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Financial planning testimonials
To help you understand how Financial Planning could help you, here are four different customer stories for you to look at. These are not real customers, but they do represent the views, lifestyle and aspirations of the type of people who typically use this service.
Ben and Jess’ story
Before the review I was worried that the adviser might try to convince me to take out a product I wouldn’t be comfortable with, but I soon realised he was only interested in looking after my needs.
Ben and Jess have a young family. Jess doesn’t work, but had just got an inheritance of £20,000. They wanted to do something to help that money grow – but make sure it would remain secure too.
“ Geoff, our adviser, took us through the fact find, which picked up that Ben is the main breadwinner and that the £20,000 we have is our only savings. Geoff recommended that – because I don’t work – we should make sure a chunk of that money is available for any emergencies that might crop up and what’s left should be working harder for us. He arranged an easy access account for the ‘emergency’ fund, so we can get to it if we have to, and a low-risk investment for the rest. After talking through our family set-up, he also made us think about what would happen if Ben couldn’t work or died unexpectedly. He suggested life cover with critical illness – and we are seriously thinking about it.”
Bill’s story
After reading something in the paper, I got worried that my children would have to pay an inheritance tax bill after I die. I wanted to make sure when they sell the house they get to keep the money it goes for and not give a load of it to the tax man. I didn’t know how to go about it, so I called in some help.
Bill is in his seventies. He lives in a house that’s been in the family for a long time and is now worth over £400,000. He wanted to make sure he would be leaving as much of that money as possible to his children.
“The financial adviser explained things really clearly and helped me to understand that by making some simple arrangements now, I could be sure that my family would inherit everything. Now they can choose exactly what they want to do, without having to think about the money side of it. It was a real relief to me to get that sorted.”
Jude and Ronnie’s story
Beforehand, we weren’t convinced the service was for us. We’ve never had a financial review before and were a bit worried about the things they’d talk to us about – whether they might be risky. Then Hannah, who made the appointment for us, told us how the adviser could help us make more of our money, so we’d be able to afford the things we really want, like taking special holidays with our grandchildren.
Jude and Ronnie have just celebrated their silver wedding anniversary. They had savings ticking along, but not quite enough to make their retirement as comfortable as they want it to be, especially with the price of basics going up all the time. They knew they needed to do something, but weren’t sure what.
“ The review itself was really relaxed. Our adviser, James, talked to us about all the things we wanted to do and how we could achieve them. We went through a budget and it was interesting to see what we spend money on – and where we could save some. We told James that we didn’t want any of our money being lost, because we just can’t afford that at our stage of life, and he was really understanding. He explained about low-risk investments and how they could help us beat inflation. We felt we were in good hands throughout and we know that we can go back and talk to James again if we need to.”
David’s story
I’ve tried out nearly every financial product going over the years, which was fine when I had plenty of time to stay on top of things, but it’s a bit too much like hard work now. My adviser, Rachel, helped me think about whether I still needed it all. It’s much more manageable now and better suited to my life.
David is in his late forties and has a few savings, investments, pensions and protection products. He wanted to check that the decisions he had made in the past were still working effectively for him and that his pension would give him the income he had in mind.
“ Rachel spent a lot of time looking at what I had in place and talking through my needs and how they’re likely to change over time. She actually made things simpler for me by combining some of my protection policies into one new one, which also saved me money. After thinking about Rachel’s recommendations for a while, I decided to move some of my savings to make the most of my tax-free allowance – and asked Rachel to spread my investments out in a way that was better suited to my attitude to risk.”
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