Business

New year - just the right time to put some financial planning in place

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THIS is the time when we’re on emergency diets after too much turkey curry and prosecco, and looking forward to a year that will be (hopefully) slightly less difficult than 2020.

Do I hear you say: “Wouldn’t be hard”? Well, you’re right. It has been a difficult year. But January is traditionally the time when we stop thinking of the past and look to the future – a particularly good time to consider the things that we didn’t get around to in the past 12 months.

Sorting out our financial planning may be one of those ideas – and taking financial advice is a true investment in the future, and is always time well spent.

However, no two people are alike. Every good financial adviser knows that each customer is individual and unique, with a different situation, different circumstances, and different short term and long term hopes and desires.

At KFA we recognise this, and so the first step is assessing each customer’s personal situation, and considering their requirements at the start of their financial journey.

We first ask about our clients’ individual situation – and no two people are the same – and this initial assessment is followed up with regular contact so that we can react, change, and add to their advice, as we proceed with them along that lifelong journey.

For example, a customer in their 20s may well be interested in setting up a personal pension, but only as they move into their 30s, perhaps start a family and buy a first home, do they see a need for life insurance and critical illness insurance to protect their loved ones if they were struck by an unexpected setback.

And this year, with our TV screens filled every day with news about Covid 19, who has not thought about that at least once?

Advice needs to be constantly updated and revised as we go through life. In your personal pension, for instance, you can change the nature of your investments as you go. Perhaps a younger person might be comfortable with some adventurous investments, in the early years, for their pension savings.

When people are young, they have plenty of time to ride out any market downturns that come along – and downturns are normal, they always come along, but they are always followed by a recovery, and the general trend is upwards.

However, when you get into your 50s, when those growth years are over and retirement is beckoning, you may wish to switch into much more conservative investments, more at the defensive end of the spectrum, to cut your risk and safeguard your quality of life in retirement.

At its best, financial advice is a long-term relationship between adviser and client, and one, incidentally, which no computer simulation or online website can mirror.

As the client’s needs evolve, the adviser constantly listens, responds, reacts, and readjusts.

Could 2021 be the year when you finally take half an hour to sit down with an adviser, and put some planning in place to secure your wellbeing, and the wellbeing of your loved ones?

:: Michael Kennedy and Shaun Doherty are independent financial advisers and pensions specialists, and can be contacted on 028 71886005. Further information on Facebook at Kennedy Independent Financial Advice Ltd or at www.mkennedyfinancial.com