Making your money meaningful

This article, originally published by Canaccord Genuity Wealth Management (CGWM), was written by Hazel Bowen.

As professional wealth advisers, we strongly believe that the true value of wealth lies in the choices it gives you in life.

Whether you’re one of our financial planning clients, use our investment management services, or both, we make the most of our expertise and resources to help you protect and build your wealth with confidence. We can manage an investment portfolio to grow your money and set up products and structures to reduce your tax liabilities. By extension, this enables you to keep more of your earned income and the returns you generate from your investments.

However, we also want you to achieve meaningful outcomes from your wealth – this is central to our wealth planning philosophy and leads us to the question: what is your money for?

What do we mean by ‘meaningful money’?

For most people, wealth management is not just about amassing more and more money – prudent and attractive though that might be. We also need to understand how you want to use your wealth to attain your personal goals, whether practical or intangible.

These goals often include a comfortable retirement, supporting yourself or your children in a business venture, helping your children buy properties, assisting your favourite causes, and reassuring you that in later life you’ll be able to afford the highest level of personal or medical care.

They could also include sailing around the world, buying a racehorse, a season ticket at your local football club – the list is endless, and driven by what matters to you.

At a high level, meaningful money is about having financial security, the freedom to achieve your life-long goals, and using your wealth in your lifetime to support the people and causes that are most important to you.

Moving the conversation beyond the financial

To explore meaningful objectives, it can be helpful to stop thinking in terms of pounds, dollars, and interest rates, and consider what and who is most important in your life. The infographic below shows some of the key questions to consider – or discuss with your partner or family – before a meeting with your wealth planner.

Considering these questions won’t come naturally to everyone. It’s human nature to focus on the here and now and the short-term future. However, a skilled wealth planner can guide you through this exploration of your immediate and long-term goals.

The benefits of thinking about meaningful money

One key advantage of this approach is that the focus on non-financial goals allows other family members – or anyone else who might be affected by your decisions in the long term – to be part of the conversation if you wish.

You may prefer to make all the decisions independently, but you can still take the opportunity to engage family, friends, carers, or your executors in discussions about the future. This will ensure your planning reflects individual and joint goals, and that it will help to make their life easier in the long run. This approach can also help to engage those who would not typically take the lead, enabling them to create their own relationship with your wealth planner – which could prove invaluable if they are ever faced with making financial decisions alone.

A ‘meaningful money’ outcomes-based approach puts matters of taxes, financial products and investment strategies to one side until we have discussed and understood your personal goals. Your wealth planner can then apply their professional and technical expertise to identify the solutions that are most suitable for you. They will explain how their strategy and recommendations relate to your goals.

That is how we make financial planning relevant and your money meaningful for you and your family.

What if my goals change?

Of course, we understand that the things and people that matter to you will change as your life evolves.

Financial planning is best served as a long-term relationship rather than a one-off service. When creating plans for your future, we build in flexibility so that we can adjust course to accommodate unexpected changes. We will have regular planning conversations with you to ensure you are gaining full value from your wealth in every way.

Helping you to achieve what’s important to you

At Adam & Company, our independent wealth planners can work with you to identify your unique goals and consider how you can achieve them within the context of your personal financial circumstances.

If you would like to discuss your meaningful goals with us, please get in touch. If you don’t already have a dedicated Adam & Company contact, contact us to arrange a free, no-obligation consultation, to discuss how we can help you create a bespoke financial strategy with your individual needs, preferences, and values at its core.

You may also be interested in:

• Are you up to date with the latest pension rule changes?
• Is cash flow modelling right for you?
• How to take control of your wealth
• Wealth planning: will you be able to afford rising care home costs?

Investment involves risk. The value of investments and the income from them can go down as well as up and you may not get back the amount originally invested.

The information provided is not to be treated as specific advice. It has no regard for the specific investment objectives, financial situation or needs of any specific person or entity.

The tax treatment of all investments depends upon individual circumstances and the levels and basis of taxation may change in the future. Investors should discuss their financial arrangements with their own tax adviser before investing.