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Financial planning

What is Financial Planning?

In its simplest sense, Financial Planning involves working out what is most important to you in life (your goals) then, by adding timescales and costs, working out how to plan your finances accordingly.

By matching your finances to your goals you will:

  • Have a much clearer view of where you are going
  • Reduce the stress involved and
  • Be in control

You can start the process of Financial Planning yourself and, by taking some simple steps, you can begin to take control of your finances rather than letting them control you.  Where things start to get more complicated experienced and expert advice becomes necessary, and this is where Bevan & Buckland's Financial Planning department can help.

Specialist & Expert Advice

We specialise in providing advice to existing clients of Bevan & Buckland Chartered Accountants, those introduced to us by other professionals and others who have approached us or been recommended to us directly.  We act for individuals, companies, trusts and charities.  We also work with a number of legal practices, specifically in the areas of Family Law (divorce) and Private Client (including Wills, trusts, probate and elderly client).

Our financial planning service covers a wide range of areas, including:

  • Making sure you have sufficient income and capital in retirement
  • Minimising tax on and maximising returns from investments
  • Maximising the amount your beneficiaries receive from your estate

Financial Planning does not always involve financial products, however in the majority of cases these do form part of the discussions and ultimate solutions.  Some of the products that we commonly find help people with their financial planning include:

  • Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs)
  • Collective investments, such as Unit trusts, OEICs & investment trusts
  • Passive investments, such as tracker funds and ETFs/ETNs
  • Personal pension schemes, including SIPPs, Personal and Stakeholder Pensions
  • Corporate pension schemes, including SSAS' and Executive Pensions (EPPs)
  • Inheritance Tax (IHT) mitigation schemes *
  • Income Tax mitigation schemes *
  • Capital Gains Tax (CGT) mitigation schemes *
  • Long term care fees financing, including the use of investments, annuities, equity release schemes etc.

(*Managed in conjunction with Bevan & Buckland Tax Department)

For larger investments, in appropriate circumstances we employ Discretionary Fund Managers (DFMs) to manage investments for you.  Where a DFM is used we continue to provide the planning service for you, effectively "managing the managers" on an ongoing basis as we would with any other investment.

A Professional Service

If you have dealt with a financial adviser previously you probably paid for their services through commission. Contrary to popular belief, commission-based advice is NOT free!  Commission is either deducted as an explicit charge from the product you are buying, or by the provider increasing the product charges.  Also, in the vast majority of cases we see, clients are not given a choice as to the level of commission paid to the financial adviser. We operate in a different way.

We are a fee-based practice. We will agree the cost of the service that you require with you in advance, and also discuss with you the different methods of paying for our services. This means that you are always aware of how much we are paid and where this money comes from. 

As everyone's needs are different, we also offer different service levels for different types of work. For example, the work involved in providing an opinion on an existing investment portfolio is quite different to assessing and arranging a new one, and our fees reflect this.  Equally, why should someone with £1m to invest pay ten times the amount that someone with £100,000 to invest does, where the work involved is broadly similar.

The vast majority of our clients choose to work with us as they want to deal with a firm that will provide an ongoing service. Whilst we do undertake "one-off" projects where required we prefer to work with our clients year on year to ensure that their financial plans and goals are achieved. All of our fees are structured to reflect this.

If you would like to learn more about why we firmly believe that this is a better way of working we will be happy to discuss this with you.

In-House Expertise

Our Financial Planning Department team is highly experienced and well qualified, with over 50 years' of combined experience.

Gareth Tregidon heads the department, which is based on our Swansea Head Office, although the service is provided through our offices in Swansea, Haverfordwest, Pembroke, Cardiff, Carmarthen, and St David's. 

Gareth has been a Certified Financial PlannerCM professional for over 11 years, and also acts as a national assessor for the CFPCM accreditation in the UK.  He has been Chairman of the Institute of Financial Planning in South Wales since 2006, and is one of only 3 advisers in Wales to have been awarded the "Later Life Adviser Accreditation" by the Society of Later Life Advisers (SOLLA). 

The terms of both the Certified Financial PlannerCM licence and Later Life Adviser Accreditation require the individual to be re-assessed each year, both to ensure that their technical knowledge is maintained and that they continue to adhere to each organisation's strict Code of Ethics. A copy of the Institute of Financial Planning's "Code of Ethics" can be found here. A copy of the Society of Later Life Advisers' "Code of Practice" can be found here.  

Next Steps

As most people like to meet us first before making a decision whether to employ us as your advisers and financial planners, we offer an initial exploratory meeting free of charge. 

This usually takes up to an hour, enables us to discuss your requirements and allows you to assess whether the services we offer are potentially suitable.  Following this meeting, assuming you wish to proceed further, we will write to you with a summary of what was discussed and providing an outline of our fees.  Where you decide to employ us to provide an ongoing service we will agree with you the frequency of the regular reviews of your portfolio. 

Make us your first port of call and we will make sure you receive reliable, professional advice.

If you would like more information please contact Gareth Tregidon or Julie Richards on 01792 410103 or e-mail julie.richards@bevanbuckland.co.uk. 

In offering financial planning services, we are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.