Introduction
The purpose of money
Case study: introducing Violet
Products and services
Succession planning
About Punter Southall Aspire
But how do you actually put a value on advice? Can it simply be shown as an increase in asset value driven by recommendations made by those who class themselves as experts, or is it more than that? We feel the real value comes from offering support and guidance, so that you can achieve your life goals.
Protecting your family Whilst this can be as simple as Life Assurance or other protection policies, it can be much more than that. It’s also about making sure that your financial affairs are in order, so that you can be comfortable knowing that your family will be well looked after, even if the worst happens. Happiness in retirement isn’t just about having ‘sufficient’ income – it’s about making sure it enables you to do all the things you’d like to. We don’t just want to talk about how much your money is worth, but what it can do for you.
Transferring your Estate Whilst we all recognise the merit of fair taxation, it’s important that you take advantage of allowances offered to you by HMRC. These allowances are available when you are drawing income, but also affect your savings and investments and your overall estate upon your death. Our aim is to ensure you are able to pass as much of your estate down to your family as efficiently as possible, so that the biggest beneficiary isn’t HMRC.
Peace of mind All of these things are aimed at giving you peace of mind. There are many more important things to do as you go through life than to be worrying about your finances. Having a financial adviser working with you should ensure that the investment approach you use is correct, your money is suitably invested and your health is protected.
Most importantly, your adviser can understand your circumstances and work with you to make sure that you ultimately have peace of mind knowing that your money is working for you.
Having said all of that, we do wish to draw your attention to some research produced by The International Longevity Centre, a charitable organisation focused on some of the biggest challenges facing Government and society in the context of demographic change.
They produced a paper in July 2017 entitled ‘The Value of Financial Advice’1, which highlighted the average increase in the value of assets for those people who sought financial advice over those who didn’t. The period chosen was from 2001-2007 and they then considered their asset value by 2012-14.
What impressed us with the report was that they examined the impact of financial advice on a group titled ‘just getting by’ as well as one titled ‘affluent’. The ‘affluent’ group was formed of a wealthier subset of people who are also more likely to have degrees, be part of a couple, and be homeowners.
The ‘just getting by’ group is formed of a less wealthy subset who are more likely to have lower levels of educational attainment, be single, divorced or widowed and be renting.
1 https://ilcuk.org.uk/the-value-of-financial-advice/
These findings highlight that good quality financial advice clearly has actual monetary value to it. To be honest, we have always recognised that, but it’s nice when this is quantified by an Independent source.
Now, what we would like to consider is where we can offer a different type of value.