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Why should you see a financial advisor? (Manila)

In the Guardian newspaper recently it reported, "Aviva, the insurer and pensions provider, claims millions of people earning the average wage of £27,500 run the risk of retiring on a pension of far less than £15,000, the equivalent of the current national living wage."

The Daily Mail reported on new research by the World Economic Forum stating, "Economists have warned that British pensioners could run out of money 10 years before they die and will simply have to earn more if they want a comfortable retirement."

Whilst moneywise.co.uk reported on an ING international survey that,
"54% of Brits will need to keep earning in their retirement.
13% believe they will have to work the rest of their lives.
58% will not have enough money for retirement."

These figures are a huge worry to many Brits as well as Nationals for most other countries. However many expatriates are still not doing enough to plan for their financial future and retirement. Often basing their financial security on what they thought they needed in the past or what they would need to enjoy their life today and not factoring in the cost of inflation and rising cost of their life in the future. Many also feel safe in the knowledge that they saw an advisor some time ago. In fact a rising number of people have no defined goals for the future, simply living in the "now" and subsequently have no plans in place to ensure those goals become a reality, and that they have financial security for their future.

The question I often find myself asking is, what happens if you get to retirement and you had no plan, what if you find out the choices that you made were wrong?

What do you do when it's too late to act?

Why should you see an independent financial advisor?

An independent financial advisor's role is to help you create wealth and protect the wealth that you have in place. They will help you secure your financial future.
Seeing an independent financial advisor will ensure that-

1- Together you understand what your financial goals are whilst also making sure they are realistic. They will work with you to put a strategic plan together to help your goals become a reality. After all what is the point of a goal if you have no plan of how to get there?

2- You have access to many different financial institutions with different financial programs. They will help you build and find the right investment vehicle to meet YOUR specific needs. When dealing with only one provider you are simply offered the only solution available.

3- Your financial plans and investment portfolio is still relevant to todays markets and is on track to achieve your goals. After all what your goals were 5 or 10 years ago may well have changed. Maybe now you are married or have a family or have changed jobs with a different salary. Where there are areas of weakness, a financial advisor can highlight these and help you strengthen. Remember what was right yesterday may not be what is right today, what is right today may not be what is right tomorrow. Financial markets are constantly evolving and changing, with new opportunities, new types of investments becoming available, new funds becoming available.

4- You have a diversified and balanced portfolio. As the old saying goes "you should not put all your eggs in one basket" A financial advisor will work with investment managers to help ensure that you are investing in different asset classes to help control risk and reduce exposure. A central core investment of usually high quality multi-asset funds and possibly a small number of higher risk investments to gain more growth is one way to do this.

5- You have regular performance reviews of your investments, making adjustments with you as your goals or circumstance change or if your portfolio needs to be re-balanced.

6- That the wealth you have in place is protected and tax efficient.

What if you already have a financial advisor?

Often the people I speak to me also tell me that they already have a financial advisor. Does that really give you the security and peace of mind that you should have? As I said earlier, things change, how sure are you that your advisor has access to all the financial investment programs available. How sure are you that the advice you were given before is still what you need now? What was right yesterday may not be what is right today.

When you purchase a new car do you simply buy the same car you bought last time? Or do you see what the latest models are in the market and what the best deal is?

If you don't seek a second opinion on your investments how do you really know you are getting the best performance from your current advisor?
Don't be one of the 54% of people that has to keep working in retirement. If you want to work make sure its by choice.

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