The planning process

Financial Planning is an ongoing process. If the process is strictly followed, the chances of meeting your objectives and achieving Financial Independence will be considerably improved.

The stages of financial planning are defined by the Certified Financial Planning Board and are as follows:

Stage 1 – Personal Profile

The starting point is to create a profile of you, covering your personal circumstances, current financial situation and how you have arrived there. The more detail the better, because the clearer this picture of you and your finances is, the clearer the starting point of our journey.

We consider your family, your work or business, your tax position and your investments so we can appraise the appropriateness of them in relation to your Personal Financial Plan.

Stage 2 – Goals & Objectives

The second stage is to clarify where you want to go, your objectives, concerns and aspirations as well as your attitude to investment and other risks. This is especially important, as it will be critical to investment portfolio construction, a key aspect of your Personal Financial Plan.

We take investment risk extremely seriously as we know we are dealing with your financial future. Therefore, we ensure that we truly understand your willingness and ability to tolerate risk through the use of Psychometric Risk Profiling techniques.

Stage 3 - Analysis

The third stage is to analyse your current position and consider your objectives to determine the 'gap' between the goals and the reality. This 'Gap Analysis' will enable you and us to clearly understand the changes required in order to achieve your goals.

Stage 4 – Documenting the Plan

Stage four involves the creation of a roadmap or journey plan, which communicates the most efficient route from A to B. This roadmap is your Personal Financial Plan. It will confirm the analysis carried out, the appropriateness of your existing your financial "products" and the recommendations made, whilst explaining how we will ensure your existing finances are utilised as efficiently as possible.

• This will cover your assets, investments, liabilities and income.
• The way in which you spend your money is also a vital aspect of the analysis. Therefore, a review of your expenditure, in both the short-term and over the long-term will help to establish how robust the overall financial plan is.
• The plan will identify the cost of achieving your objectives and reaching financial independence whilst also planning for disasters which may arise.
• Your Personal Financial Plan can be multi-generational and can cover the tax-efficient distribution of assets before, on or after death, in accordance with your wishes.

Stage 5 - Implementation

The fifth stage of the process is to implement the plan. This stage includes an action plan and if appropriate an investment strategy document, both of which will be provided once we have agreed the comprehensive plan.

Without the implementation stage, the rest of the planning process can be worthless.

Stage 6 - Review

The final stage is to regularly review the plan and make modifications where required. The overall aim of the financial planning process is to help you reach your financial goals and develop or maintain your desired lifestyle, in the most efficient way possible.

Financial planning gives consideration to strategies for the creation, distribution or protection of wealth specifically to meet your financial objectives.

At the review we will review each aspect of the process again, although more often than not the reviews are a lot easier as we will generally only be making small adjustments at any one time.