. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They can feel it. They know when you genuinely care about them, or whether you're trying to sell them something.

George Sourris:  Yes.

George Iacovou:  And I wouldn't sell even when I needed to make the sale. I would turn clients away that I needed to pay my bills, and I still would turn them away because I didn't want to steer from my core values.

George Sourris:  And that's why you're where you are today.

George Iacovou:  It was hard, and I'm very, very lucky in that it worked out, and we stuck our guns, and our hard work is starting to be validated, which is great.

George Sourris:  Mate, on that note, to wrap up, I've got the golden nugget. Oh. Which is, I, if I recall, I believe that might be a term I borrowed from you on a podcast, about four years ago, and we do it every episode. Okay. So you know what it is. For the listeners out there that don't, it's just one piece of advice that George wants to leave the viewers with, not necessarily finance or business related. It could be anything, to make your lives a bit better.

George Iacovou:  Okay. Money compounds. Bad decisions and bad habits compound faster. But, which one would you pick to run your life in 20 years?

George Sourris:  Not the bad decisions?

George Iacovou:  Whatever it looks like, whatever your life is in now, pick the right decision. Because good things compound, whether it be money compounding or working on yourself or trying to be a good human. You could choose the other side of the coin and go, "Yeah, I'm going to make the bad decisions and I'm going to continue my bad habits." But bad decisions and habits tend to compound even more than the good decisions and the hard work you put in. You just got to pick on which one you want to rule your life in 20 years, because I guarantee you, whatever path you choose, it will rule your life in 20 years. It'll be your

George Sourris:  reality.

George Iacovou:  It'll be your reality. Whether you like

George Sourris:  it or not. So I guess, choose your hard, right? If you want to go for the instant gratification, which ends up being a bad decision or the longer term play.

George Iacovou:  Yeah.

George Sourris:  Is that what we're getting at?

George Iacovou:  Yeah. Yeah. And it kind of, relates to finance as well. So, automate when your property settles. Set up the automation, pay down your house sooner.

George Sourris:  But don't go to SK and spend $500 on dinner. And like, look, mate, if you made it, okay, great. That's good for you. But don't go to SK every Friday and spend $500 on your credit card that you can't afford. Don't do that.

George Iacovou:  Yeah. Bad, bad debt compounds at a higher rate. So investments, even if we're looking at the share market, anywhere from 7 to 11% compounded annually over a 30-year period, right? Credit cards compound at 21, 22, 24%. So-

George Sourris:  Twice as bad.

George Iacovou:  That's what I was going to say. Twice as bad. It's all that. So that's what I'm... yeah. It's all that. Yeah. It's that. So it compounds a lot faster, and the rates and the payments are a lot harder. So you, you either make the decision to compound good habits whether it be as a person, as a partner, as a professional or even your financial state. Or you can continue your bad habits, not pay attention, don't get your will done. Don't put money away for a rainy day. Don't have emergency funds. Don't buy property. It's all too hard. I started literally on the living room floor doing brochures. I should've been focused on so much more different things, but I thought, yeah, cool brochure about financial advice would be great. Grim

George Sourris:  times, mate, on the floor. Not even on a desk.

George Iacovou:  Yeah, yeah, yeah. George

George Sourris:  is on the floor with his brochures. That's-

George Iacovou:  Yeah, yeah. All the things you think a business will look like, um, and all the important things that you think need to be done when you first start tend to not be fruitful and a lot of the times a waste of time.

George Sourris:  Picking a logo and a name, mate.

George Iacovou:  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely.

George Sourris:  And you fixate on that, it's like, man, just get started.

George Iacovou:  Yeah.

George Sourris:  Just get started. Mate, I reckon that's a beautiful spot to end it. Just on that note, in the show notes obviously we will put your details, where to find you. So you're based on Brisbane's south side. Guessing you can service basically anywhere?

George Iacovou:  Yeah, we look after the whole South East corridor. We do have clients in different states. But we are South East corridor, we're Brisbanites. We look after that whole M1 from pretty much Brisbane City to Gold Coast.

George Sourris:  Mate, thank you for coming on.

George Iacovou:  You're welcome.

George Sourris:  Yeah, thanks everyone. Remember these key takeaways. Talk to a planner, get a will. That stuff's really important. Doesn't have to be us. If we're nowhere near you, find somewhere near you, and get it done.

George Iacovou:  Yeah, I second that. Just automate it, get it done. Otherwise, the government will get it done for you. Thanks, Georgie. Thanks, Georgie. Thank you. Appreciate you.

George Sourris:  Beautiful.