Long-Term Financial Planning Covers All The Bases

The recession has taught us all the importance of being prepared for the unexpected. With volatile markets, high redundancy rates and a general economic malaise, a majority of UK residents find themselves ill-prepared for their retirement.

We now know and better understand the importance of long-term financial planning. Most of us have learned that long-term financial planning is serious business that is best left to professionals. A recent report indicates that 41 percent of UK residents are not prepared for retirement. We are living longer and saving less and without long-term financial planning, we can easily find ourselves with some issues in the future.

If you don’t have a financial plan, the time to begin is now. A good plan now can be fashioned into an excellent plan down the road. Financial plans reflect different expectations from the client. Some are geared for the benefit of their children while others are designed for the benefit of the spouse.

All successful long-term financial plans begin with a frank and honest meeting where the client’s goals are set. These goals may change but start with goals you would like to secure and work from there. If you are a business owner, you will need a financial plan for your enterprise as well as for your retirement. Chartered financial planners such as ourselves are equally helpful to business owners and to persons with private pensions.

Long-Term Financial Planning Should Incorporate These Components:

Tax Planning – Tax planning is the legal process of arranging business or personal affairs to minimise tax liabilities. UK tax law contains 200 provisions that can be addressed. Proper tax planning will increase capital savings.

A Plan For Life – Long-term financial planning should be a plan for life that addresses your stated goals and maximises your full potential for the rest of your life. This includes having access to funds in the event of an emergency, like redundancy or failures of higher risk investments. Your plan for life includes an analysis of your current investment portfolio as well as projections.

Family Planning – Many clients choose family planning as their central focus for their long-term financial plan. In recent years, family planning has been pushed aside due to the flat economy as assets have been deployed to meet other obligations. Long-term financial planners can implement excellent strategies to provide solid family plans.

Tax Planning For Business – One of the important roles of the long-term financial plan is to identify and minimise business taxes. This helps the existing business, as well as the business owner who will one day retire. Tax planning for businesses is a major area of concern for financial planners. When the business owner’s time has come to leave the business, a long-term tax exit strategy should already be in place.

Tax and Employment Planning – A surprising number of people pay too little or too much tax while they are employed. A financial planner will ensure that all your obligations are met and that you pay as little tax as possible. This means more money for the future.

Your Retirement Plan – With 41 percent of us not prepared for retirement or lacking a financial plan sufficient for our retirement, it is time to admit that we need professional long-term financial planning advice. What we accomplish today in this respect can make our retirement a much more pleasant experience. Many of us have been shell shocked by declining real property prices and falls in interest and annuity rates. If your financial planning goal is your retirement, you need a professional, engaged planner. The recession has taught us that.

Building and Protecting Your Wealth – One benefit of long-term financial planning is that it marks a smart strategy to build and protect your wealth. Wealth preservation can be challenging in these volatile times. Unlike other types of investment, long-term financial planning looks at more conservative approaches to growing and preserving your wealth, regardless of how markets perform. Financial planners will consider your entire portfolio, including those elements they will not control, before putting forth a plan to grow and preserve.

Estate Planning – Ideally, estate planning will begin early in your career. Long-term financial planners are experts at estate planning. Regardless of the amount of your income or the size of your portfolio, the time to start planning your estate and developing the right tax strategies is now. Your estate plan should include your will and a plan to protect your assets.

Charitable Giving – Charitable gifts can be made in many advantageous forms. Long-term financial planners develop strategies that capitalize on all tax benefits.

There is much to discuss with your long-term chartered financial planner. Regardless of your current station in life, the time to begin developing your plan is now.

Get in touch with Expert Wealth Management for more information about our financial planning services.

*Referenced study; HSBC – The Future of Retirement in 2012