What will an Independent Financial Adviser need to know about me?
Health & lifestyle - Retirement is a key age to focus on your health. Inform your Independent Financial Adviser of your current health status, along with any previous issues and procedures you may have had.
Assets - A Client must provide as much information as possible about their existing and previous assets, this includes; bank accounts, savings, shares, property and ISAs. If you are unable to provide this yourself, or don’t know how to go about it, with your permission, your adviser can contact the providers and seek that information themselves, in order to advise you appropriately.
Dependants - There has been a significant increase in the amount of people who reach retirement and then dedicate their time to looking after either elder or young relatives. If this relates to you then you must let your Independent Financial Adviser know, also informing them if you would like plans to be made to secure your relatives’ financial future, as well as your own.
Your Independent Financial Adviser will then make changes according to your requests; this could be things such as saving to pay for a younger relative’s wedding or an older relative’s care costs.
Liabilities - If you are going into retirement with outstanding debts, credit card bills and interest rates on loans which must be paid then it’s important to inform your Independent Financial Adviser, as they may be able to help you with debt repayment strategies.
Pensions - When meeting with your Independent Financial Adviser, provide as much information as possible about your current employer schemes and any preserved benefits. Bring as much evidence as possible about your current expenditure such as monthly bank statements.
Your state pension, along with any existing pension schemes you may have are an important part of your retirement income, so always remember to inform your Independent Financial Adviser of these, no matter how small you think the income will be, you may be surprised.
Income and expenditure - Your spending habits will most likely change during retirement. Rather than your income being used on commuting and work clothes, it’s more likely to be used on club memberships or holiday funds. You may wish to receive different levels of income over different periods of your retirement. For example, you may want to work part-time and have your pension income just to top it up, until a more substantial employer pension scheme then comes into payment.
In summary, your Independent Financial Adviser must have an explicit understanding of how much ‘essential income’ you need as a minimum per month, along with how much ‘lifestyle income’ you would like. You must always make sure your lifestyle income reflects the life you want to lead.