A financial planner looks at your circumstances in a 'holistic fashion' without reference or need for any financial products. A financial planner often uses 'cash flow forecasting' to look at your current circumstances and makes some reasonable forecasts into the future to help you plan.  

 

A good financial planner will discuss your 'wellbeing', and how this can be enhanced through financial planning by doing things that make you feel good about yourself, your family and your environment. Some outcomes maybe to spend or give away, rather than to save. 

 

A financial advisor tends to be more focused on arranging or dealing with financial products, and may need to arrange financial products to be able to get paid. 

 

No. There are no plans that we are aware of to do this currently. But we can only work with current rules - which the government have the freedom to change at any time. 

 

Financial advice, based upon an individuals circumstances, cannot be provided for free - as it requires time and effort to evaluate your circumstances, and to provide a guarantee to you, that the advice you have been given is correct. When taking advice, an advisor should be able to provide you with a fairly accurate estimate of the cost, before they start any work for you. For instance Bounty normally charge £500 to arrange a complete review of your current and future financial circumstances - and for many people this provides them with the clarity they need to start planning their own lives. Some however may ask us to arrange pensions or ISA's, and so for the research, recommendation and implementation we charge 1% of the sum recommended.  

 

Yes, it is possible to get some financial advice for free, but this will usually be very general. Is the person providing the advice willing to take on the 'liability' for that advice, if they have not been paid for it? There is lots of 'free advice' available on the internet - unfortunately it is hard to know if the advice is correct, or up to date. Some websites like HMRC are very good, with reliable information, but it is rarely tailored to an individuals circumstances - and can be really difficult to interpret. Moneyhelper is a government funded site that provides lots of useful information and guidance, and is a good place to start if you are looking for free help. Free and impartial help with money, backed by the government | MoneyHelper 

 

This is generally recognised as a method of withdrawing cash 'flexibly' from a pension fund - meaning there are more freedoms to choose how much and how often you withdraw. There are less likely to be any 'guarantees' when accessing a pension flexibly, and therefore great care should be taken when withdrawing from a pension using this method. Tax, life expectancy, dependents needs, investment risk, charges, all need factoring into the decision making process - and hence why it often makes sense to use a financial planner when making a decision to withdraw using drawdown.  

 

You are free to retire at any age you like. A financial planner can help you understand how much money you are going to need in your retirement. Knowing this, allows you to decide if you can 'afford' to retire, which is different question. You do not have to wait until 'state pension age' to retire - and you are able to work well beyond state pension age if you want to. The 'new' UK state pension pays £203.85 per week (2023/2024) for those who qualify. Ask yourself if you could 'afford' to retire on this?