What is Financial Planning?

At Fisher Investments UK, we believe in a holistic approach to reach your long-term investment objectives. For many investors, achieving these long-term investment goals requires a personalised financial plan built specifically to help you succeed. This plan should address your individual needs and help you avoid common pitfalls. But before creating a personalised financial plan, investors should understand what financial planning is.

Financial planning is more than just setting a budget, evaluating your assets or planning your estate; it is a broad evaluation of your current and future financial pictures.

The Primary Components of Financial Planning

What things should you consider when crafting your financial plan? Broadly speaking, financial planning comprises evaluating your net worth, comparing assets (cash, equities, property) with liabilities (mortgages, credit card debt, loans), your current cash flow (budget) situation and your short and long-term financial goals. In addition to those commonly discussed components, we believe a successful plan also includes these factors and topics:

• Tax-efficient investing and sheltering assets
• Personalised investment recommendations, including asset allocation and risk tolerance considerations
• Income and expense timelines and forecasts
• Consideration of potential big life events (retirement, inheritance, divorce, death, etc.)
• Pension and retirement planning, including consolidation, contributions and lifetime allowance (LTA)
• Estate and Inheritance Tax (IHT) planning
• Gifting and trusts
• Access to UK regulated financial advice and other professional resources

Attention to detail is important when building a financial plan. It is better to have a wide array of components in your financial plan, versus a narrow, primarily budget-centric approach. Accounting for the many potentially impactful parts of your financial future should help you stay on track to meet your financial goals.

Another important component of financial planning is the necessity to review your financial plan and financial situation at least annually. Keeping abreast of your finances is critical to helping to ensure you reach your financial goals.

The Private Client Advice Group at Fisher Investments UK is a team of qualified UK financial advisers who are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). They provide financial advice on a range of topics including pension planning, tax-efficient investing, retirement planning and drawdown, LTA planning and IHT and estate planning.

Avoiding Pitfalls in Financial Planning

Throughout the financial planning process, it’s easy to make mistakes that can seriously impact your long-term financial well-being. Here are some common mistakes to avoid:

• Planning for your financial future based on improper goal-setting
• Not maximising tax-efficient investment opportunities
• Underestimating the complexity of estate planning
• Failing to determine an effective tax strategy for your cash flow needs
• Ignoring the impact of capital gains and losses
• Underestimating how long you’ll need your assets to work for you
• Not keeping track of your pensions and investment strategies
• Not hiring the right professionals to assist you

Is a Professional Financial Planner Right for Me?

Whether you’re an expert in finance or new to financial planning, it can be beneficial to consider consulting a professional. Working with a professional financial adviser can help you avoid potential mistakes in your financial planning process. A good financial planner or financial adviser can help create a personalised financial plan that allows you to reach your financial objectives. When searching for a financial adviser, we believe you should look for a professional who places your needs first, not their own.

How Fisher Investments UK is Different

Our financial planning services are based on your goals. Some financial firms may focus on selling products to generate valuable commissions for themselves. We work with you to determine the necessary steps to help you reach your financial goals—not sell products for a commission. We learn about your entire financial picture and seek to understand your financial goals and objectives.

When you work with us:

• Your portfolio will be structured to help you reach your long-term financial goals, taking into account your investment objectives, time horizon, cash flow needs and other factors specific to you.
• You have access to UK regulated financial advice from the Private Client Advice Group in the London office.
• You receive proactive service from your Investment Counsellor, who will keep you up-to-date on our forward-looking market outlook and your portfolio.
• You have the opportunity to interact with the people making investment decisions through client programmes, including exclusive in-person events.
• You can take advantage of global investing opportunities with our significant experience investing domestically and overseas.
• You won’t be limited to a single style of investing (like growth or value), because we can shift our strategy based on our forward-looking view of market conditions.
• You will have competitive and easy-to-understand fees that align our interests with yours.

We believe that our team here at Fisher Investments UK can help build you a more secure financial future, and taking advantage of our financial planning service is a great first step. You can request an initial meeting with your local representative for a complimentary portfolio evaluation. We look forward to hearing from you.