By Steve Conley, Chartered Financial Planner and founder of the Academy of Life Planning
When you ask for financial advice, what are you actually trying to buy?
Sometimes it’s a very specific thing. You want someone who knows what they’re doing to sit down with you and help you think through a decision. You might have done your own research. You might already have an adviser. You might be quite happy running your own money. You still want a second pair of eyes before you do something that matters.
The last four people who bought a Second Brain Session from me brought four different questions. Here’s how I’d put those questions in their own terms.
“I need a Chartered Financial Planner. I’m happy managing my investments.”
One client is a money coach. She helps other people think about money for a living. When it came to her own financial planning, she wanted someone with experience to help her see what she might be missing. She wanted to keep control of her investments.
That’s a reasonable thing to ask for. You can know a great deal about money and still find it hard to stand back from your own situation. Sometimes the value of a planner is in the question they ask that you hadn’t thought to ask yourself.
“My question is about property. Should I own it personally or through a limited company?”
Another client was weighing up how to own a second property. The first question I’d ask is what he wants the property to do for him. Provide income? Give him flexibility later? Serve a family purpose? The answer affects which trade-offs matter and what figures he needs to compare.
A planner can help you put the property decision in the context of your wider finances. An accountant or solicitor can help you establish what each ownership structure would mean for your circumstances. Starting with your purpose gives you better questions to take to those specialists.
“I think the person managing my investments might be running a scam. What do I do?”
This question asks for a different kind of help. When you suspect a scam, it can be hard to work out whom to trust, especially if the person you’ve been relying on is the person you’re now worried about.
We can start with what happened, what you were told and what you can substantiate. From there it’s easier to identify what needs checking independently and which specialist can help. That’s the kind of problem that led me to create Get SAFE.
“I want to leave my investment manager and run my own money. What would that involve?”
Another client was considering moving a personal pension away from his existing adviser and looking at a small self-administered scheme, or SSAS. There were two decisions in that one question. What did he want to change about his current arrangement? And what would he be taking on under the new one?
Before getting drawn into the mechanics of a move, I’d want to understand which responsibilities he wanted to take on himself and where he would still value help. A planning conversation can help you clarify those questions and identify where regulated pension advice or specialist input may be needed.
What are you paying for?
I spent years combining financial planning with investment intermediation. I stopped doing the regulated work in 2019 and carried on planning. These four clients bought the same £297 service, even though each brought a different problem. The fee bought time to understand the decision, test assumptions and work out the next step. Each client retained control of what to do with that work.
When planning comes bundled with investment management, it can be hard to buy just the conversation you need. A fixed fee for a piece of planning changes what you can ask for. You can turn up with a single problem and decide afterwards whether you need any more help.
There’s a question worth asking before your next meeting with a financial professional. What do I need help deciding, and can I buy that help on its own?
If you have a decision you’d like to think through with me, bring me the problem, not the portfolio.
The Second Brain Session is £297 for 90 minutes of financial planning support, usually across three 30-minute Zoom conversations, with written summary notes. Explore the Second Brain Session.
