Our Process
We have a clearly-defined, thorough and tested retirement planning process.
Step One: Discovery Meeting
This meeting will either be held at our offices or online and will be a chance for us to:
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Get to know each other.
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See if we’d be happy working together.
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Discover whether we feel we can add value to your retirement planning.
We will build a picture of your situation, and at the end of the meeting, if we are a good fit, discuss the next steps and the fees for our services should you decide to proceed.
1 - 2 Hours
Step Two: Initial Retirement Planning
Stage One: Person (Life Planning)
Building a picture of your ideal future lifestyle is the first and most important part of the retirement planning journey. Here you will start to think about how much this will cost and over what timescales.
Stage Two: Plan (Financial Planning)
Together we will build your financial plan using market-leading financial planning software.
Your financial plan will help answer questions you have such as:
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"Do I have enough money to retire now? If not now, when?"
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"Can I afford to gift to my children and not run out of money?"
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"How will my quality of life in retirement be impacted if I retire 2 years earlier than I was planning to?"
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"Am I taking advantage of all available tax allowances?"
The ultimate goal at this stage is to enable us to finalise and integrate realistic goals and objectives and to display them in a format you understand.
Stage Three: Portfolio (Financial Products)
Only once we have a well-established financial plan do we begin to discuss pensions and investments. We thoroughly analyse your existing holdings using our evidence-based approach to investment management and make recommendations where required.
This exercise involves taking the time to thoroughly understand your risk appetite and how this fits with the risk required to deliver a successful retirement outcome. We use cutting edge retirement planning software to help us achieve this including Voyant and Timeline.
If investment changes are required, we will deal with the providers on your behalf to implement the new solutions.
By the end of this stage of the process, you will have an investment portfolio that will help to deliver the returns required to provide a sustainable retirement income.
The value of investments, and the income from them, can fall as well as rise and you may not get back the full amount invested
Stage Four: Withdrawal strategy
Finally, we will build a withdrawal strategy to give you the confidence to spend your money in retirement without fear of running out of money.
3-4 meetings
Step Three: Ongoing Retirement Planning
A Nobel prize winner once said that retirement planning was the nastiest, hardest problem in finance, with the three future unknowns listed below:
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Longevity
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Inflation
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Market returns
making for a complex answer to what, on the face of it, seems like a simple question:
'Will I/we run out of money before I/we die?'
We make prudent assumptions during our initial retirement planning process, but the real-world reality is that financial plans are ever-changing. Our ongoing retirement planning service ensures your financial plan remains robust and flexible and can deal with turbulent financial markets and unexpected life events.
The Value We Add:
We only engage with potential clients where we feel we can add lasting value that will help them enjoy a successful retirement.
Initial Retirement Planning
20%
Establishing realistic and achievable goals and objectives
This involves working with our clients to help them identify and establish their financial goals and objectives. We will revisit these as we build the retirement plan.
20%
Thorough analysis of expenditure and budget optimisations
We frequently find that our clients are not aware of how much they are currently spending. We work with them to understand current outflows, how these are likely to change as they transition into retirement and identify where savings may need to be made.
10%
Analysis of current investments and recommendations
We ensure existing and new money is best positioned to help make your retirement plan a success. We will implement changes where required.
50%
Creation of your master financial plan
This is where we build a vision of your retirement. We iterate and tweak the financial plan to ensure we have robust solution that can cope with market volatility and inevitable changes in life plans.
Ongoing Retirement Planning
25%
Providing financial security, clarity and peace of mind
We ensure your objectives and goals continue to remain current and regularly review your progress towards achieving them, including working with you to stick to agreed spending/savings goals.
15%
Objectivity
We offer independent and impartial financial advice and can act as a sounding board when you are making emotionally driven financial decisions.
10%
Ensuring your retirement savings remain optimised
Taxation legislation is continually changing. We will keep you up to date and make sure that your financial plan is as tax-efficient as possible.
50%
Sticking to the financial plan
We use our skills, experience and knowledge to help you to make better financial decisions. For example, in times of market volatility we will strive to ensure you do not make impulsive decisions, showing you that temporary (and history has proven they are always temporary) market drops are the price you have to accept for longer terms returns.
We find having a clear set of objectives and a robust financial plan helps clients to stay on track in times of uncertainty.
Schedule a meeting:
Our tried and tested retirement planning process is designed to give you clarity and peace of mind.
You can schedule a free introductory meeting using the link below: