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What does a financial adviser do?
A financial adviser provides personal, specialist advice on how to manage your money to help achieve your financial goals.
You’ll benefit from their expert knowledge of the financial markets in order to make prudent investments. You’ll receive their insights into how to manage your financial affairs in a tax-efficient way. And you’ll gain clarity on how to deal with your money now to save sufficiently for retirement.
With a good financial adviser, you’ll receive more than just advice. You’ll get:
- education and insight on financial matters
- peace-of-mind that your money is in order
- clarity on your overall position; and
- confidence for your future.
So what exactly can you expect your financial adviser to do? Read on to find out the steps your financial adviser will take in order to provide advice tailored to you personally.
Step 1: Conduct an initial audit
Your financial adviser needs to understand what your current financial situation looks like.
Together, you’ll review your assets, such as your savings, investments, and pensions.
On the other side of the coin, you’ll look at your liabilities. You’ll consider outgoings like essential expenditure including utilities, insurance, your mortgage and tax liabilities.
With a glance ahead to the future, you’ll set out any expected changes to your finances such as an inheritance, selling a home or a change in career. You’ll consider inheritance tax obligations, where relevant.
Having mined all of that information, your adviser can give you an accurate, holistic picture of your current finances.
Step 2: Understand your objectives
You’ll then have a discussion about your future objectives. What are you saving towards? When do you want to retire? What would you like your annual income to look like in retirement?
Think about what you’d like your life to look like, for you and your family.
Step 3: Prepare your plan
Now you’ve got an idea of your current situation, and your future goals, you can see whether or not you’re on track to meet your future objectives.
Your financial adviser will prepare a plan based on your personal circumstances and future financial needs. You’ll receive a step-by-step guide towards reaching your annual milestones, which keep you on track to help meet your future objectives. That might include advice on short term goals, such as budget planning and keeping an emergency fund, medium term goals such as starting an investment and longer term goals such reviewing your pension and what your spending capacity could be in retirement.
You might be surprised how satisfying it is to tick off each milestone as you go!
Step 4: Manage your plan
We all know the saying about “best laid plans”. They can often go awry. Life events happen. Businesses fluctuate. Circumstances change. But your adviser is on hand to navigate those changes, and adjust your plan accordingly.
A good financial adviser will provide ongoing reviews of your plan. No matter how strictly you monitor your plan, your finances will vary every year. Embarking on a new career, starting a family, buying a house, or mourning a death in the family, will all bring about changes to your finances.
A financial adviser can become a trusted confidant, helping you change tack as events happen. At an ongoing review, you’ll be able to make decisions on how best to place your money at any given time. You’ll have confidence that your adviser understands the complete picture of your financial situation and has a clear idea of where you want to end up.
But more than that, they understand your personality, your family, and your attitude to risk. They see how your money fits into the wider picture of who you are and the life you want. They’re on your side and they want you to succeed in achieving your financial goals.
If you’re interested in beginning your journey with a financial adviser, please get in touch online or feel free to give us a call on 0330 2020275. We’re happy to answer your questions and talk you through the process.
The value of an investment with St. James’s Place is directly linked to the performance of the funds selected and may fall as well as rise. You may get back less than the amount invested. The levels and bases of taxation and reliefs from taxation can change at any time and are dependent on individual circumstances.