Family Financial Planning

If true family financial planning is about the goals we set and our route to achieving these goals, there is no doubt that the journey must begin with a comprehensive review of everything that has gone on before. Only by starting with a clean slate is there any chance of getting to where we need to go.

At Curran Financial Services, all plans begin with a Family Finance Review. There are two elements to this exercise. First we address clients existing financial interests (but not those that are no longer active) under the following headings:

• Cost
• Suitability
• Performance

At the same we analyse the family cash-flow, to ensure that the current financial commitments are feasible under budget constraints. Ultimately this is a venture in Saving Money, because only by freeing up as much spare cash as possible can any attempt at medium & long term saving be made.

Analysis

Most of us have products and services that we pay for on a regular basis. These include the basics such as light and heat, along with more optional services like entertainment and communications packages. Finally there are those products that we feel we must have (or have been told the same by a bank) such as insurance, family protection, savings and investments.

At Curran Financial Services we provide full analysis on each of these areas. By partnering up with homesaver.ie we can focus on the purely financial aspects of the family budget and leave the non-financial elements to the experts in those fields. The process involved will be explained at initial consultation.

For those financial products that we do focus on specifically, the following issues are addressed:

Cost

This is a straightforward concept but can be broader than most people realise. In general it applies to the likes of mortgage protection and other insurances, where clients were previously forced to choose one particular product or provider rather than availing of the cheapest price on the market. If the existing amounts of cover are suitable (more on that below) we can show where a straightforward like for like switch can be made and money saved.

Suitability

Ensuring that financial products suit your needs is probably the least addressed element of financial planning. This is not surprising as due to the nature of ‘Financial Advice’ in the past. Once a product was sold the seller no longer had any interest in it. Unfortunately the fact is that financial products rarely stay suitable for long, as changes in family circumstances make them obsolete very quickly.

The majority of clients we meet have protection policies entirely unsuitable to their current situation, meaning they either have to much insurance (especially for older individuals) or too little (much more common in young people with families). We will ensure that any financial product is tailored for your needs now and also for as long into the future as possible, though with our commitment to regular communications and reviews, there will always be an opportunity to revisit.

Performance

This aspect of financial products generally (though not always) applies to those that are used to accumulate capital. Included here are savings, investments and pensions. While the true portfolio management and long term planning occurs in another phase of a review, we always believe in beginning by reviewing existing performances. For this we drill down into the figures to get the true results, not simply those published by the investment providers. Pension plans are notoriously difficult to get a true approximation of, but we have the experience necessary to find them.

Once we have the true performance figures, it is relatively easy to point out those that have not gone as well as necessary and should be stopped, while strong performing products will (once they are suitable for the overall investment plan) be retained.

It should be pointed out that this type of review does not just apply to stockmarket type investments. We also review Deposit Accounts to ensure the best possible rate is being applied.

Cash-Flow Management

Budgeting is a concept that most people are familiar with but few practice. It is especially noticeable that often clients are extremely diligent in their company budgets, but have never approached their household finances with the same rigour.

At Curran Financial Services we implement a relatively simple budget system (using MS Excel, so no need for expensive software) taking into account the regular income and outgoings over a set period. We do this before and after the Analysis Exercise so we can compare where savings have been made.

The budgeting exercise will ultimately allow us to determine the amount of money a family is able to set aside for their medium & long term goals and will go someway to deciding the best route for that element of the investment planning. Often this is the most difficult aspect of the whole Financial Planning Review as it can paint a quite stark picture of where a client’s situation lies. However only by performing this task can we begin the more positive elements of the review.

 

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