Common concerns I find people have are:
- living much longer and running out of money as a result
- care costs in older age and how they can make provision for the costs if a care/support need arises in their later years
- impact of inflation on wealth they have worked hard to build up
- being able to leave inheritance to loved ones
- stock market volatility and how to protect their income in retirement
Step 1 – Getting to Know You
An initial telephone appointment to discuss your circumstances, explore your wishes and preferred outcomes for your retirement planning.
I will not charge you for something I can’t help with or an initial telephone call which is free of charge, after that if you would like to discuss retirement planning advice specific to you the next step would be an initial meeting.
Step 2 – Initial Meeting
I will meet with you face to face to discuss your current position, what is important to you and what you would like to achieve from retirement planning. I will provide a risk report specific to you. We will discuss the risk you are prepared to take with your money and I will help you to understand what risk really means as it is critical to any financial decisions you make to fund your retirement planning needs.
It is important for me to have a thorough understanding of when you would like to retire, the life you would like to live in retirement and the income you will need to fund it.
The charge for this face to face meeting, and your risk report is £295, payable at the meeting. This fee will be deducted from my advice fee should you decide to proceed with regulated advice services following our meeting.
When I act on your behalf as an intermediary and intend to implement financial solutions my fees are presently exempt from VAT which means I do not usually have to make an additional charge of 20%. If I do have to charge you for a service which is subject to VAT I will inform you in advance.
After this meeting I will produce an Engagement Letter which will outline what I propose to do and exactly what the cost will be to you before you make a decision to proceed with any retirement advice services. Should you decide to engage with my services the next step will be research and analysis in order to formulate your retirement planning advice and recommendations.
We may have a pre advice meeting once I have completed my research to discuss your requirements in more detail. I can demonstrate the Cashflow planning software and go through some options with you before formulating your report.
Step 3 – Research, Analysis & Report Preparation
I will thoroughly analyse your current position and your retirement planning goals. It might be that we have a pre advice meeting to discuss some ‘what if’ scenarios to help you decide on the timing of your retirement before I finalise my report and recommendations for you.
I will meet with you to discuss the report in detail to ensure you fully understand the options and feel confident with the recommendations.
For older and more vulnerable clients, this stage may involve a few shorter meetings if individuals need more of my time, patience and understanding. Financial planning can be daunting and I like to offer extra care and support for these situations to get the best outcomes for my clients.
Step 4 – Implementing Your Retirement Plan
I will take care of all the necessary paperwork to implement your retirement plan.
I will ensure smooth and accurate completion of all related paperwork and communications.
Step 5 – Ongoing Management Service
This service is fundamental to keep your plans on track and in line with your attitude towards investment risk through changing circumstances. We will meet at least once a year to review your plans and check progress against your retirement planning objectives. This will give you peace of mind to ensure you don’t run out of money in your retirement.
Retirement Planning Guide
Where are you now?
Explore each stage to see where you are in your retirement journey
Pre-Retirement – Some way off
You may need help to think through:
- The age you may want to retire at
- Working out how much income you might need to live a comfortable life or the life you want in
retirement - Understanding the amount of savings required to create the income you want or need
- Building confidence in the steps you need to take to make sure your money will not run out before you die
- Reviewing existing retirement plans and identifying any savings gaps
- Understanding the different options open to you regarding your retirement
- Maximising your savings and taking full advantage of your own tax allowances
- Protecting or de-risking the investments you have built up.
Pre-Retirement – Nearly There
You may need help to think through:
- Maximising your contributions to your pension ensuring you don’t exceed your annual or life time allowances
- Modelling different income requirements in retirement so you can take your income in the most tax efficient way as well as building in some flexibility in the amount of income you take from your pension pot
- Maximising death benefits for you and your spouse, partner or family
- Utilising all tax allowances available to you
- Increasing your confidence that your money will not run out during retirement
- Factoring in any special spends for holidays or another car etc.
At Retirement – Choices and Decisions
You may need help to think through:
- Whether to take some tax free cash or not
- The implications of part time work or keeping working
- Starting to take income from your pension pot tax efficiently
- Building in flexibility around future income levels
- Maximising death benefits and provision for ill-health
- Ensuring your money will not run out
- Minimising the risk of your investments
- Maximising tax efficiency around passing wealth to the next generation
- Making provision for later life.
In Retirement – Greater Freedom
You may need help to think through:
- Keeping the plan fit for purpose applying any flexibility you need around your income needs
- Incorporating your state pension
- Drawing income from your pension pot tax efficiently
- Ensuring your money doesn’t run out throughout retirement
- Planning for any future expenditure
- Thinking about when to delegate financial control
- Planning funeral expenses
- Making plans to pass on wealth tax efficiently.
In Retirement – Slowdown
You may need help to think through:
- Reviewing your income and ensuring it still won’t run out
- Drawing your income tax efficiently from your remaining pension pot
- Finalising any estate planning to ensure it is tax efficient
- Making allowance for potential care costs
- Planning for later life by thinking about who you might delegate financial decision making to on your behalf.
In Retirement – Later Life
You may need help to think through:
- Ensuring any increased income needs can be met from your savings
- Finalising and implementing any planning choices around care
- Seeing the positive impact of legacy and estate planning by passing wealth on to your family if appropriate
- Potentially releasing further income from your home to fund care costs