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Posted on November 3, 2009 by C Wathen | Posted under Finance
Financial Planning Review Checklist
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It has been an incredibly difficult year as far as finances are concerned. Governments worldwide are struggling to ease the financial position in previously untested ways. While the credit crunch has raised some specific issues, taking a general overview of your financial planning could highlight some important questions. Investments If you have deposit investments, are they properly protected? The Financial Services Compensation Scheme now protects up to £50,000 of an investment in a specific bank (see opposite). Do you have more than that at risk in an institution? Should you spread these investments? What about the stockmarket? It has been extremely volatile year. How have your equity-based investments been doing? It may be time to look at these to see if your portfolio is balanced properly. For example, are you overweight in any particular sector where there could be some excessive downside risk? Mortgages If you have a mortgage you may well be coming to the end of a fixed interest rate period, possibly leading to increased mortgage repayments. With the mortgage market in a state of uncertainty following the recent interest rate cuts, it is important to take professional advice. Experienced mortgage advisers often know where the best deals are to be had and could save you considerable amounts of money. Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage. Protection The financial situation over the last few months has adversely affected the wealth of many families and you may wish to look at the different ways of protecting your family for the future. Do you have enough life cover to protect your spouse/partner as well as your children or grandchildren? Again, professional advice is important to ensure that such life cover is set up in the correct way. Pensions One major area to suffer from the decline in stockmarket values is pension funds. Most of these have some equity exposure. If you are already retired and drawing on your funds or you are rapidly approaching retirement, you really owe it to yourself to conduct a full review of how your pension fund is performing. You do not want to suffer a drastic reduction in pension just when you find that you need to maintain your income. You may wish to think about switching your pension funds to more ‘safe’ investments as retirement approaches. Pensions are complex. They combine government rules on limits regarding tax-efficient investments and the tax reliefs available with actual investment decisions. Again, you will need to take professional advice to see if any strategic decisions need to be taken. An overall financial review at this time could serve to put you into a much better financial position in the years ahead. Gemini Wealth Management are Independent Financial Advisers (IFA) that provide tax guidance, independent financial advice and other financial planning services for personal and business use in the UK. Gemini Wealth Management Ltd is Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority Registered in England & Wales No. 5919877 Registered Office: Gemini House, 71 Park Road, Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands B73 6BT The Financial Services Authority does not regulate tax and trust advice, will writing and some forms of buy to let mortgages. The guidance and/or advice contained in this website is subject to regulatory regime and is therefore restricted to consumers based in the UK. About The Author: Chris Wathen is author of this article on Individual wealth management. Find more information about Earnings protection plan here. |
Tags: GEMINI WEALTH MANAGEMENT, TAX EFFICIENCY ADVICE, FINANCIAL PRODUCTS ADVICE, PRIVATE INDIVIDUAL WEALTH MANAGEMENT, FINANCIAL PLANNING.
