Estate agents have a mantra “location, location, location” to describe the most important attributes of any property that they are selling.
I guess this is because you can pretty much change a lot of things about a property but the one thing that (in most instances) cannot be changed is its location.
Financial Planners like Informed Choice have our own mantra; “review, review, review”.
This is because experience tells us that the investments and pension plans that are most likely to achieve the desired results are the ones that are regularly reviewed.
We witness a lot of “leave-alone-rebuke” in the investment market, where a suitable investment starts off in the right place but a decade later it has failed to deliver and that is where disappointment lies.
Reviewing means that you can keep your investment aligned with your financial planning goals.
For example you may need to change your investment portfolio to reflect a changing attitude towards risk, reward and volatility.
You might be able to reduce exposure to risk because you are close to achieving your planning goals or increase exposure to risk and reward because you are falling short of target.
Either way a review will help to inform you of the right course of action.
I have just been ‘case conferencing’ with our senior paraplanner Shelley McCarthy, looking at a new client situation where a 98 year old gentleman has 48% of his liquid assets in UK shares. Some have performed well and others less well.
But should he really be invested in shares at all?
He is not well and may need to go into a care home and any shortfall in his care fees costs could easily be paid from the cash savings he has which we project would last for the next 12 years.
A review is identifying that he, and the beneficiaries of his estate on death, need not be taking any risk at all.
Review, review, review and make sure your investment and pension funds are working properly for you.
