Financial Reviews: JFL Financial Advisors

"The Pension & Investment People"

Independent Irish Financial Advisors

Financial Reviews

Many of us just don’t give ourselves the time to sit back and take stock of our affairs. Where am I now and where am I going? Whether it’s your mortgage or other loan commitments, your savings or pension plans or indeed your Life Cover, it is always useful to sit down and satisfy yourself that you are on the right track. It is even more important that you take time to look at your current circumstances if you have children or someone financially dependent upon you.

A financial review is a very useful exercise in assessing your financial needs. The outcome of the financial review should be a plan or list of actions to be taken to ensure the identified needs are addressed. Our financial reviews are normally carried out in our office but can also be carried out in the comfort of your own home, workplace or convenient meeting place and normally taking about an hour of your time.

The Process

1. Identifying your financial needs and risk profile

The first step in the process is gaining a commitment from you to look at your existing arrangements. If you have the time a little bit of homework in advance of our initial meeting can help the process and it helps tease out your risk preferences and your need priorities.

Ask yourself some questions and write down the answers

Should you have life cover in case of death?
Consider the needs of your partner.
Consider the needs of your children.
Look at your current spending patterns.
Look at any current savings plans
What income will you received if you become sick?
Have you thought about a pension?
What benefits does your employer provide?
Will I need cash lump sums in the future? When? 1 year, 3 years 5 Years?
What loans do you have and for what purpose was the money borrowed?
Have I the best mortgage?
Would I like a second house or holiday home?

During a financial review, all aspects of your finances are reviewed, some of which you may not have considered previously. This is not an exhaustive list but gives you a flavour of areas that we will cover.

2. Prioritise Needs

When we meet we will discuss & agree what financial requirements should be addressed first. We will look at an outline of a plan to match your ongoing needs. Depending on your age, protection needs may take priority over wealth generation needs and pension needs may take preference over retirement plans. We need to clearly agree what exactly are your priorities and make sure the plan we arrive at fits your needs.

3. Recommendations and change

Following the meeting we will review your existing arrangements and needs in detail. We will prepare a plan for the future given your existing and expected income and the level of investment that you can afford to place in the area of protection and savings. This is only a plan and is not set in stone. We will make specific recommendations in relation to your financial needs. We will explain to you the recommended types of products and give you our reasons why those products are most suitable in helping to fulfil your needs.

4. Review the financial plan

Naturally we hope that the recommendations outlined in our financial plan are given due consideration and wherever possible are implemented. But even if the outcome is a small step to protecting you and your dependants, helping you achieve better returns on your investments or enhancing your retirement plans, then you will have made progress. Regular meetings with your advisor will ensure your financial plan is reviewed. You will find that your needs change over time and you may need to make changes to your original plan, review dates are normally agreed on completion of business. Most popular are annual or bi-annual reviews.

If you are interested in a financial review please contact us