News

My home is my pension...

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 18:20:15 +0000

If I had a pound for every time a client told me that their home was their pension!

Until the latter part of 2007, most of us had seen a steady and sometimes unbelievable increase in house prices for the few years beforehand.

However, since then we have seen how the fortunes of those invested in property have completely changed.

For your home to be your pension you need to be able to get your hands on the money but realising the profit in a property might not always be easy. For most people this would mean downsizing but if you are moving within the same area this might not release much cash at all. Also, do bear in mind that changing houses is not cheap. You can lose a substantial chunk of your profit to stamp duty, estate agents fees and solicitor's fees.

Another way of getting hold of the cash is through Equity Release but this can sometimes be an expensive option and limits the inheritance you leave behind.

On top of that, it is wrong to assume that property will always be a good investment. Property prices rose 136% in the years 1998-2008 but only 16% in the years 1988 till 1998. We saw a downturn in 2007 and we just don't know where it will end.

One property is a single investment. This gives you no diversification and increases your risk substantially.

Our advice would be to consider your property as part of an overall investment strategy. Stocks and shares, Fixed Interest and Cash will allow you to diversify your investments. In addition, pensions and ISA's will give you substantial tax benefits.

Public service pension overhaul

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Millions of workers in the public sector should work longer for lower pensions, a major report has said.

Lord Hutton's independent review said linking their pensions to career average earnings, rather than final salaries, would make them "affordable".

The government has already accepted a previous recommendation of Lord Hutton that public servants should soon pay higher contributions.

Unions have condemned the latest plans and will consider strike action.

Dave Prentis, general secretary of the Unison union, said: "This will be just one more attack on innocent public sector workers who are being expected to pay the price of the deficit, while the bankers who caused it continue to enjoy bumper pay and bonuses."

The government said it was grateful for the work that Lord Hutton had completed and would give it "careful consideration".

The Prime Minister's official spokesman said the government would engage with public sector unions in taking forward the reforms.

Shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, Angela Eagle, said pension reform was a long-term issue, and should not be used by the government to tackle the deficit.

ISA Warning

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

According to BBC savers are being warned to check interest rates on Individual Savings Account (Isa) deals, so as not to be caught out by introductory offers.

Tax-free savings

Many Isas are being launched with introductory bonus rates that run out after the first year, according to financial information group Moneyfacts.

These can then fall to a default rate offering small returns.

An Office of Fair Trading report found that about 11% of Isa holders switch to a new provider in a typical year.

Saving plan

Tax-free Isas were introduced in the UK 12 years ago to encourage people to save. The latest figures showed that at least 17.5m people in the UK have £143bn held in cash Isas.

Activity among Isa providers tends to pick up at this time of year, as the tax year ends and a new one starts.

In April, the annual Isa limit will rise from the current level of £10,200 to £10,680, or £5,340 for a cash-only Isa. Half, or all, of the Isa total can be saved in stocks and shares.

Savers who already hold an Isa, or who are opening a new one, are being urged to check the long-term interest rate being offered - and not to rely on the name of the deal.

Isa limits

Current Isa limit: £10,200, of which half can be saved in cash
New Isa limit (from April 2011): £10,680, of which half can be saved in cash
"Interest paid in the second or subsequent year of an Isa that had an introductory bonus can be a very sad imitation of the original attention grabbing rate because, without the bonus element to prop it up, the remaining rate paid can be very low," said Moneyfacts spokeswoman Sylvia Waycot.

"Pitfalls to watch out for are long-standing account names, as they will be issue-based and each issue will pay a different rate. The older the account generally means the worse the rate."

And Andrew Hagger, of personal finance website Moneynet, said: "If you are on the ball and manage to switch your Isa as soon as the bonus expires, then it is no problem. However, if you delay your decision, the account with the big bonus rates will suddenly turn sour and offer you a much poorer return on your cash."

Fair play

In its report into the Isa market, published in June last year, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) gave a clean bill of health to Isa providers for introductory bonus offers.

Watchdog Consumer Focus, which brought the supercomplaint that prompted the review, had accused providers of "baiting" consumers with short-term, high rates, which later fell without fanfare.

The OFT said there was clarity for consumers about how such teaser rates worked.

But the report did find that only 15% of providers made the interest rate clear on the statement.

Some 38% of customers thought they knew the interest they were getting, but 62% did not know when asked.

A big gap in the market

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

I have been a financial adviser for over 14 years now. Over the course of that time, I have worked with many many clients and spoken to them about their money. I have come to realise that it actually isn't about their money at all. It's about them, their families, their work, their friends, their LIFE.

I also came to see that there was often a disconnect between people and their money. It really made no difference if clients had a lot of money or hardly any, all my clients wanted the same thing. Freedom. Freedom and peace around money. Freedom to live the life they want without money worries.

The traditional way of providing advice revolved around identifying any gaps that were present with respect to financial products and them simply selling those products to fill the gaps. I wanted to flip this model completely on it's head by making our clients the starting point not the gaps.

So Kinder Life Planning methodology was introduced into the business and it has truly been the best decision ever made. Before we even start talking about money we really get to know our clients so that any financial planning we do is designed around what each and every client needs. The work we do now helps our clients reconnect with their money but more than anything else we help them figure out all dreams and goals and then put the financial architecture in place to make it all happen.

Everything is about you and what is important to you.

This is financial planning like you have never seen it before.

Reduce Inheritance Tax

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The inheritance tax nil rate band has now been at £325,000 since 6 April 2009. If it had been indexed-linked, as it used to be, the band would now be £340,000. However, there will be no increases for some while. In his final Budget, Mr Darling announced that the nil rate band would remain frozen at £325,000 until 5 April 2015.

As part of the Coalition Agreement, this promised freeze has been carried over by the new government. From 2015/16 it will rise in line with the CPI. With inflation now running at over 5%, the standstill in the nil rate band will potentially bring more people into the IHT net and increase the amount that they have to pay.

The one easement the Chancellor offered IHT payers was that a reduced rate of 36% (instead of 40%) will apply on estates where:

death occurred after 5 April 2012; and

at least 10% of the net taxable estate is left to charity.

Further details are awaited, but initial calculations show that this option will save less in tax than it will cost the beneficiaries in terms of lost inheritance. Ironically, it may result in a short-term loss of income to charities, as the change creates an incentive to defer charitable gifting until death.

The Chancellor said nothing about reform of IHT, even though his Office of Tax Simplification had called for radical review of the tax. Mr Osborne’s silence may have been designed to discourage preventive action. It is hard to see that any restructuring of IHT would make the treatment of lifetime gifts more favourable than it is at present.

Time to review your estate planning

The introduction of the transferable nil rate band in October 2007 made inheritance tax planning considerably simpler for many married couples. It is no longer necessary to ensure that your nil rate band is used on first death to minimise IHT liabilities. As some families are now discovering, the reform can result in significantly reduced IHT bills for widows (and widowers), even if their spouse died many years ago.

Not everybody benefited from the change. If you had already planned (and had the resources) to use the nil rate band on first death, you were no better off as the result of the introduction of transferability. If you are not married, you cannot benefit, other than as a widow/widower.

If you have not reviewed your estate planning and Wills since October 2007, you should do so now. It may be that no change needs to be made to your existing arrangements but, as ever with estate planning, it is better to be safe than sorry. Even though a revised plan may not reduce your IHT bill, it could simplify estate administration by, for example, removing the need to include a complex trust in your Will.

Regular and out of income....

There are three yearly exemptions which are available for IHT planning:

The £3,000 annual exemption. Any unused part of this exemption can be carried forward one tax year, but it must then be used after the £3,000 exemption for that year. So, for example, if you made a gift of £1,000 covered by the annual exemption in 2010/11, you can makes gifts totalling £5,000 covered by the annual exemption in 2011/12.

The £250 small gifts exemption. You can make as many outright gifts of up to £250 per individual per tax year as you wish free of IHT, provided that the recipient does not also receive any part of your £3,000 annual exemption.

The normal expenditure exemption. Any gift that you make is exempt from IHT if:

- it forms part of your normal expenditure; and

- taking one year with another it is made out of income; and

- it leaves you with sufficient income to maintain your usual standard of living.

The normal expenditure exemption is often forgotten. You may be making regular gifts which you think are covered by the £3,000 exemption, but which could actually count under normal expenditure, leaving your £3,000 exemption intact. For example, if you pay premiums for a life policy held under trust, such payments frequently satisfy all the conditions to be treated as normal expenditure, leaving the £3,000 exemption available for other gifts.

Discipline: Your Secret Weapon

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Working with markets, understanding risk and return, diversifying and portfolio structure—we've heard the lessons of sound investing over and over. But so often the most important factor between success and failure is ourselves.

The recent rocky period in financial markets has brought to the surface some familiar emotions for many, including a strong urge to try to time the market. The temptation, as always, is to sell into falling markets and buy into rising ones.

What's more, the most seemingly "well-informed" people—the kind who religiously read the financial press and watch business television—are the ones who feel most compelled to try and finesse their exit and entry points.

This suspicion that "sophisticated" investors are the most prone to try and outwit the market was given validity recently by a study, carried out by London-based Ledbury Research, of more than 2,000 affluent people around the world.¹

The survey found 40 per cent of those questioned admitted to practising market timing rather than pursuing a buy-and-hold strategy. Yet the market timers were more than three times more likely to believe they traded too much.

"On the face of it, you might think that those who were trading more actively would be more experienced, sophisticated and able to control themselves," the authors said. "But that seems not to be the case—trading becomes addictive."

This perspective has been reinforced recently by one of the world's most respected policymakers and astute observers of markets—Ian Macfarlane, the former governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia and now a director of ANZ Banking Group.

In a speech in Sydney², Macfarlane made the point that the worst investors tend to be those who follow markets and the financial media fanatically, extrapolating from short-term movements big picture narratives that fit their predispositions.

"Most people experience loss aversion," he said. "They experience more unhappiness from losing $100 than they gain in happiness from acquiring $100. So the more often they are made aware of a loss, the unhappier they become."

Because of this combination of hyper-activity, lack of self-control and loss-aversion, investors end up making bad investment decisions, Macfarlane noted.

These behavioural issues and how they impact on investors are well documented by financial theorists. Commonly cited traits include lack of diversification, excessive trading, an obstinate reluctance to sell losers and buying on past performance.³

Mostly, these traits stem from over-confidence. Just as we all tend to think we are above-average in terms of driving ability, we also tend to over-rate our capacity for beating the market. What's more, this ego-driven behaviour has been shown to be more prevalent in men than in women.

A study quoted in The Wall Street Journal⁴ showed women are less afflicted than men by over-confidence and are more likely to attribute success in investment to factors outside themselves – like luck or fate. As a result, they are more inclined to exercise self-discipline and to avoid trying to time the market.

The virtues of investment discipline and the folly of 'alpha'-chasing are highlighted year after year in the survey of investor behaviour by research group Dalbar. The latest edition showed in the 20 years to the end of December 2010, the average US stock investor received annualised returns of just 3.8 per cent, well below the 9.1 per cent delivered by the market index, the S&P 500.⁵

What often stops investors getting returns that are there for the taking are their very own actions—lack of diversification, compulsive trading, buying high, selling low, going by hunches and responding to media and market noise.

So how do we get our egos and emotions out of the investment process? One answer is to distance ourselves from the daily noise by appointing a fee-only financial advisor to help stop us doing things against our own long-term interests.

An advisor begins with the understanding that there are things we can't control (like the ups and downs in the markets) and things we can. Some of the things we can control including ensuring our investments are properly diversified—both within and across asset classes—ensuring our portfolios are regularly rebalanced to meet our long-term requirements, keeping costs to a minimum and being mindful of taxes.

Most of all, an advisor helps us all by encouraging the exercise of discipline—the secret weapon in building long-term wealth.

1. 'Risk and Rules: The Role of Control in Financial Decision Making', Barclays Wealth, June 2011

2. 'Far Too Much Economic News for Our Own Good', Ross Gittins, Sydney Morning Herald, June 13, 2011

3. Barberis, Nicholas and Thaler, Richard, 'A Survey of Behavioral Finance', University of Chicago

4. 'For Mother's Day, Give Her the Reins to the Portfolio', Wall Street Journal, May 9, 2009

5. '2011 QAIB', Dalbar Inc, March 2011

Jim Parker, Vice President of Dimensional Fund Advisers

Businesses and pension tax relief

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

It may not always be clear that the structure of a business can affect how employer pension contributions are tax relieved. But it’s important to understand these issues because employers are offered valuable tax incentives to encourage them to make pension contributions on behalf of their employees. Apart from the obvious benefit of helping employees build retirement funds, employer contributions should help to aid staff recruitment, retain staff and foster employee loyalty.

However, before looking at how business structures affect the type of tax relief received it’s useful to consider the tax relief treatment of personal, third party and employer pension contributions.

Contributions & tax relief

Personal contributions

Personal contributions are given income tax relief, in the year of contribution, at the individual’s highest marginal rate of tax.

• Up to 100% of relevant UK earnings (RUEs) or £3,600 (whichever is greater).

• But capped by the 2011/12 annual allowance of £50,000, plus the individual’s available carry forward allowance.

Generally a personal contribution receives basic rate income tax relief at source. Any higher and additional rate income tax relief is claimed from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC), through the self-assessment tax return or by adjustment to an individual’s tax code.

Third party contributions

Contributions made on behalf of a member by other individuals and entities (not their employer) are treated as though the member made them. Income tax relief is granted on the same basis as for a personal contribution. The donor of the third party contribution is making a gift and will not personally receive any tax relief in respect of the contribution.

Compensation payments

Compensation or redress payments awarded as a result of:

• mis-selling of a pension scheme or

• mis-selling of a pension-related product (relating to investment advice for example)

can be treated as tax relievable third party contributions on behalf of the member receiving the compensation payment. This is subject to the compensation being paid directly or indirectly into the individual’s pension arrangement.

Complaint handlers and advisers should always check the tax relief position with the pension provider in relation to any specific case, before making any compensation award.

Employer contributions

All employers, even sole traders and partnerships, can make pension contributions on behalf of their employees. Employer pension contributions are normally granted tax relief

• subject to the wholly and exclusively test.

Important considerations in relation to this test and employer pension contributions are:

- for employees other than controlling directors the commercial viability of employer pension contributions as part of employees’ overall remuneration packages.

- for controlling directors their input / contribution to the company’s profitability / success.

• in the accounting year of contribution if it is an allowable business expense.

In most cases corporation tax relief will be granted. However, where the local inspector of taxes can demonstrate there is a non-trade purpose for the employer contributions under the ‘wholly and exclusively’ test they can challenge the deduction of contributions against corporation tax.

HMRC may pay greater attention where an employer contribution is being paid for a spouse of a self-employed individual or a director, to ensure the wholly and exclusively test is satisfied. It may be prudent to limit the employer contribution so that the spouse’s overall remuneration package is restricted to a commercially viable level for the role they perform.

An employer does not pay an annual allowance tax charge where their contributions exceed employees’ available annual and carry forward allowances. It is up to employees to settle any annual allowance tax charges, arising from both their and their employer’s pension contributions, through their self-assessment tax return.

Types of business – how tax relief is received on employer pension contributions

The above illustrates the levels of tax relief that can be received on contributions made from different sources. However, a company structure in itself can affect how, and on whose behalf, pension contributions can be made.

Limited companies

A limited company can make pension contributions on behalf of all its employees, including its irectors, with no reference to the employees’ RUEs or their available annual allowance. Corporation tax relief is received by treating eligible pension contributions as an allowable business expense within the company’s accounts, reducing its liability to corporation tax.

Sole traders

This is the simplest form of business. The business is inseparable from the individual who sets it up. The individual is therefore self employed and bears the personal liability for all debts and obligations of the business. The business does not have a separate legal personality.

As sole traders are self employed they do not have an employer to make pension contributions on their behalf. They can only make individual pension contributions. These contributions are limited for tax relief purposes as stated above. The sole trader’s RUEs are defined as their assessable or pre-tax profit. If the sole trader employs other individuals and pays employer pension contributions on their behalf then they are tax relievable as a business expense against the sole trader’s pre-tax profits as outlined above. Of course the sole trader’s own RUEs will then be lower as a result

Partnerships

In England and Wales, like a sole trader, a partnership does not have a separate legal personality. The partners are carrying on a business in common with a view to profit and are self employed.

In Scotland, partnerships, although similar in character to partnerships in England & Wales, have a separate legal personality to some degree. However, partners in Scottish partnerships are treated in the same way for tax purposes as their counterparts in England and Wales – they are self employed. As partners are self employed they don’t have an employer to make pension contributions on their behalf. Partners can only make individual contributions for themselves limited for tax relief purposes as stated above. Partners’ RUEs will be their share of the partnership’s taxable profit.

Partnerships are able to make employer contributions on behalf of their employees as outlined previously. These contributions are deductible as a business expense from the partnership’s pre-tax profits.

Salaried partners or a partner who receives a salary

Some partnerships include salaried partners within their structure. These individuals appear to be partners but in most cases are actually employees of the partnership. If a partner does not share in the distribution of profits and receives a salary it is likely that they will be considered as an employee of the partnership. Conversely, some partners can appear to be receiving a salary. However, this is usually a method of allocating a share of the profits among partners and doesn’t necessarily mean that they are employed.

Some partnership structures can be quite complex and it’s important to confirm the status of the client (employed or self-employed) and their income with their accountant. It is also useful to bear in mind that a client’s status could change; an employee could become a partner of a business they work in or a sole trader or partnership could incorporate as a limited company.

Limited liability partnerships (llps)

An LLP is similar in structure to a partnership but contains features in common with a limited company. For instance an LLP has a separate legal personality, which limits the partners’ liabilities to losses. However, the tax regime for partners of an LLP remains the same as for traditional partners. Like a partnership, an LLP can have employees and its features do not change the self-employed status of the partners. So the comments regarding partnership contributions above equally apply to an LLP.

Final thoughts

We can see that employer contributions on behalf of employees by all types of company are normally tax relievable if the contributions are a genuine business expense, subject to satisfying the wholly & exclusively test, at the discretion of the local inspector of taxes.

Limited companies have most flexibility in making employer contributions on behalf of employees – a feature that many company directors use to their advantage when organising their remuneration and pension planning.

IFA Spotlight: Tina Weeks on Life Planning, Twitter and Project Eve

Thu, 02 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Professional Adviser’s IFA Personality of the Year Tina Weeks talks to Laura Miller about why financial planners are not meditating hippies and her plans to take life planning to the masses.

Tina Weeks is on a mission. After two years hard graft transforming her mortgage business into North London’s Serenity Financial Planning, she is targeting a dramatic growth in client numbers this year.

But as part of a niche group in the market – she was the UK’s first female financial life planner, and is still just one of a few hundred practitioners – she has a problem.

“The public don’t know people like me exist. The majority don’t really understand financial planning, let alone financial life planning,” she said. Weeks’ solution is to fill the public’s knowledge gap with her message about advice and conquer market share while debates on independent and restricted post-RDR are still in flux.

Social media

Social media –which offers cheap, quick, and direct access to millions of potential clients – is one part of Weeks’ aggressive marketing strategy to convince the public it needs her services.

“We’re at a point of monumental change in our industry. People ask me what’s the point of social media? Well, it has helped raise my profile, get new clients, and increase the people I can spread the message to. It has been hugely beneficial.”

Weeks has over 6,300 Twitter followers across @SerenityTweets (her client twitter account) and @TheFinanceCoach (her industry twitter account), and tweets regularly to cultivate her client base.

In an UK IFA industry first, she now uses Quick Response (QR) codes on her website, at her seminars and client networking events to provide additional information and services to clients on their mobiles. QR codes can be used to display the latest updates of text, video, PowerPoint presentations, website URLs, and PDFs. Every brand from Pepsi to Radio 1 is using them to talk to customers.

She also uses Foursquare, a location-linked web application which allows users to digitally and publicly check in and out of places and recommend them to others. It offers little direct benefit to clients, but is a useful b2c marketing tool for advisers as it creates a sense of community and imitates traditional word of mouth referrals. Weeks admits adopting social media requires “a lot of trial and error”, and constant evolution. A revamped Serenity Financial Planning website is back this month after Weeks took it offline to overhaul its functionality. The site now gives clients online access to their financial life plans and investments. Clients can upload documents to a secure area to store for future reference or share with the Serenity team.

Visitors can use the site’s ‘Ask the Experts’ feature to communicate and interact with each other and get answers on the site or privately. “I want visitors to feel the website is for them. Consumers don’t want to be sold to. We’ve flipped that on its head now. We focus so much more on what fires them up and what they’re passionate about. I hardly ever talk about the money,” Weeks said.

Online sharing has also changed how Weeks interacts with her peers. Industry conferences charge hundreds of pounds for just a couple of opportunities a year to network. Weeks has discussions online in seconds, any time, at virtually no cost and with fewer office hours lost.

Project Eve

Weeks still attends the Institute of Financial Planning events but admits she has stopped going to other industry events because new ideas are often suppressed by ‘whinging’ about the RDR.

“The RDR is accelerating a natural evolution. You either adapt and make it work for you, or not.”

Instead, Weeks has teamed up with a circle of “positive, excited, enthusiastic people” to fire-up demand for financial life planning, beyond its limited stereotype of high net worths. Project Eve may sound like a Cold War military operation, but it is Weeks’ latest campaign to drum up business by proselytising to the masses about the virtues of financial advice.

It is the brain child of Bruce Wilson, the former Helm Godfrey managing director, Adam Young of Dragonfly Financial Planning, Jeremy Deedes of Planning for Life, Dennis Hall of Yellowtail Financial Planning and James Harvey of James Harvey Associates.

Project Eve’s strategy is to get the public to free workshops – the first was in London in December – to find out “what financial life planners do, how we do it, how they can get access to it”.

Weeks said: “Most people spend more on eating out than they do on their financial planning. It’s a matter of priorities. The workshops will expand the knowledge and education of the general consumer base, and hopefully financial life planning will become accessible to more people as we go on, which in turn helps everyone within the advice industry.”

At the moment, the Project Eve team work pro bono, seeing the effort as a way of giving back by enhancing the financial education of consumers. They hope the knock-on effect of having more advice-savvy consumers will also help grow the potential client base for all advisers. After some initial sponsorship from UBS, the team want more support from the banking sector and the government to set Project Eve up as a charity, with a nationwide network of advisers hastening the mass market conversion to financial life planning “so the word gets spread a bit quicker”.

Weeks is keen to emphasise financial life planning is not just for HNW individuals. A client she saw recently was 25yrs old, on £28,000, with no savings, investments or pensions but was keen to put a financial life plan in place, so Weeks adapted the process to meet her needs. “The client had less face to face time with me but was still able to get the plan in place she needed at a price she could afford.” While the general public are mulling the idea, Weeks is looking to run a series of her own financial planning “taster” sessions, designed to find paying clients who want to work with her now.

Banishing stereotypes

Underpining all Weeks’ campaigning is banishing the myths around financial advice and the people who give it, from images of high pressure salesman to meditating life planning hippies. “I know both sides. I spent three years at Allied Dunbar where they tried to get new people to take on a lot of debt because they thought it would make me hungrier to work harder. It was my baptism of fire, but it was a different world to the one we live in now.”

“At the other end of the spectrum, life planning is so hard to explain to people, including other advisers. We don’t all have to be hippies and Buddhists and meditate all the time. It’s just about learning customer skills, how to communicate with another person in an understanding, non-judgmental way.”

Weeks says Serenity Financial Planning is still a work in progress “but I’m almost there”.

“It already looks the way I want it to look, I just want it to be bigger. I’m having the time of my life right now. It gives me such a buzz to see clients come out of my office all buzzed and ready to go. I never thought this job could be like this.”

Weeks’ words of wisdom

Clients must like you

Clients have to tell me really personal things. They must be able to feel comfortable and trust me. If you’re talking to me and you’re thinking ‘I don’t like her’, it’s not going to work.

Outsource everything

Going from a mortgage firm, to financial planning, to financial life planning, I needed the freedom to not be tied into paying salaries and huge expenses. Now I outsource everything – paraplanners, compliance, investment research, admin, accounts.

Get and stay slick

I want to systemise every process, so I can hand new staff a manual for that part of the business and say ‘This is how we do it here, my way’. In an efficiently run business everything is replicable, scalable, nothing is a surprise.

Stick with it

The transition has been a huge learning curve and probably the lowest part of my career. But it is also the highest. Every day my business is becoming more like the picture I had in my mind. If I can do it, from almost a standing start in two and a half years, then anybody can.

Aspirations

I’m documenting everything we do to create almost the prototype of the ideal financial life planning business. Peers could adjust it to what suits them. I would like to write a book on transformation, because that applies to so many areas of my life. Transformation – that might be what I call my book.

Diary of an IFA: Tina Weeks

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 15:50:41 +0000

Tina Weeks, financial life planner for Serenity Financial Planning, spends her week rushing between Oxford, Tower Hill, Curzon Street, Moorgate and Pall Mall - all the while juggling clients, children and the latest 'apps'.

Monday

I spend a day in the office tackling my long to-do list. First job is to restore 'inbox zero' status which is easy now we use 'gmail' apps.

I then spend a couple of hours putting together a detailed proposition for a new GPPP and then send Cathi, my paraplanner two new cases I need her to prepare; a new pension comparison case and an update to a financial plan. Plus, I send her everything she needs so that she can fully prepare everything I need for a client meeting on Thursday. I send out a proposal email to a new client and realise I have been going non-stop all day. The kids are safely deposited with my mum as Darren and I are out at a dinner party tonight.

Tuesday

Despite a late night last night I am out the door by 7am to get to Oxford in time for the Institute of Financial Planning's CFP conference. I am there representing the IFP events committee as I am not actually a CFP myself yet.

It was a fantastic day with superb content. Well worth the trip. I am doing my CFP exam over the summer so hopefully I will attend as a CFP in my own right next year, determined not to miss the next one.

I picked up a few nuggets and I will use what I have learned to make positive changes within the business. I even managed quite a bit of tweeting too which has been sparse lately. The day ended up with a lovely dinner for all the delegates and after some great conversation it was off to bed for me.

Wednesday

I drove back from Oxford, arriving back in the office mid-morning. I had loads of post to catch up with and 'inbox zero' restored once again with minimal effort. Signed up for 'remember the milk' and will use that as my task list from now on. It seems pretty good and I love the way it syncs with my iPhone and iPad.

I went with the husband to do the school run and the kids were very excited to see me after my trip.

Thursday

I was up early to be at the Vanguard symposium in Tower Hill for 8.45am. Really good sessions but also a great opportunity to meet up with other advisers and share ideas.

I have only a couple of hours afterwards to get some work done and also to familiarise myself with the prep Cathi has done for my client appointment at 6.30pm today. I make sure I spend time going through the answers to their three questions too as I am planning to do a combined vision and obstacles meeting tonight.

I then rush off to Curzon St for a meeting with the Project Eve gang and UBS. We are discussing making project Eve a charity and UBS have got Paul Palmer (a highly regarded figure in the area of philanthropy and charity work) in to talk to us about it. We decide that it is the best way forward.

I leave the meeting early and run to the Moorgate office for my client meeting. It turned out to be a fantastic meeting where once again I marvel at the positive impact that life planning has on my clients. I do not get back home till 9.30 and the kids are already asleep, so a quick dinner then bed for me.

Friday

The day did not start off too well as I got the news that I failed AF3. I am completely gutted as I felt so confident about it. It reminded me of a Mike Tyson quote I heard at the Vanguard Conference yesterday: "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face". I have passed R01, R04 and CF8 so far this year. I guess it will take a little bit longer to get Chartered now but there is no giving up.

I spent all afternoon with 18 other registered life planners, or RLPs, discussing how we were going to form a group where we could share ideas and best practice but also support and encourage each other in our life planning work.

Bruce Wilson and I suggested to the group that instead of forming a new group we merge the new group with Project Eve. Everyone was very enthusiastic and we decided to call the new group the Financial Life Planning Foundation.

Perfectly timed, I get a welcome email from Jaime who does my website with a preview or our new marketing video. It is great and I am really excited about it.

We then all move on the IoD in Pall Mall for the graduation ceremony of the two latest groups of registered life planners, with certificates being handed out by George Kinder himself. It was a wonderful evening full of passion and excitement for Financial Life Planning and I went home with renewed energy and enthusiasm.

Junior ISA's - the latest news

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The government has announced more details about the tax-free children’s savings account, known as the ‘Junior Individual Savings Account’ or ‘Junior ISA’. Read on to find out about the new features.

What is a Junior ISA?

The Junior ISA will offer parents a new, tax-free way to save for their child’s future. However, unlike the Child Trust Fund account (which has been closed to children born on or after 3 January 2011), the government will not make any payments into the new accounts.

The new features of the Junior ISA are:

children living in the UK who do not have a Child Trust Fund account will be able to have a Junior ISA
people will be able to put money into a cash account or ‘stocks and shares’ account
each child will be able to have one cash and one ‘stocks and shares’ Junior ISA at any one time
there will be a total yearly limit of £3000 for all payments into these accounts
accounts will become ISAs when the child is 18

As with Child Trust Funds, the following will apply to Junior ISAs:

the accounts will belong to the child and they are not able to get the money out until they are 18
any money the accounts make will be tax free
a range of banks, building societies, credit unions, friendly societies and stock brokers will offer Junior ISA accounts

When will Junior ISA be available?

The government is still finalising the rules for Junior ISAs and will publish these in the summer. The first new accounts are expected to be available in autumn 2011.