The financial planning process
There are many occasions where a review and reorganisation of personal finances is called for, such as the receipt of lump sums as, for example, from an inheritance or sale of a property or a business, retirement, divorce or widowhood.
The Trustee Act 2000 also imposes stringent requirements on trustees in ensuring that trust assets are suitable, properly diversified, and regularly reviewed.
Then again, there are those whose investment portfolios were put together years ago by advisers who have subsequently fallen out of contact, and have not been reviewed since.
Many too will have accumulated over the years an uncoordinated assortment of investments and insurance contracts which they have picked up from a variety of institutions and advisers.
In all these situations there is a vital need for planning and the reassurance that comes from knowing that investments are all pulling their weight together in the right direction.
Our response is to take our clients through a comprehensive process that:
- identifies and establishes with current values their present financial assets in terms of for example savings, investments, and pensions, together with any liabilities
- identifies their goals in terms of needs and objectives, preference for capital growth or income or a combination, time horizon, and a careful exploration of their attitude to risk.
These are the essential building blocks in developing a financial plan that seeks to optimize financial assets so as to enable an individual, or a family, to understand what goal or goals they may reasonably expect to achieve.