How it works
The Financial Planning Process
The Financial Planning Process
To help you navigate the financial labyrinth, at Minos Wealth we provide you with clear, actionable plans that guide you to the life you’ve always wanted.
To do this, we’ve structured our services into some key stages. Here’s a detailed look at how we work for you and with you:
Discovery 𐚯
In the majority of cases, people seek out our help because they have a particular issue or problem they need help with. It might be that you need to change your pension, you’re keen to know how you can improve your income in retirement, or a particular investment isn’t performing as well as expected.
During the discovery process, we ask lots of questions, cover issues that you may not have discussed with anyone else, and listen.
It’s a chance for us to understand the bigger picture of your life, where you want to be in the future, and how the performance of your savings sits at the heart of achieving your goals.
We believe in a holistic approach to financial planning; the best results do not materialise from silos. While your initial inquiry may have been related to your pension, we encourage you to share everything on your mind about your finances so we can fully understand your unique financial situation, goals, and concerns. Only then can we act in good faith on your behalf.
We’ll ask for detailed information about what you’re actually earning, what you’re spending it on, how much you’re left with at the end of each month, and any debts, investments and assets. It’s all part of building up a thorough picture of your financial values and getting an understanding of your specific circumstances.
We understand that discussing your financial affairs involves sharing a lot of sensitive information. But rest assured, from the moment we start communicating, everything we discuss is strictly confidential.
Once we have this comprehensive overview, we can then understand where you currently stand financially, and proceed accordingly.
As a business, we’re proud of our ability to encourage and enable open conversations. Yes, we’re fully regulated financial planners with a wealth of experience and knowledge, but our real strength comes from being able to engage, listen and ask the right questions.
Research 𐚯
All the information we gathered during the Discovery process is plugged into our cash-flow modelling software, from which we can pull any number of graphs, tables, and future projections of earnings, savings and income.
It provides a clear snapshot of your situation, and can be tweaked as necessary to take account of any manner of changes in circumstances, including to take account of the tax consequences of different financial products, such as pensions, ISAs, and others.
At this stage we may well be looking at technical issues around the financial arrangements you have in place already. How does your pension work? What is the consequence of a company or trust structure? We will typically start contacting your existing providers at this stage to get answers out of them.
Depending on the complexity of the issue, a number of personal financial plans may be researched; we do whatever it takes to provide a holistic, comprehensive understanding of your current and potential future scenarios.
Presentation 𐚯
Once the initial research is complete, we sit down again with you to share the scenarios. This is very much a two-way conversation and your feedback is as important as the findings we’re presenting.
Presenting you, the client, with the full picture means you’re properly equipped to make decisions on where to put your money. We can, for example, make adjustments during our conversation to the cash-flow modelling. This could, for instance, show you the impact increasing your pension contributions can have on quality of life in retirement. The idea is to support you to make the best decisions possible regarding your financial affairs by showing you the tangible consequences of the different options.
Drawing on the information gathered during the Discovery stage allows us to make relevant recommendations that will have a positive impact on you reaching a better financial future.
Your plan will include specific steps and decisions for you to approve and/or implement. Again, it’s a two-way conversation, and we want to know what works for you, what sounds achievable and desirable, and what doesn’t.
This process is not simply us telling you what to do; our clients have agency in the plan too.
Implementation 𐚯
Once you have signed off the plan of action, we start work on the technical implementation. This might involve instructing your pension company to act in a particular way, shifting your investments to a different provider, purchasing specific products, or any other technical tasks necessary to achieve your financial goals. We’ll also take into account the fees and charges of certain products, provide comparable alternatives and break down the cost structure.
Whatever action we take will have been clearly laid out for you in a technical report, and if we need to amend the plan, we will discuss the new course of action with you before acting.
Review 𐚯
Financial planning is a long-term, ongoing process.
At Minos Wealth, we provide an annual service to update your plan that reflects both any changes to your personal circumstances and any changes in external factors, namely the UK tax system and significant global events that impact the financial markets.
If there are any changes to be made, we update your plan, review it with you and implement the agreed actions, all with the aim of keeping you on track for your financial goals and ensuring your financial strategy remains relevant and effective.
Some plans may take several years to enact, for instance making use of pension allowances to shield assets from capital gains or income tax. Equally, programmes of gifting for the purposes of estate planning can take time to bear fruit.
At Minos Wealth, we’re here to guide you through the financial labyrinth.