What makes your client experience unique?
When you’re choosing a financial adviser it can be very difficult to differentiate between the services offered by the different advisers you meet. Particularly if this is an area you have little or no experience of, and where you may be lacking confidence. A really interesting question to ask your adviser is “What makes your…
How will a financial adviser charge?
If you’re looking to instruct a financial adviser, the cost of that advice will be something you will need to understand. There are a number of different ways an adviser may charge: A fixed fee An hourly fee As a percentage of your funds Or a mixture of the above Ensure you get full details…
What expertise should your financial adviser have?
Most financial advisers will have a very broad range of knowledge, enabling them to provide advice across various subject areas to help with general financial planning. However, dependent on your needs and circumstances you may prefer to speak to an adviser who is a specialist in the area where you need advice. Some aspects of…
What qualification should my financial adviser have?
In order to provide regulated financial advice in the UK, a financial adviser must hold an approved qualification covering a number of financial planning subjects. Qualifications are generally from two main professional bodies: Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) and Institute of Financial Planning (IFP). Advisers must hold a minimum qualification, subscribe to a code of ethics…
How do you choose a financial adviser?
The majority of my clients are females going through divorce,and their husband has dealt with all the finances during the period of their marriage. Therefore when they are faced with having to find an adviser it’s a really difficult process for them to go through. Choosing the right financial adviser to help you plan your…
Would you be happy to throw away your money?
Now of course we all know that if I asked this question directly the answer from everyone would be “NO”. And probably you would think that I was even mad to ask the question. And yet, I often see this being done by my clients. I am dealing with a client now who received a…
Do you bury your head in the sand regarding your finances?
I have some clients who come to me feeling almost shell shocked their husband has asked for a divorce. In many instances these women weren’t even aware there was a problem in their marriage. Some clients come to me and they’ve known for a long time their marriage wasn’t right, they weren’t happy, but they…
Is my money safe in the bank?
In last week’s blog “How safe is the money in my bank deposit account” I looked at the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) and how that can help depositors if their bank becomes insolvent. This blog looks more at the issue of is it a sensible option to leave a large sum of money on…
How safe is the money in my bank deposit account?
Having money in your bank deposit account is safe…or is it? All UK financial institutions with a banking licence are covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), which is designed to protect your deposit if the bank were to become insolvent. The limit is £85,000 per person. So for a joint account cover of…
What’s the difference between an IFA and a Financial Planner?
There are a number of terms used in the financial services industry to describe advisers. A few of the more common ones are Wealth Manager, Independent Financial Adviser (IFA), and Financial Planner. Do all these terms mean the same thing or are you likely to get different services dependant on who you approach? Probably the…
How does a financial adviser charge for their services?
Changes came into effect on 31st December 2012 which meant that commission can no longer be taken from a product provider to remunerate an adviser for the advice they gave to their client. Instead financial advisers will be paid by “adviser charging”. This rule applies to all financial advisers (independent and tied/restricted) and means that…
Why seek financial advice?
Clients typically seek financial advice to get better control and understanding of their finances. Consider the following scenario and consider how familiar does it sound to you? You have a number of different pensions from previous employments. At the time the pension was set up you opted to invest in the default fund because you didn’t know which other fund may…
Help, should I consolidate my pensions?
It’s not at all uncommon for clients to have a large number of different pension pots which have been accumulated over a number of years, all with different providers. Often you start a pension with an employer but then when you change employment leave that pension sitting where it is and start up a new…
Review your mortgage regularly
For most of us, our mortgage is the biggest financial commitment we have throughout our life. Given that it provides the security of a roof over our head, it is also one of the most important. As the largest commitment, it is crucial that you get it right, and get the most competitive rate available…
How much is your credit card purchase costing you?
Interest on a credit card is currently around 17%, and could infact be as much as 23% if you are using a store card. If you buy something on a credit card (or indeed purchase with any form of debt) it’s very easy to look at how much you’re paying back each month and to…
What mortgage will you be offered following divorce?
Mothers who work part time or work in a low paid job to be able to fit their job around general child care, will often struggle after divorce to be eligible for any reasonable sized mortgage from a bank or building society. . Even if your partner has left the marital home and you have…
Claim child benefit to protect your state pension
To be eligible for a full state pension you need to have paid or received credit for National Insurance Contributions (NIC) for a minimum of 30 years. For each year less than 30, your full state pension is reduced by 1/30. That means that if you’ve paid NIC for 15 years only your full state…
Help, how do I take control of my finances?
I had a meeting with a potential client last week who’d been following me on Twitter and as a result of my tweets had been motivated to get to grips with her finances. Hooray the message is getting through! The thing that confused her was “where to start?” If I was Julie Andrews I could…
Help, where has all my money gone?
Does it sound familiar that no matter how much income you earn in a month it all seems to be gone by the end. You promise yourself that when you get a pay rise, or when you land that big contract, then you will start saving. But actually, you do get a pay rise, you…
Do you have enough money?
What if I were to ask you “how comfortable do you feel that you’ve got enough money to do what you’d like to do? I’m wondering how confidently you’d be able to answer this question. My guess is that most people really aren’t sure how much they need. And I’m not talking about how much you need in the short term-…
Does your investment portfolio need a health check?
Once a financial plan has been put in place it’s tempting to believe the paperwork can be tucked away in a drawer and forgotten about, never to be looked at again. However, your plan needs to be reviewed on a regular basis to ensure you are on track to meet your objectives, and that the…
ISAs explained: limits for 2013/14
What is an ISA? ISA stands for Individual Savings Account. In an effort to get us all saving as much as possible the government gives tax advantages when saving into an ISA. There are limits set each year as to what amount you can save in an ISA and receive tax benefits. Ordinarily if you…
What happens if you die without a will?
Research shows that over 28 million of the UK adult population (58%) are currently without a will[1] despite 92% of the population having a firm idea on who they would like their estate to pass to after they die. It is a common misconception that once you die your spouse will inherit everything or that…
Will my state pension be enough?
Don’t think that if you don’t save for your retirement that the state will help in any significant way. Basic state pension at the time of writing is £5,587.40 pa which is a measly £466 per month. Anyone who thinks that’s enough for them to live the life style they need, well hat’s off to…
Pensions: a 20% off sale!
There are some attractive tax advantages to be had from investing in a pension. Are you aware of the pension tax benefits? If you’re not aware, read on to see…. Let’s assume you want to invest £100 per month in your pension. If you’re a basic rate taxpayer paying tax at 20%, you actually pay in £80 per month…
Mastering your Mindset for Financial Success!
Wealth is a state of mind and you can experience it right now! Quite simply how you think creates the actions you take, which in turn shows up in the results that you get in your life. To be a financially successful woman you need to think and act like one now! This means going…
Too young to start saving for retirement?
A bit like death and taxes, one thing we can all be certain of is that we will get older. When you’re young retirement seems so far off that it’s not high enough on your priorities to want to do anything about it. Yes you know you need to get round to saving at some…
Help, finance is like a foreign language to me!
I frequently hear women tell me that they struggle with maths and don’t understand finance. If I had £1 for every woman who said to me “I don’t do maths”, I’d be a millionaire. I exaggerate of course I wouldn’t be a millionaire, because I don’t know a million women! But I would have received…
Why a husband should pass all his assets to his wife!
To be strictly correct the proper headline for this article should be: “Why the higher tax paying spouse should pass their assets to the lower paying or non earning spouse”. But I love starting off with something controversial. Why put a sensible headline when you can create havoc with a bit of controversy! Women get…
Do women need different financial advice to men?
If you have a browse round my website you’ll see that I’m a female IFA specialising in independent financial advice to women. This naturally raises the question “Do women need different advice to men?” The answer of course is “No”. Financial advice is financial advice regardless of whether you are male or female. But what…
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