Meet Mr and Mrs P

Peter & Mary had been joint directors of a building business for over 30 years and had reached the point in the summer of 2009 where they felt it was time to retire.

Like many couples facing retirement their main concern was ‘had they put enough by to retire and still maintain the lifestyle they had achieved whilst working’?

Fortunately, Peter & Mary had always saved for this time in their lives and had managed to build a decent pension fund as well as taking advantage of their ISA allowances in recent years (Peter was actually a keen investor and, over the years, had bought several investment funds from previous advisers and the internet).

Our starting point for Peter & Mary was to establish what was important to them in retirement and why.  We discussed the things they wanted to do, the places they wanted to go and the lifestyle they wanted to live.

We then analysed their income requirements to identify how much was needed each month/year to provide for this lifestyle.

Once we had a detailed picture of their objectives and the assets they had in place to achieve this we then created a lifetime cashflow forecast.

A lifetime cashflow forecast will show you, based on certain assumptions of inflation, income and expenditure etc how long your money will last.

Peter & Mary’s lifetime cash flow actually revealed that they won’t run out of money, even if they lived to 100!!

This now enabled us to make recommendations that focused more on their quality of life. It enabled Peter & Mary to have peace of mind that comes with being able to see into the future and calculate what will happen to their money and lifestyle based on different decisions.

It enabled us to provide the correct advice on how to take pension benefits and it enabled us to re-balance Peter & Mary’s investments to a portfolio that was not only suitable to their level of risk but also specifically designed to achieve the level of growth required to provide for their needs without having to take unnecessary risks.

Last, but by no means least, we have put in place a review process that ensures Peter & Mary’s finances are always aligned with their goals and requirements with regular updates and review meetings – leaving them to get on with enjoying their retirement with total piece of mind.