Retirement living: working together for a better future

It is often assumed that the primary role of a financial adviser is to help people save for their retirement, but in reality, over 70% of our clients are already retired and have very different concerns and objectives for the future.

With the rise of an ageing population, the topic of retirement living is becoming a major talking point within client meetings, and we are being asked more and more each day about how we can help. With 20% of the UK population expected to reach the age of 100, this is only going to become a greater issue.

Finding care can be complicated and time consuming, leaving families unable to make a final care decision. As their trusted financial adviser, we may be drawn into complex care matters and it is important for us to be able to offer reassuring support when it is needed.

We are therefore investing a lot of time and energy in to expanding and specialising the support we can offer in this area, by building relationships with a number of networks who can assist with specific services during the different stages of financial planning.

We have a number of Society of Later Life Advisers (SOLLA) qualified individuals at Ascot Lloyd who are now working with several local authorities to provide support for ‘self-funding’ individuals that are moving in to privately-funded care. We are also now building a team of advisers at Ascot Lloyd that will work with vulnerable clients, as we appreciate that this is a more specialised area of the business.

Independent financial advice relieves clients of much of the pressure that comes with a changing situation, such as funding income in retirement and managing finances when moving into retirement or care accommodation. It helps families and older people move forward and make informed decisions on how they can manage their finances to maximise their options.

We have invested in new technology that allows us to build a clear financial forecast/plan and provides a bespoke picture of a client’s future needs including how these can be achieved, factoring in multiple considerations such as:

• Long-term care planning
• Investing assets to provide vital additional income (for example funding new accommodation)
• Inheritance Tax and trust planning (including succession planning)
• The role of the NHS and Social Services
• Care allowances and benefits
• NHS continuing healthcare funding

As our business grows we can now also provide additional support to our elderly clients using the links to our own internal specialisms and market leading external providers. For example:

1. Our internal specialist tax and trusts team
2. A panel of approved legal firms who can help with Wills, Trusts and Power of Attorney work
3. Links to specialist care advisory businesses that can help with any non-financial considerations clients may have
4. Links to providers of retirement living
5. Lifetime planning, provided by cash flow modelling, is one of the key tools for working out how long capital or income will last and building in the costs of life events
6. Links to both internal and external actively managed investment services