The Holistic Financial Planning Process
Holistic Financial Planning is a process. If strictly followed, the chances of meeting your objectives and achieving Financial Independence will be considerably improved.
Stage 1
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 will 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 financial plan.
Stage 2
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
The third stage is to analyse your current position and consider your objectives to determine the 'gap' between the goal and the reality. This 'Gap Analysis' will enable us to clearly understand the journey you will need to travel in order to achieve your goals.
Stage 4
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 analyse your financial arrangements and make recommendations as to how your existing finances can be utilised. 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, your financial independence and plan for any disasters which may arise. Your Financial Plan can be multi-generational and can cover the effective and efficient distribution of assets on death, in accordance with your wishes.
Stage 5
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 plan. Without the implementation stage, the rest of the planning process can be worthless.
Stage 6
The final stage is to regularly review the plan and make modifications where required. Reviews should take place at least annually, but can be more frequent if 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. The overall process is diagrammatically represented below:
However, is you only wish to concentrate on the Investment part of this plan, then this can be accommodated providing you give us an undertaking to that effect. This will limit the advice to just the area of your concerns.
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