The Advice Process

Our Financial Planning process is tailored to suit your needs

Financial Planning is a very personal matter. No two people have identical circumstances, ambitions and needs. What’s more, needs often change over time and everyone’s financial situation is different. Our Financial Planning process is tailored to suit your particular needs.

The Six Steps of the Financial Planning Process

1. The initial meeting

The initial meeting is about getting to know you and gaining an understanding of your current position and your personal and financial goals. This includes:

  • Gathering data on your current financial situation and budget
  • Identifying your goals and what you want to achieve
  • Understanding your risk profile and approach to investing
  • Identifying any other financial issues

We will cover the cost of the initial meeting, which is obligation free. The information obtained will be used if you decide to proceed to the next stage. We will establish your immediate and short term needs and identify your long-term goals and advise you on how we may be able to help you achieve these objectives. We will discuss our current Client Agreement and Service Proposition and Engagement documents with you to ensure your understanding, before asking you to sign copies for our records. Most importantly, we will discuss the charges for our services so that you have a full and transparent understanding of the costs involved before proceeding any further.

2. The gathering of information

Should you choose to appoint us as your financial advisers, we will ask you to provide us with signed letters of authority so that we may gather information on your existing arrangements such as valuations, fund performance analysis, details of any underlying costs and charges, projections and full policy literature. We will also ask you to provide us with the required proof of identity and address to ensure we comply with anti-money laundering regulations.

3. Evaluation and analysis

We will use the information gathered to analyse your current position and consider your future objectives. We will use our various in house research and analysis tools to fully evaluate your existing savings, investment, retirement and protection contracts to ensure their ongoing suitability and to identify any gaps and shortfalls that may prevent you reaching your goals. This process enables us to gain a complete picture of your existing arrangements and strategies, including income and expenditure analysis. We will then arrange a date for the follow up meeting, if one is required.

4. The follow up meeting

The second meeting will begin with a brief summary of our understanding of your background and your stated requirements, so that we can make certain that we are absolutely clear in our perception of your needs, goals and aspirations, thereby ensuring that our recommended financial strategies are indeed appropriate in helping you achieve them. We will then present you with our evaluation of your current financial position followed by an overview of our proposed recommendations. This meeting provides the opportunity for you to ask questions and discuss our recommendations in greater detail to ensure full agreement and understanding and enables us to make any necessary adjustments prior to implementation.

5. Implementation

Once the advice and recommendations have been agreed, we will proceed with the implementation stage. We will ensure that any applications, forms and other associated administration documents are pre-populated and fully completed ready for your signature, for immediate submission for processing. You will receive confirmation that your application has been submitted and the contact details for the member of our administration team whom will be ensuring that the transaction process runs smoothly and updating you on a regular basis until completion.

6. Review

Your financial objectives may change over time, due to changes in your lifestyle or circumstances. We believe it is essential to ensure that your portfolio continues to meet your lifestyle and investment objectives. Our ongoing review and planning service offers:

  • Structured reviews to give you peace of mind
  • Assessment of your current circumstances and any changes to your plans that are needed
  • Regular updates and information regarding your holdings
  • A choice of differing levels of support depending on your needs
  • Ongoing assistance with correspondence and administration issues

We recognise that all clients do not have the same service requirements, therefore even though we do provide guidance on what service level we feel will best suit your needs, you are free to choose the level of service that you require.

 

If you would like the opportunity to discuss any issues that concern you, please contact our team for more details on our services at admin@horlockholdcroft.co.uk or by calling the office directly on 01825 766 130.