November 27, 2020
Article
“Albert Goodman Chartered Financial Planners”. 11 syllables, a bit of a mouthful I agree.
But what do we actually mean? And how is this different from the term “IFA” - or Independent Financial Adviser, which some people may be more familiar with. Firstly, I should clarify that we are Independent Financial Advisers, so let’s just spend a moment to look at the two terms, what we’re talking about, and why we use them.
INDEPENDENT FINANCIAL ADVISER
Independent – we are independent, which means we can recommend products from anywhere in the market. We are not tied, we don’t accept payments from providers to recommend them*, and we don’t get given inducements to select a product. This makes us independent. Financial – we’re looking at your finances, from your pension provision, investments, protection, and a wide range of other areas too. Adviser – we are providing you advice to you on your finances, from holding enough cash for your needs, using the right products, tax, your life stage and protecting against certain eventualities. We have to be regulated to do this.
CHARTERED FINANCIAL PLANNERS
Chartered – this means we have met a number of strict standards, as set out by the Chartered Insurance Institute (see cii.co.uk for more). Not all companies have this high level qualification Planning – this is a key one, and this is why it’s in our name. All of the other aspects of advice really come second to planning. Now more than ever, it’s a time of reassessing where we are from a personal perspective, as well as a financial perspective, and it’s important to look at where we are trying to get to, from a financial perspective.
These are the most important things; when do we want to retire, do we want to move house, or are there big costs coming in the future, what do we want to leave our children? They are the important things in life, and in order to achieve them you have to have a plan in place. A good plan badly executed will be better than a bad plan well executed. Our aim is a good plan, well executed. With this in place, your odds of long term success are high in any environment.
ALBERT GOODMAN
Finally, if you were wondering about the Albert Goodman bit, Albert himself started the Accountancy company in 1866, and relatives of Albert are still known to the company. The Financial Planning arm have been around since 1993. So what should we take from all this? Well we are a highly qualified and authorised team, offering unbiased advice for you to reach your goals. So think about what you’re looking for, what are you trying to achieve, and let your adviser know. We’ll just have to put up with all the words in the meantime. *unless you request that we do.