Advice or planning?
How good financial planning can make a difference.

If you have bought insurance or investments from a bank or insurance company, or a commission-based independent financial adviser (IFA), you will be familiar with the way in which tied and independent financial advisers work. Glazers Financial Services Limited has been established to do things differently, offering clients a professional, fee-based service to complement the tax, audit or business advice services offered by Glazers Chartered Accountants.

Ben Gibbs, one of Glazers' financial planners, recently qualified as a Certified Financial Planner. Ben explains, "Financial planning is an idea that developed in the US where clients are perhaps more demanding than in the UK and the legislative framework is slightly different. The basic concept is that everyone needs to look at their financial position, options and requirements clearly and carefully, before looking at a set of solutions. Financial planning is not about buying life insurance or just opening an ISA; it is about looking at your financial position as a whole, drawing up a budget, planning to reduce your tax bill as well as addressing health risks."

So how is this different from what Glazers normally do? "It isn't really, but then you have to remember that we are different to most financial advisers. Getting Certified Financial Planner status is an acknowledgement that you have the technical ability to join a pretty elite band of professionals – there are only about 350 in the UK, you have to have completed six sets of financial exams, or be a qualified accountant or lawyer, and completed a 5,000+ word case study to qualify, and it shows that you are happy to work to ethical principles, not just the regulatory requirements of the Financial Services Authority. You sign up to a charter to look after your clients, something that many financial advisers aren't happy to do."

And how can financial planning make a difference? "A financial plan can be a sort of healthcheck for your finances – confirmation that you have got the right amount of insurance and that your investments are set up correctly, and that your financial affairs are generally in order. Many people want the reassurance that they are doing things right, and have thought of everything that they need to think about, as well good advice as to how to improve their position considering all their options. And that's what we do. We look at the big picture, look at legal and tax issues alongside the investment issues to make sure that everything fits together, and advise where and how it can be improved".

If you would like to find out what financial planning involves and how it could be useful to you, contact Ben on 020 8458 7427.