Alice

We understand that financial goals are forever changing, especially given the current economic climate. That’s why we have a review meeting with all clients once a year, to make sure their plans align with their current circumstances and they’re on track to hit their targets.

The importance of these meetings was highlighted recently when we met with one of our clients, Alice. One of the main benefits of a review is being able spot opportunities and challenges that weren’t present in previous meetings, and that was exactly the case with Alice.

Changes cause cashflow concerns

When we sat down for our review, we found that after a few unexpected expenses, Alice had paid out much more than originally forecasted, which is common for clients as it is extremely hard to predict one-off expenses! This led to concerns about the sustainability of her income, ultimately, she was worried she would run out of money.

To ease concerns during the meeting, Jack, one of our financial advisors, put together an initial cash flow plan based on her being able to draw flexible, but not guaranteed income from her pension, which she had been investing over the years to secure some growth. This projected that her money would run out when she was 91 years old.

Is annuity the answer?

Once we’d looked at her forecast, the next step was to see how we could improve this, and after discussing a few options, it was decided an annuity was worth looking in to.

An annuity is a secure income that is paid for the rest of your life. You use your pension pot to purchase the annuity and in exchange for this, the provider pays you a monthly income. How high this income payment is largely relies on interest rates, so when interest rates rise, so does your income. That’s why this is a better option for Alice than it would’ve been previously, as these rates are much higher than they have been the past decade.

Jack then followed up the meeting by running some annuity quotes and creating a ‘what if’ scenario so that Alice could see what her cashflow could look like if this was the route she decided to go down.

An advice report was shared with Alice a week before our next meeting so that she could use the time to think of any questions she may have and ask them in the meeting. Jack then ran through the plan during their meeting, compared it with her current one and answered all the questions that Alice had.

No more financial fret!

After the meeting, Alice decided that the new plan that Jack had drawn up would be more suitable for her current situation, so we completed all necessary paperwork to get this implemented.

Alice now has peace of mind that she has enough income to maintain her standard of living for the rest of her life, but what does she think about her experience with Wealth Experts so far? Here’s what she had to say…

“Each meeting I have had with Jack has been very informative and helpful, he explains everything very clearly and, as with all the advisors I’ve spoken to at Wealth Experts, he is looking out for the client all the time to ensure that it is in their best interest. Thank you Jack!”