Financial planning service
A holistic process to examine all of a client's financial affairs to see how the client's goals and objectives can best be met.
Financial Planning involves looking at a client's financial affairs on a holistic basis and to provide recommendations on how the client may best achieve his or her goals and objectives within the resources available, and how each goal or objective may interact with, or impact, each of the others.
In order to ensure that goals and objectives may be met as fully as possible, the financial plan will be regularly reviewed (at least annually) to ensure that the plan remains on track and to take account of any changes to the client's circumstances and actual experience (e.g. investment growth, changes to taxation etc) since the plan was originally written, or the last review.
Financial Planning will often involve financial advice, although it should be recognised that Financial Planning need not involve product recommendations. In some cases, a rearrangement of the client's affairs may be enough. Financial Planning recognises the consequence or knock-on effect that one action can have upon other circumstances or objectives.
It is comprehensive, in that it deals with a client's affairs in the round, unlike financial advice, which may be restricted to one or two areas of financial concern treated in isolation.
It may involve giving investment advice as regulated under the Financial Services and Markets Act, but this is not always the case. It is possible to produce a financial plan which does not involve the use of financial products. It is also possible to prepare a financial plan for clients who are asset and income rich, or for clients who have neither sufficient assets nor sufficient income (this can often be a case of planning for debt management or damage limitation). It is still Financial Planning.
For details of our fees for our financial planning service please see our page "How we are paid"