The Six Stages of Financial Planning – 3-5 March 2020 Manchester

Taina Austin

March 3, 2020 9:30 am - March 5, 2020 4:30 pm The Victoria, 29 Stamford Street, Altrincham, Manchester, Cheshire, WA14 1EX

Who is the course for?

This course is designed for anyone who wants to improve their ability as a Financial Planner. It is relevant for Certified Financial Planners and non Certified Financial Planners.

This is, we believe, the only course which teaches you the ‘how’ of being a Financial Planner.
For those planning to sit the Certified Financial Planners’ license in future, this will provide the underlying knowledge required to complete the case study assessment. It will not prepare you for the Level 6 exam, nor will it cover specific ‘Exam Skills’. We will release an exam skills training in due course.

Who is it not for?

This course is not for people looking to enhance their academic knowledge.
This course is not for people who want to improve cashflow modelling software skills. Cashflow (Voyant) will feature throughout the course and this important part of the process will be dealt with but this is not a software user group!

What pre-existing knowledge is required?

Whilst not a pre-requisite, holding a regulated diploma or a similar level of financial qualification will allow you to get the best out of the course.
Having a good grasp of how to use your chosen cashflow modelling software is essential (even if you use Excel).

What does it cover?

The Six Stages of Financial Planning course runs across three days and follows the Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB) six stage process: Establish, Collect, Analyse, Develop, Implement and Review.

The three days are built round FPSBs requirements under each of the headings.

Day 1:

Engagement

The financial planning professional informs the client about the financial planning process, the services the financial planning professional offers, and the financial planning professional’s competencies and experience. The financial planning professional and the client determine whether the services offered by the financial planning professional and his or her competencies meet the needs of the client. The financial planning professional considers his or her skills, knowledge and experience in providing the services requested or likely to be required by the client. The financial planning professional determines if he or she has, and discloses, any conflict(s) of interest. The financial planning professional and the client agree on the services to be provided. The financial planning professional describes, in writing, the scope of the engagement before any financial planning is provided, including details about: the responsibilities of each party (including third parties); the terms of the engagement; and compensation and conflict(s) of interest of the financial planning professional. The scope of the engagement is set out in writing in a formal document signed by both parties or formally accepted by the client and includes a process for terminating the engagement.

The course will work through the requirements in detail and the practicalities of providing this service. We will discuss an engagement process that both meets the FPSB’s requirements but also delivers a client experience to be proud of.

Data gathering

The financial planning professional and the client identify the client’s personal and financial objectives, needs and priorities that are relevant to the scope of the engagement before making and/or implementing any recommendations. The financial planning professional collects sufficient quantitative and qualitative information and documents about the client relevant to the scope of the engagement before making and/or implementing any recommendations.

What is sufficient information? What happens if we don’t do this properly? This session is key to building the plan and the successful relationship thereafter.

Day 2:

Analyse

The financial planning professional analyses the client’s information, subject to the scope of the engagement, to gain an understanding of the client’s financial situation. The financial planning professional assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the client’s current financial situation and compares them to the client’s objectives, needs and priorities.

How do we challenge the information that clients give us?
What areas of Financial Management should be addressed including Income and Expenditure analysis, Income Tax calculations and Net Worth calculations?
How do we ensure that our assumptions for inflation, wages growth, care costs, school fees, university costs etc are reasoned, reasonable and appropriate?

How is this done in a consistent and repeatable way? What is important and what is noise in the analysis?

Develop and build the plan

The financial planning professional considers one or more strategies relevant to the client’s current situation that could reasonably meet the client’s objectives, needs and priorities; develops the financial planning recommendations based on the selected strategies to reasonably meet the client’s confirmed objectives, needs and priorities; and presents the financial planning recommendations and the supporting rationale in a way that allows the client to make an informed decision.

How do we ensure that our assumptions for expenses change, need for care, treatment of properties etc are reasoned, reasonable and appropriate? How do we address shortfalls and ‘unachievable aspirations’ of clients? We will explore the basis upon which plans are made to provide comfort and reassurance that plans are robust.

Day 3:

Implement

The financial planning professional and the client agree on implementation responsibilities that are consistent with the scope of the engagement, the client’s acceptance of the financial planning recommendations, and the financial planning professional’s ability to implement the financial planning recommendations. Based on the scope of the engagement, the financial planning professional identifies and presents appropriate product(s) and service(s) that are consistent with the financial planning recommendations accepted by the client.

How do we develop solutions that reflect the assumptions made in the plan? How do we correlate the investment return required by the plan to the risk profile of the client and how does this match the product / investment solution (if required)?

Review / forward planning

The financial planning professional and client mutually define and agree on terms for reviewing and re-evaluating the client’s situation, including goals, risk profile, lifestyle and other relevant changes. If conducting a review, the financial planning professional and the client review the client’s situation to assess progress toward achievement of the objectives of the financial planning recommendations, determine if the recommendations are still appropriate, and confirm any revisions mutually considered necessary.

The Financial Planning’s success is dependent on a long term relationship with a client but what does that relationship involve and where is the ongoing value for the client?

 

Facilitators: Steve Martin, Damien Rylett – find out more

Venue: The Victoria, 29 Stamford Street, Altrincham, Manchester, Cheshire, WA14 1EX