How to get the best from your financial adviser

Deciding to engage a financial adviser could be one of the best decisions you make.

We would say that – we’re financial advisers. But once you’ve chosen your financial adviser, what happens next?

Lots of ‘why’ – where’s the ‘what’?

There’s lots of information out there about how financial advice can benefit you and why taking financial advice is a good idea.

But there seems to be very little information about how you take financial advice: what to expect and what will be expected of you. In other words, how you work with a financial adviser to get the results you want.

So we’re here to close that gap. Read on to find out what to expect when you meet a financial adviser, what information you’ll need to give them and why, and how to work with them to get the best results for you.

It’s about people

A good way to think about financial advice is – it’s not just about the money. It’s about people. It’s about you and your life. Your financial adviser will want to work with you to find out what you want out of life and what’s important to you. The money’s just a means to that end.

Be Prepared

The Scouts’ motto applies here because your financial adviser will ask you lots of questions. We’ll need detailed personal information about you, your family and your household income and outgoings. If you have a partner, we’ll need to include them, as it’s likely your finances are connected and we prefer to work with the bigger picture.
You can help us by looking up all your financial info beforehand, including:

• your earnings
• details of all your bank and building society accounts
• any investments you have
• your pension savings

We’ll also need a breakdown of how much you, and your partner if you have one, earn and your regular monthly spending. So it’s also a good idea to get your hands on payslips, bills and receipts. We can give you tools and links to help you get this information to us.

Some people want to know why we need all these details, and whether they really need to answer all the questions. That’s a fair challenge and one your adviser should be prepared to explain.

Painting a detailed picture

Imagine you’re planning an extension on your home. You need planning and building control permission, and detailed plans and drawings for the builder to follow – so you engage an architect. They’ll ask you lots of questions about what you want. They’ll measure and explore your house thoroughly so they can produce drawings of what you want. You wouldn’t expect an architect to do a good job for you without giving them access to everywhere they need to go and answering all their questions.

It’s the same with financial advice. To meet your needs, achieve your objectives and give you the best possible service, we need to build up a detailed picture of where you are financially and where you want to be – which means we need to be thorough. Without all your details, we wouldn’t be able to give you the best advice – so you’ll get the most out of the time and money you’re spending if you’re prepared.

Modern technology can help. Instead of answering questions in an interview (where it’s easy to miss things) you’ll normally get a link to a portal so you can fill in your details online. This means you can do it in stages, with time to go and look things up when you need to.

The first meeting

At your first meeting your adviser will discuss your situation with you, looking for things they need to explore further and any gaps.

We’ll also ask you about your objectives – what you want to achieve with your financial advice. For example, do you want to retire in a certain number of years?

We’ll work with you to refine your objectives. Are they realistic? Are they sustainable? Working backwards from your retirement date, we’ll look at things like: what does your life look like now? What are your spending patterns? How much do you need to save to meet your objectives?

You may find us challenging your thinking. For example, you might say you need a certain amount of money a year. We might ask why you think that and what the amount is based on.

We’ll also need to gauge your attitude to investment risk. We may need to do some education to help you understand more about investment and risk (check out our article on Investing in a pension for a basic guide to investment risk).

Once we’ve gained a sufficient understanding about you and your plans we’ll set out a fee agreement for you with the cost of your financial advice.

Next, your adviser will do some more work and depending on what you’re interested in, we may need to have further meetings and ask you more questions. Your adviser will research products and services they think are suitable for you and come back with recommendations. For example, if you want to put all your pension savings together in one place, your adviser will look carefully at each of your existing pension plans and recommend the most appropriate solution (which could be that your current plans are still suitable and you’d be better off leaving them where they are).

Ask your own questions

We’ve already seen that a financial adviser will ask you questions. But you should be asking questions too. If you’re paying someone to advise you, it’s important they’re properly qualified and authorised – so you should ask them about their qualifications and professional status. A reputable financial adviser won’t mind you asking.

As a minimum, your financial adviser should be qualified to level 4 of the national Qualifications and Credit Framework – broadly equivalent to the first year of a degree. They must have a Statement of Professional Standing, updated each year, saying they’ve signed up to a code of ethics and taken at least 35 hours of professional training a year. And they must be registered by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

If your adviser has Chartered Financial Planner status, they’ve jumped through even more hoops. They must have at least five years’ experience, have passed around 14 exams and are required to take regular continual professional development training.

The bottom line … it’s a partnership

Probably the best way to think about financial advice is that it’s a partnership – a two-way working relationship – rather than someone telling you what to do with your money.

We find we develop lifelong relationships with clients, becoming trusted advisers to them and their families. If a client dies, their financial adviser may be the only person who’s got a clear picture of their financial position, so we may find ourselves providing valuable support for bereaved family and relatives.
This underlines that, fundamentally, financial advice isn’t just about money. It’s about people and their lives.

Can we help you?

Still wondering about financial advice? Ask us for help. We love helping people get the most out of their money.

Here are a few of the reasons you might want to give us a go.

• The personal touch. We go out of our way to understand you, your life situation, and what you want.
• We really know our stuff. We’ve got over 50 years’ experience of helping people plan and achieve the retirement they want.
• We’re completely independent and unbiased. 
• Your first consultation is on us.

We can help you plan the retirement you want, so you can get on with enjoying life without having to worry about money – now or in the future.