Is it worth bothering with?
This week has been Financial Planning Week, which has primarily been promoted by the Institute of Financial Planning (IFP) led by the very able Nick Cann.
The whole basis of the campaign is to raise awareness of how important Financial Planning is to your life. It’s not just for the wealthy; it’s for everyone, whatever your financial situation.
Putting some simple financial plans in place and making some smart decisions to help achieve your goals and dreams in life is the first step towards really taking control of your life and gaining valuable peace of mind.

Unfortunately in this country the media have a habit of publishing and dwelling on the negative, as bad news sells as they say and even this week we have seen and heard some of the despicable events surrounding the way the media has behaved.
Don’t get me wrong I believe the media have a duty to publish information and it is often down to us as to how we interpret it.

Despite all the turmoil over the last few years in the economy and the financial services industry, there is a lot of good news that doesn’t get published or promoted, not just in our profession but in other industries as well.

The reason why I believe Financial Planning Week 2011 is worth bothering with, is beacause its a breath of fresh air and is born from a desire to help and the motivation behind it is to remind people that they have to start planning now and its positive news.
Instead of always printing the negative and bad news, wouldn’t it be refreshing if the media hunted out good news stories like-

“and this week Mrs. Smith received a lump sum of £150,000 from her dead husbands Life Assurance policy who sadly died in a car crash .Though the money from the policy has helped her children complete their university education and keep a roof over their head” or in another story “Mr. & Mrs. Jones have today paid off their mortgage and Mr. Jones has retired early due to careful planning and saving in the right areas” and how about the “English teacher who has today retired after 40 years teaching and is supplementing her taxed pension income with the Tax Free income from her ISA & PEP savings she was told to start by her adviser in 1987”-

“and finally in another story after being out of work for 5 years, Mr. Williams has sadly been made redundant again due to economic conditions, but thankfully this time his mortgage is getting paid by a redundancy policy he took out”- Reporting like that , would be a ‘Carlsberg Media’ I guess!

As an engaged, intelligent and literate person you may still be reading and my guess is you know and understand that we all have to speed read or sieve through the chaff to get to the wheat in the media and the IFP this week have been promoting the benefits of how essential it is as an individual to take responsibility for you and yours and deal with your financial planning goals now! And how to do this.

There are a lot of horror stories and cases of people being ill-advised, not just by large so called financial services companies, but also by the smaller advisers. Thankfully you can rest assured knowing that these are in the minority and the vast majority of Independent Financial Advisers/Planners are hard working, honest, and ethical professionals, helping people across the whole spectrum of lifestyles.

I am and my company are, proud this week to help promote Financial Planning Week 2011, as I am in a profession that has positively contributed to peoples life this week and in previous weeks and god willing in many weeks to come.
Over the years, I have sadly seen clients die; though have also seen the benefit of Life Assurance policies ease the financial burden. I have also had clients who have had strokes, heart attacks and got cancer and been paid out from Critical Illness policies. I have had clients save for retirement and are now enjoying the benefits of planning ahead and I have seen the pleasure in clients faces when they have paid their mortgage off early, through good planning.

The amount paid out through critical illness and life insurance in 2010 according to data published from the Association of British Insurers was of £1.9 billion, to more than 40,000 families and individuals through critical illness (CI) and life insurance policies. The average amount paid in 2010 was £47,166, which is almost double the UK average salary.
Financial planning really is worth it, not just this week and if you do one thing this weekend, it should be to get your Financial Advisers phone number and give them a ring and arrange to see them to chat about your future.

http://www.unbiased.co.uk/ &  http://www.financialplanning.org.uk/ can also help