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The importance of a Financial Plan during uncertain times

Once again, our family congregated around the television for our President’s address last night, hoping that the rules may be relaxed a little further, even if just to be allowed to stock up on some wine, see some friends and possibly exercise in the afternoon. It looks like we will need to be patient until the end of the month.

My three sons and I have taken to playing golf during lockdown. We tee off at 4:30 pm every afternoon and play nine holes. Our games last 20 minutes in total, and to date, we have played 47 games. This golf is a little different to the golf we all know, and does not include beautiful fairways and manicured greens. Our holes are the base of the many trees in our garden, and the only club required is a sand wedge.

This time spent with my sons has allowed us to chat about the many aspects of Chartered Wealth. They see me enter my office at 8.30 and emerge again at 4.30, and wonder what it is I do all day.

I explained to them that the core of what we do is ensuring that every client has a RetiremeantTM Plan. You may recall your first meeting at Chartered and remember how, although you wanted to invest some money, we insisted that before you do this, we need to put a plan together. The purpose of the plan, simply put, is to understand what the money is for. In most cases, we work this out together in a life planning discussion. We then work out what return you need on your money to enable you to live the life you aspire to, and then ideally get your money to outlive you. Lastly, we try and understand your risk profile, and ensure that your money is invested appropriately . The critical work is the planning that follows – what we call reviews. I often tell clients that we plan as if that road through life is straight. However, along the way, we are going to experience unexpected events that will require revisiting your plan and adjusting it accordingly.

This Covid-19 virus is one of those unexpected black swan events. These events usually have a significant impact, not only on your money, but on your life too. We have all had first-hand experience of this over the past eight weeks. Our Retiremeant™ and Wealth Specialists have been working hard over this time, trying to reach out to each of you to ensure that your plan is on track and making the necessary changes. It is during these times that importance of a plan is evident as it helps us stick to the longer-term goals and not be distracted by the recent events.

The lockdown moved from a level 5 to a level 4 at the end of April, and with this certain businesses, including Chartered, were allowed to go back to work. However, we have decided that in the interests of our clients and our staff we will continue to work from home for the foreseeable future. We closed the business a week before lockdown when there were 65 confirmed cases and about five new infections a day. It is not prudent to now open our business when there are 12074 cases, and this figure is growing by almost 700 per day.

Thank you to all of our clients who have joined us in adapting to this new online world. Please contact us should you have any questions or concerns. Enjoy your exercise time and stay healthy.

Warm regards
John