Lowes Magazine Issue 127

PLANNING

Our retirement planning tool

could be identified, which will help us to put steps in place to increase your funds before retiring. It gives you an insight into how life events could impact your finances Let’s face it, life rarely goes to plan, and that doesn’t change in retirement. Even with work out of the picture, you’re likely to experience big life events which will inevitably influence your finances and retirement plans. When building your cashflow plan, we can develop various scenarios which take into account your goals and consider possible events that could occur during your retirement. This will enable us to gain an understanding of the potential impact of these events on your income. These events could include planned decisions, such as downsizing, or situations which may happen, for example, receiving an inheritance or going into long-term care. Using cashflow planning can show if your retirement aspirations could be achievable, helping you to make a more informed decision when it comes to your retirement plan. But it goes beyond that. It’s a process that can give you reassurance that there are steps you can take to overcome life’s financial obstacles once you retire. Let’s take a look at an example Our client is aged 56 and has the aspiration to retire at 60 with a £2,250 per month income throughout their retirement. Our client is currently working full time, earning £40,000 a year and has no liabilities. To build a picture of what their retirement could look like, based on their goals, we will take into account the range of finances and assets the client has, to get a comprehensive picture of their wealth. This will include property, pensions, savings, investments, and any other wealth they may have.

Lowes Adviser and Client Servicing Manager, Rob Earl explains how cashflow planning can be a useful tool to help assess whether a client’s wealth is enough to achieve their retirement goals.

Will you retire when you want, with the lifestyle you’re accustomed to? After all, retirement is a major life event, one which many of us dream about for most of our working life. Whether you want to spend your retirement travelling, making memories with friends and family, or enjoying hobbies, old and new – it’s important to have a goal in mind and a plan in place to help make it a reality. Our sophisticated cashflow modelling software takes into consideration the wealth a client has accumulated, and it crunches the numbers, including anticipated rates of investment and savings growth, as well as inflation. It’s an invaluable way of building a picture of how their wealth could last over their retirement and highlight any potential shortfalls – ultimately helping us to determine if more needs to be done to help the client achieve the retirement they want. Benefits of cashflow planning It gives you a visual representation of your financial future It can be difficult to understand how your retirement provisions will change over time; particularly when you begin to factor in areas such as investment growth and inflation. Cashflow modelling helps to forecast how your wealth will stand the test of time in a visual and easy to digest way. This makes it far easier to grasp the bigger picture. It will showcase where you are now, how your wealth may be affected over time, the level of income you can afford to take in retirement, whilst taking into consideration the age you wish to retire. You might be pleasantly surprised by the possible date that you could comfortably retire, or shortfalls

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