Why do Review Meetings Matter?

Having worked within the financial services industry since 1997 and attaining Chartered Financial Planner status, my primary aim is to help clients identify their financial priorities.
However, one barrier that often comes up is people’s apprehension to regular review meetings.
There’s a multitude of reasons for this – primarily, people believe that review meetings are simply a way for Financial Advisers to gain as much money from you as possible.
Whilst I understand people’s apprehension, I also think that people aren’t aware of just how essential and vital review meetings are when it comes to financial planning!
Here are just a few of the ways that review meetings are so important:
1. You won’t always have the same goals
If you start your financial planning early, you might have a set of goals that don’t seem quite as applicable later down the line. As you develop, so do your objectives when it comes to your finances and aspects such as later-life planning, which is why the plan you started with and the strategy you agreed upon initially might need adjusting later down the line.
2. Circumstances change
In the same way your goals will change, your circumstances will as well. Whether the changes are more positive, such as reaching specific milestones in your career and personal life, or negative changes that you didn’t have a security net for.
Circumstances can change quickly, for you and your loved ones. Being able to account and plan for these changes rather than after them will offer you better peace of mind.

3. You may reach milestones sooner
Frequent collaboration throughout your financial strategy means that your finances only become more streamlined and flexible. Changes that occur, are quickly planned and accounted for and you may find yourself meeting your objectives much faster than you’d initially intended.
4. Financial needs are complex
This is a given, yet it is a huge factor in why review meetings are so important. An initial meeting rarely covers the entire scope of your finances, and you can find yourself realising later down the line that your financial situation is much more complex than you’d accounted for once the options are laid out for you.
Having someone to walk you through these available options is therefore a preferable option!
5. Ongoing care is vital
It would be easy to set out a strategy and call it a day, but it wouldn’t be very useful!
Whilst it might seem an unnecessary addition, review meetings are simply a part of the care provided on an ongoing basis to make sure that the process is as pain-free as possible for you. The main problem faced by clients planning their financial future is the unknown, and whilst we can’t predict the future, we can plan for potential bumps in the road!
We can make the process as easy as possible for you, so that you can relax in the knowledge that you’re in safe hands should any issues arise.
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