Curran Financial Planning Services

Financial Planning is the process of determining whether your current income is sufficient to:

• Meet your current needs, including day to day expenditure and potential ‘rainy day’ requirements
• Provide for your future, both immediate and in the longer term (such as when you retire).

Proper planning must be a bespoke exercise. That is, it must be absolutely dependent on the circumstances of the individual and unique to them. There is no value in the type of band, generic reports generated by most banks and advisory firms.

Too often, people looking for advice receive a type of plan that does nothing more than oblige them to spend money on products rather than focusing on their needs. This is especially the case in instances where the plan is given out for free.

Ultimately, if an advisor can only be paid if their client buys a product, then it can hardly be unexpected if that this is the type of advice they give.

At Curran Financial Services, our philosophy is that the only true advice is that which is fee based. When the relationship between advisor and client is one that does not depend on commission or other sales based remuneration, it instead becomes one based on client needs and financial planning service. This is approach we take.

Planning Your Current Needs And Cashflow Management

Financial planning must, especially in today's climate, forces first and formost on the ability of an individual, family or company to meet their day to day financial obligations. The best way to do this is by designing and implementing a proper budget and cashflow management system.

At Curran Financial Services, in partnership with our clients we do the following:

• Determine likely future income and expenditure
• Prioritise those outgoings that must be addressed and ensure they are as cheap as possible. This includes the likes of insurances, loans and other regular payments such as utilities.
• Negotiate with providers where necessary
• Using powerful mathematical tools we calculate the effects of various changes to income and expenditure and the probabilities of these occurring.

Once we have prepared a suitable plan to secure income against future expenditure, we can move towards Future Planning, and the ultimate goal of financial planning, Financial Independence

Structural Financial Planning: Keeping More Of The Money You Earn

As any business person will tell you, real earnings come not from your turnover, or sales, but instead from the bottom line, your net profit. So it is the case with individuals. Real wealth accumulation comes not from how much you earn, but how much of it ends up in your back pocket as opposed to the tax collectors. While we recognise that there is considerable debate in the political and public spheres around a citizens’ obligation to the state, Curran Financial Services are proud to hold as one of our core philosophies the following tenant:

You have the right to pay as little tax as possible using all legitimate means available to you

This doesn’t mean evading tax, which is a crime. Nor is it a comment on whatever decisions the government of the time makes around the method and degree to which they gather revenue from working individuals. Instead it means that you have a right to use whatever allowed avenues are available to reduce your tax bill to the maximum degree.

Of course, the degree to which you can control your ‘net’ income is dependent on whether you are self employed or otherwise. Those who earn under the PAYE umbrella are considerably more restricted when it comes to using the various shelters available. However at Curran Financial Services we will use all our expertise to ensure that the maximum allowances are used.

For company directors and self employed professionals, there are a considerable number of available structures to maximise ‘back pocket’ income and reduce tax payable. For the former we advise the use of retirement relief, especially self administered retirement schemes. For professionals, there is considerable exposure to taxation currently, and only by using the likes of limited company structures, or in the case of medical professionals, unlimited, can we plan remuneration more efficiently.

In the course of every review we will identify and help implement those structural alterations that will ultimately help our clients accumulate the most wealth in the shortest space of time.

Financial Planning: Goals And Targets – Financial Independence

The ultimate goal of good financial planning is:

To achieve and maintain complete Financial Independence efficiently within a specified time frame.

As this is our client’s ultimate objective, we have a process to assist them in achieving this goal:

Financial Independence is firstly about reaching the point where your assets provide your desired lifestyle without the necessity for you to continue working, and secondly meeting the objectives for your estate.

The process works as follows:

• At the first meeting we will complete your confidential questionnaire. Should there be any outstanding information we would urge you to provide us with this information as soon as possible after the meeting, in order for us to commence preparing your report.
• Following on from the completion of the ‘Cashflow Management’ exercise, and assuming there is the facility to contribute (in whatever format possible) towards your future financial wellbeing, we will begin working on that element of the plan.
• Having completed these initial recommendations (i.e cost savings etc), we will begin the next steps of your planning process looking towards the future. In consultation with our Technical Team, we will concentrate on the planning required to get you to Financial Independence
• Thereafter we will review your plan regularly and take actions with you so that your Financial Freedom is achieved.

Curran Financial Services is bonded with Professional Indemnity Insurance by Lockton Insurances. We are a member of the Investor Compensation Scheme and a funding contributor of the Financial Services Ombudsman