Planning for retirement
Retiring with enough money to meet your life goals requires careful planning. After all, most people want to have more than just the state pension when they retire, and many want to stop working or cut back hours before they start to receive it.
Life’s changes can bring questions surrounding retirement planning to a head. You might have been made redundant; perhaps work is no longer enjoyable; or you might simply want to know the value of your hard-earned savings and pensions. Ultimately, you want to know how long it will be until you can move away from working life and into your desired retirement lifestyle, without money worries.
Typically, our clients who want to plan for life after work come to us in their 50s. Whilst you won’t be ready to retire yet, you want the security of expert help so that, when the time is right, retirement is a smooth and easy transition.
Comprehensive planning, for both now and the future, is the key to securing and enjoying the journey into retirement and life after work.
We take a bespoke approach to financial planning. If you work with us, we will follow these steps:
1. Introductory Call
We begin with a brief telephone call to introduce ourselves to each other, understand your needs and expectations, while explaining how we work and answer any questions you may have.
If, at the end of this call, we are both happy to move on to the next stage of the process, we will book an Introductory Meeting. Before that meeting, we’ll ask you to give some serious thought to your goals and aspirations.
2. Introductory Meeting
At this meeting we’ll start to establish your current financial position and discuss your goals and aspirations.
It is during this meeting that we’ll explain whether we can help you and we’ll decide together whether we are the right planning firm for you. Assuming we are both happy to proceed, we will confirm our fees for the work we will undertake on your behalf and book the date of our Planning Meeting.
3. Planning Meeting Preparation
In preparation for the Planning Meeting, we ask all clients to complete income & expenditure and attitude to risk questionnaires.
At the same time, we will gather and review detailed information about all your existing financial arrangements and understand your attitude to risk after you have completed the questionnaire. This process may involve a phone or video call and possibly a further meeting.
4. Planning Meeting
During the Planning Meeting we will present and discuss your financial plan and our initial recommendations then carry out any fine tuning necessary based on your feedback.
Once you are completely happy, we’ll confirm our recommendations and get your commitment to proceed with the implementation of the plan.
5. Implementation
The effective implementation of the plan is a crucial stage of the process. It might require a further meeting, either face to face or remotely.
We will ask you to sign the required paperwork, which we will then submit to the relevant providers. Our team will ensure its smooth processing and you will receive confirmation when this process has been completed.
6. Forward Planning Meeting
Our Forward Planning Meetings are vital for keeping you on track to attain your goals and aspirations. After all, you can’t expect to go to the gym once and be fit for life.
Equally, a Financial Plan needs to be revisited regularly to ensure it remains on track; it must be updated to reflect your changing circumstances as well as prevailing economic and market conditions.
