Our Approach

Creating a professional financial planning strategy

We make sure we take the time to understand your needs, goals and preferences before we make any recommendations – this is the process we follow:

1. Your initial contact

We contact you to arrange a convenient time and place to meet.
To enable us to develop a clearer picture about your particular situation, we’ll need to see information on your existing arrangements, but we can obtain documents on your behalf with your permission to help remove any burden. We are happy to meet clients at their home or place of business, and this is an opportunity for you to outline the issues that you’d like to discuss.

2. Initial meeting

We assess your current financial position and help identify your goals.
At your initial meeting, we provide information about our services and explain how we charge and the type of advice we offer. If there is anything you want to discuss, our initial meeting is the perfect time to consider these other areas. We assess your assets and liabilities, discuss your objectives and priorities, and consider your attitude to risk.

3. Preparing your recommendations

Using the information we obtain from you, we develop a detailed financial plan.
We look at whether the financial plan will fit in with your lifetime goals and make sure you are comfortable with the timescale for implementing the plan. We research the market, review different products and providers, and follow up with the preparation of a document outlining a strategy tailored to your individual goals and circumstances.

4. Discussing our recommendations

We take you through our recommendations in detail.
We explain why we’ve chosen specific solutions and outline product features. Our goal is to ensure that you understand why we have recommended certain products or a particular advice strategy. We’ll also discuss the cost of any future work, explain how you can check on investment performance, and follow up our recommendations with a full report.

5. Implementing your plan

All the necessary product paperwork is completed and processed.
We make sure that all our recommendations to which you’ve agreed have been implemented. We’ll also liaise with your accountant or solicitor if appropriate.

6. Reviewing your plan

At this point, you’ll agree how often you want to review your plans.
The frequency and level of contact you have with us is up to you. It could be face-to-face meetings, over the phone or by email. If your circumstances change, we also need to know so that we can review what further changes your plan may require. These would typically cover life-changing events, including getting married, having a baby, a promotion, buying a new property or retiring from work – all events that may affect your finances and will require you to assess your financial planning strategy.

This process has to be underpinned by a joint commitment from both Harbour Financial and our clients in order to ensure the successful completion of their financial goals.