Financial Review
Financial Review
Many of us just don't give ourselves the time to sit back and take stock of our affairs. Where am I now and where am I going? Whether it's your mortgage or other loan commitments, your savings or pension plans or indeed your protection products, it is always useful to sit down and satisfy yourself that you are on the right track.It is even more important that you take time to look at your current circumstances if you have dependants.
A financial review is a very useful tool in assessing your financial needs. The outcome of the financial review should be a plan or list of actions to be taken to ensure the identified needs are addressed.
Our financial reviews can be carried out in the comfort of your own home, normally taking about an hour of your time .Alternatively we can meet you in one of our regional offices.
The Process
1. Identifying your financial needs and risk profile
The first step in the process is gaining a commitment from you to look at your existing arrangements. This requires a little bit of homework in advance of our initial meeting but it ensures your full involvement in the process and it helps tease out your risk preferences and your need priorities.
Ask yourself some questions and write down the answers!
- Have I the best mortgage?
- Would I like a second house or holiday home?
- What loans do you have and for what purpose was the money borrowed?
- Will I need cash lump sums over the next five, ten or fifteen years?
- How will your parents get on as they get older?
- What income will you receive if you become sick?
- Should you have life cover in case of death?
- Consider the needs of your partner.
- Consider the needs of your children.
- Look at your current spending patterns.
- Consider how your income and expenses will change over time.
- Complete our income and expenditure budget to assist you.
- Look at any current savings plans
- Have you thought about a pension?
- What benefits does your employer provide?
During a financial review, all aspects of your finances are reviewed, some of which you may not have considered previously.
2. Prioritise Needs
When we meet we will discuss & agree what financial needs should be addressed first. We will look at an outline of a plan to match your ongoing requirements. Depending on your age, protection needs may take priority over wealth generation needs and pension needs may take preference over pre retirement savings. We need to clearly agree what exactly are your priorities.
3 Recommendations and change
Following the meeting we will review your existing arrangements and needs in detail. We will prepare a plan for the future given your existing and expected income and the level of investment that you can afford to place in the area of protection and savings, this is only a plan and is not set in stone.
We will make specific recommendations in relation to your financial needs. We will explain to you the recommended types of products and give you our reasons why those products are most suitable for fulfilling your needs.
4. Review the financial plan
Naturally we hope that the recommendations outlined in our financial plan are given due consideration and wherever possible are implemented.But even if the outcome is a small step to protecting you and your dependants we believe we will have made progress.
Annual meetings with your advisor will ensure your financial plan is reviewed. You will find that your needs will change over time and you may need to make change to your original plan.
If you are interested in a financial review please get in touch.
