How we work
Financial Advice or Financial Planning?
Many of our long-term clients first approach us with a specific request or products in mind. This might be due to an inheritance, a pension problem, a change of house or job, or imminent retirement. Financial Advice is the term used to describe such a specific 'one off' transaction that meets your needs on that particular day. You have children so you buy some life insurance; you have some spare cash so you buy an investment, you have a tax bill so you look for a way to reduce it. The main problem with financial advice is that no forward thinking takes place and the advice is aimed at solving a problem which has already arisen. For example, you reach retirement and you have to hope that whatever you have is sufficient to last you. Even worse, something could go wrong on the way, maybe illness or death, and you have to hope that you have something that will solve the problem.
Long-term co-ordination
Most of us spend our lifetime working and will have some sort of long-term goal in mind for all the effort, but surprisingly few actually co-ordinate themselves to achieve it. Clients often come to us with a mish-mash of investment policies assembled by a 'scattergun' approach (the consequence of successive single product financial advice). What has been missing is the more structured and co-ordinated approach of Financial Planning, whereby plans are brought into line with actions to be able to reach your goals more effectively.
Although most people have some ideas about what they would like to achieve in life, very few of us have set, clear, written goals. Yet this simple action is one of the most powerful steps that you can take to improve the quality of your life. However, the main problem is, you cannot have everything that you want. The greatest advantage of setting clear goals is the focus that it brings to your life and the ability to prioritise your objectives so that you can achieve what is really important to you.
Financial understanding
We need to understand your situation in depth, your attitude and approach to risk, and your hopes for the future. Once complete, we then compile a Financial Management Plan, where we identify your targets, analyse existing arrangements and define a recommended course of action.
