Financial Planning Services

Comprehensive Financial Planning

We offer a full financial planning service, which focuses on overall lifestyle and financial objectives with a view to help clients achieve the lifestyle they would wish to have by using their time and financial resources in the most efficient manner.

This is a comprehensive service, the objective of which is to help clients to define and achieve their desired lifestyle.

Each financial plan will be bespoke and reflect an individual's own circumstances and requirements, which is regularly monitored and adapted to take into account changes in personal and economic circumstances.

We focus on helping clients identify, prioritise and try to achieve important financial and lifestyle goals and objectives. We do this by acquiring a detailed knowledge of your resources, tax position, risk profile and then discussing with you the important lifestyle and financial issues that need to be addressed.

We then collate and analyse the information and produce a number of "lifelong cashflow forecasts" to enable suitable strategies to be discussed and agreed with you. This leads to a “joined up” financial planning strategy. We seek to help you make good use of your resources and ensure that the various tax advantaged savings and investment schemes are considered.

The overall plan will also include an assessment of the following specific areas:

Protection

We review current protection arrangements to ensure that individuals and dependants are adequately provided for in the event of death or long term ill-health.

This includes all protection arrangements including NHS Pension (or other occupational pension scheme) benefits as well as any private arrangements.

When dealing with protection policies, where appropriate, trusts are used extensively to ensure the avoidance of Inheritance Tax where possible and also to ensure benefits are paid out speedily in the event of an untimely death occurring.

Inheritance Tax (IHT) Planning

When considering IHT, numerous options are available. This includes, amongst other things; making outright gifts, trusts, where a degree of control is still required or desirable, using some or all of the available exemptions and reliefs and making bespoke IHT investments.

A full lifetime cashflow forecast is provided, so that, where possible, taxed income is not accumulated within an estate to be taxed again on death.

The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate Taxation and Trust advice.

Investment Planning

Investment planning is structured around individual goals and priorities, as well as income and expenditure requirements and advice is provided on a full and comprehensive range of investment products.

Before any specific advice is provided, a full review of existing investments is undertaken as well as an in depth assessment and discussion of risk tolerance and the level of risk need to achieve objectives.

This enables any discrepancies to be discussed and resolved before a longer term investment strategy is implemented.

The strategy will be reviewed regularly to ensure that it remains aligned with longer term goals within the agreed risk profile.

The value of investments can go down as well as up and you may get back less than the amount invested.

Retirement Planning

A full analysis of pension benefits is provided and this includes an analysis of:

NHS Pension Scheme (NHSPS), including a review of changes as they occur. This will help clients understand their current benefits as well as the potential benefits they can expect to receive at the point they would wish to retire.

This will include looking at NHS estimates as well as applying Early Retirement Factors (ERFs) for those who wish to retire early.

We also discuss issues around both the Lifetime Allowance (LTA) and Annual Allowance (AA) where the information is available. This issue has become more complicated with the various changes that have occurred to both the LTA and AA since 2012 to date.

We review other pension entitlements such as State Pension benefits and any private pension benefits that may be in place. This will include personal pensions, stakeholder pensions, self- invested pension plans (SIPPs), etc.

We have found that this helps provide a much better understanding of the various scheme benefits and more importantly, whether the benefits will provide sufficient income and capital to enable clients to live their desired lifestyles.

Pension income could be affected by interest rates at the time you take your benefits. The tax implications of pension withdrawals will be based on your individual circumstances, tax legislation and regulation, which are subject to change in the future.

Initial Comprehensive Planning Consultation

We do offer an initial consultation with no obligation, at our cost, which is an exploratory meeting so that we can both determine whether what we offer, is likely to be both helpful and valuable.

This meeting will enable any questions to be asked about our services, processes and charges.