John has a wealth of experience having been a financial adviser and planner for more than 20 years and is a Chartered Financial Planner and holds the specialist qualification required to provide advice on final salary pension schemes.
John started his career as an Independent Financial Adviser working in the City of London and Mayfair and latterly provided independent financial advice to high-net-worth individuals at HSBC and Quilter Private Client Advisers. He now runs Bolton-based Clear Vision Wealth Management
With over 30 years’ experience providing independent financial advice, I have found that all too often the people most in need of financial advice are unsure of how to access the advice, feel that they cannot afford it or are otherwise reluctant to seek advice for many other reasons. There is a large advice gap in the UK with seeming only the wealthy benefiting from professional advice and yet there are many aspects of financial advice that are universal regardless of an individual’s position, profession or how much money they have. Less that 20% of the UK adult population benefits from receiving financial advice and yet everybody would benefit from such advice.
Therefore, the purpose of these columns is to raise awareness of the key issues and to provide generic guidance that can benefit everybody in the local community. In recent years it has become apparent that a lack of financial knowledge can lead to anxiety and poor mental health.
All to often the money sections of national newspapers and online features focus on a certain investment fund, the latest “star” fund manager or which shares to buy. Whilst these subjects are interesting and can benefit some people, the basics, that could make a difference to the majority, are overlooked.
As such, I will not be providing tips on which shares to buy or which fund to invest in, but rather to reflect on my 30 years of providing advice and to cover the subjects that I am asked about the most often.
Whenever I meet a client for the first time, who has taken the initial step of seeking the help of a financial adviser, it never ceases to amaze me how few people have a will or a power of attorney in place. Even though this is not a service we provide or benefit from, we always prioritise these as the most important things to deal with before anything else.
In this regular column, initially, I will be covering the universal basics such as;
• The importance of a will, 90 per cent of adults in the UK do not have a valid will, what happens if you die without a valid will in place? In such circumstances one is deemed to have died intestate and the rules (law) of intestacy apply, and I can’t recall ever meeting a client whereby the rules of intestacy would have distributed their estate in the way that they wanted.
• 60 per cent of cohabiting adults in the UK are unmarried. There is a popular misconception that, in the event of death, they will be covered by common law husband and wife and yet no such concept exists in law. This misconception can have devastating effects.
• In the importance of having a Power of Attorney before losing capacity and not after.
• The importance of ensuring any life assurance is written under trust. This is a simple form that any life assurance provider will provide free of charge and yet 90% of life assurance policies in the UK are not written under trust.
• How to understand the State Pension and what one might receive at retirement. The majority of people I meet, when asked about their state pension say, “I will get the normal pension”. However, there are many different factors that determine one’s pension entitlement and I have seen an annual State Pension as low as £20 per week and as high as £350 per week. It is easy to find out what you may be entitled to and it is easy to take steps to improve your pension.
We see every day the difference our knowledge makes without these tips/guidance actually being our core business.
Once we have covered these universal basics, we will then cover the many topics that financial advisers specialise in such as;
• Investments
• Pensions
• Inheritance Tax
• Long Term Care funding
We will not be offering specific advice in the column, however, if anyone has specific questions or issues that wish to discuss, we will answer these directly as quickly as we can.
John can be reached at [email protected]
