Why Financial Management is Vital for a Healthy Retirement
Tips for getting the most out of retirement, part three of our series
Regardless of how mentally and monetarily you’ve prepared for retirement, it’s a change that can hit you in ways you don’t necessarily expect, even before you’ve actually retired. Retirement planning takes time and consideration to do in a way that accounts for lifestyle as well as your anticipated (and unanticipated) needs.
What is a wealth manager?
While the definition of a wealth manager is typically a high-net worth investment advisor, at the heart of things, a wealth manager translates to extra time for you. We know, particularly with business owners, your time is a precious commodity. When you work with a wealth manager, you get the time - and potentially lost sleep - back that otherwise would be lost in trying to plan your retirement on your own, weighing all the considerations you have for you, your loved ones, and your lifestyle.
Net worth minimums to work with a wealth manager in the UK vary depending on the individual firm; we typically work with individuals or families who have £250k or more to invest. This is not a hard and fast rule, and anyone with an interest in managing their assets better is welcomed to contact us. With your portfolio in hand, we’ll answer your questions, often focused on retirement, like:
-How do I change my business success into personal wealth, without paying too much tax?
-Is the portfolio I have still appropriate?
-How can I be sensible with my finances and still get the life I aim for?
-What of the existing retirement options makes the most sense for me and my circumstances?
-How have any recent changes to pension plans impacted my investment strategy?
We take the worry out of these questions and can help you keep a clear path ahead of you to a worry-free retirement all while navigating any changes to retirement offerings, your lifestyle, or the market.
An array of services within wealth management
Wealth managers aren’t solely about investment advice, for example, we focus on retirement or pre-retirement wealth planning. Wealth management can also include services like estate planning, legacy planning, charitable giving and tax planning; you’d want to speak to your advisor about additional services they may offer.
Wealth management can help keep all your financial decisions for retirement in one place, with one account manager or advisor, rather than a mess of papers in your own home when trying to manage multiple assets or different elements of the whole of your retirement planning.
An outside perspective
When you work with a wealth manager for your retirement planning, you get our expert, and outside, perspective. We haven’t lived your life, and while of course we speak to you about it, we also will have your portfolio in front of us. Even - or perhaps especially - when you work hard for it not to be emotional, money and retirement can be an emotional process, and sometimes that creates blind spots.
We will likely be able to see things - weaknesses, strengths, opportunities - in that portfolio even you may not catch. We may also be able to see things that may not be clear to someone who hasn’t studied these kinds of retirement investments over the course of years. Our job is to know the details of your life and weigh the emotional and rational to give you sound financial advice that will put you on the right path for the journey you want to take into retirement.
We’ll also be able to work with you to adjust your portfolio smartly according to the kind of life you want to live in retirement, a balance of risk appetites and how much cash you want accessible as well as weighing up the newer pension freedoms from 2015. From 2020, the way advisors treat defined benefit pensions has changed as well, so a wealth manager should be able to keep on top of changes to make sure your assets and investment all still make sense.
Some of the discussions we’ll have with you in this planning & review include:
-Understanding your risk appetite
-Sequencing your risk by seeing what might happen with poor investment returns
-Reviewing any alternative assets or asset opportunities, like real estate/property
-How to draw income tax effectively
-Cashflow planning to guide how and when you’re best placed to spend
-Reviewing death benefits
Retirement is what we do
While this may be the first time you’re retiring, this isn’t the first time we have. In all likelihood the circumstances you’re working with when moving towards retirement are ones we’ve seen before, and we’ll know how to approach it with the correct care and decision-making to create the life you’d like to lead. And while we may have seen all of the elements of your retirement strategy before, your situation is unique, and we should create a unique financial plan for it, with all the right analysis to confirm the path we’re on will work with you.
We’ve seen the ebbs and flows of the market and know how to ride them in a way that should put you in a better financial position than you may have been otherwise. We likely know how to manage your business wealth and transition it to personal wealth in a way that will help rather than harm your investment portfolio and asset allocation.
Working with a wealth manager when preparing for retirement can give you the peace of mind you need to set the right scene when you step into your golden years and enjoy the life you’ve planned for yourself.