December 2015 – Merry Christmas

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. As we approach 2016 I wonder where 2015 has gone – it seems that time has gone so quickly. It is a time when I will be thinking about those of my dear clients who are no longer with us and thinking of those now left on their own. There have been too many client funerals this year. When I have been driving home from saying goodbye to a client I realise what a privilege it has been to try to make a difference in their lives: January 2016 will see my 26th anniversary of being a financial adviser and throughout that time my main intention has been to help ordinary people see through the maze of financial planning. According to some recent comments I have not done too badly: “I haven’t mentioned it before but I don’t know what I would have done without you over the years, I am very grateful and I hope that you are going to continue for a long time yet.” [CFH] Well please rest assured that I intend to be around for quite some time, I have wonderful clients and being there when they need me is very important to me. This is not to say that there weren’t times during this year when I could have thought about it. 2015 has been particularly demanding with the constant changes in regulations, changes in pensions, keeping up to date with knowledge and professional development, reporting requirements, changes in technology, and ensuring that professional support staff are available to provide client service and support. However when I get comments like the one above it makes it all worthwhile. Focusing on the developments in technology: when I became independent in February 1992 my first business card had an email address and many people asked me what it was for! Now, almost 24 years later, it is the people without email and without internet who are being left out. It seems that every day another service is being delivered digitally. According to recent survey’s over 90% of the UK has internet and I find it difficult to understand how those without email and internet manage – they are certainly missing out. In order to enhance client service and embrace the benefits of technology our new client communication system, Personal Finance Portal (PFP), was launched this year and many clients are already loving what it offers. If you haven’t registered yet please do so as soon as you can so that you will not miss out. I wish you a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2016.

November 2015 – Lasting Powers of Attorney

I was leaving Sharm el Sheikh late on Saturday 17th October when I said to Tricia: “Putting on my financial planner hat: if the plane was to drop out of the sky it’s comforting to know that everything is place and that all of our affairs are in order.” Tricia shrugged it off and I could tell that she was saying ‘don’t be silly – planes do not drop out of the sky.’ The news less than 14 days later on the morning of Saturday 31st October has shocked me to the core. It has made me stop to think and re-examine our financial arrangements and I am pleased that everything is in place just as I thought. Without wishing to dwell on the aeroplane theme I am reminded of a story that I was told several years ago: When you are in your aeroplane if the oxygen masks drop whose mask do you put on first – yours or your child’s? The answer is your own because if you stop to put on your child’s first the likelihood is that you will both die. In order to help others, you must ensure that your own house is in order first. Well mine is in good shape so how about yours? Everyone should have properly drawn up and registered Lasting Powers of Attorney (there are two) and they should be securely stored in a place that your Attorneys can access then when needed. If you don’t have them or you only have an old Enduring Power of Attorney (these ended in October 2007), now is the time. Drawing up a Will is no longer adequate on its own and everyone should have a Will, an Asset Protection Trust, and a Memorandum of Wishes. If you haven’t yet prepared these get in touch, this is something that you must not put off. Funeral Expenses and your funeral wishes should also in place. We recommend that all clients have a funeral expenses plan in place with an independent funeral director and that your funeral wishes are stored with your funeral plan so that it is accessible at the time of need. For many of you this document is not the easiest thing to draw up and I am always glad to help. Sharm el Sheikh was wonderful and the Egyptian people were so wonderfully friendly and helpful that I feel upset that they appear to have had their living snatched from them because of a few criminal fanatics. I hope that it won’t be too long before it will be safe to go again.

October 2015 – More things than money

One of my clients said to me a few days ago “sometimes there are more things than money” and I was inspired by how she was spending her time helping those less fortunate than her. Another client was telling me how she was helping in her local foodbank and how she was helping terminally ill people – her stories were moving. A dear client died last week. Norman was a spritely 88 year old and he was helping in his community right up to the end. One morning he didn’t get up. I shall miss his good humour. From my experience in helping clients over the last 25 years no one ever says I should have spent more time in work or made more money. It’s the difference that we make and the friends that we touch that matters. Dreda was definitely right, there are more things than money. So how does that fit in with being a financial adviser? I think that if I can use my knowledge and skill with money so that my clients can spend more time where it matters that is my contribution, it is where I make a difference. Moving on to another client conversation I was asked what I did with my time and it is quite understandable that many do not appreciate how much time it takes to operate in the most regulated business in the world. Two days last month were taken up with our annual inspection and while we passed with flying colours, preparation and follow up took 5 days. Our half yearly report for the FCA (the RMAR) was completed on 1st October which took another full day. Another day was spent in London with Dimensional keeping up to date with my investment knowledge and another day working with a group of advisers from Nucleus keeping up with best practice. A typical month sees 50% of my time taken up with business requirements. I love being with my clients and ideally I would love to spend more of my time with them: With my additional support staff and use of technology to improve business efficiency I am aiming to increase my client time to 60% or more during 2016. Our telephone reception service has been changed to ‘All Day PA’ and I hope that you will see an enhanced service as they bed in. They literally are ‘all day’ and you can speak to a live person into the evening or even at 3 a.m. in the morning! Why not go to our website click on ‘Client View’ on the home page and send us your feedback to let us know how they are doing. We have found that over 50 clients are using our Text to Email service where they send text messages and we receive them as emails (and we send emails and they receive them as texts). The ‘TxtUs’ number has been changed to 0780 000 6208. If you haven’t used the service yet why not send us a text and see how it works? By the way don’t try to phone the number because it’s for texts only.

August 2015 – A new way to communicate securely

A new way to communicate securely and access your portfolio with Personal Finance Portal from Interface Financial Planning Limited. Providing my clients with first class service and market leading technology which puts them in control. Please register now to: 1. Communicate securely – for you to send and receive messages and documents 2. To access your short, medium and long-term finances online with PFP Personal Finance Portal (PFP) is our revolutionary new app that gives you access to view all your finances in one place 24/7 – anywhere, on any mobile or web device. PFP enables you to view your fund information and financial portfolio at the click of a button. So whether you’re looking for an up-to-date valuation of your portfolio, want to assess how you’re progressing against your goals or simply wish to get in touch, PFP has it covered. There’s even dedicated mobile phone apps for iPhone and Android devices coming soon. Secure messaging between us and you Because email and post are increasingly open to being intercepted and we treat the security of the data you share with us with the utmost importance we have decided to use PFP as our preferred method for communicating with you. PFP provides you with a secure messaging service, so that you can quickly get in touch with us and have the peace of mind of knowing that any information you share is encrypted and completely private. A secure document vault PFP provides you with a secure document vault, so you can house all your financial documents online where they are secure and fully backed up – much safer and more convenient than the bottom of the filing cabinet. Please register now Register for PFP Now – simply click here: https://interface.mypfp.co.uk and enter your email address or click the link from the Client Log in page on our web site: http://www.interfacefinancialplanning.co.uk. You will receive an email which will ask you some security questions and this will allow you to create a password and log in. When you have logged in please upgrade to PFP Premium PFP Premium is an additional service that enables you to collate information on your short-term finances like bank account(s), credit cards, loans and mortgages, together with your advised products, giving you powerful insight into your total net worth. Plus, you’ll also be able to receive alerts and insights into spending and saving habits so you can keep track on how you’re progressing against the goals you’ve set. This is the way of the future and I want you to be part of it. I can sincerely recommend the Premier Service because I have been testing it with my family and we all love it. I know that it will help put you in control of your finances and it will help you so much that I have decided to pay the monthly cost of the premium service for all clients and I will cover the cost indefinitely. When you register for the Premium service you will be asked for your payment details to cover the cost of £1.20 a month but do not be concerned because I guarantee that Interface will pick up the tab and there will be nothing for you to pay. I have asked Intelliflo to remove the request for payment details for all of my clients. By the way I am already running the App on my iPhone and iPad, it looks great and it will be available within a few weeks. Want to know more? Read about our highest level of security at http://interface.mypfp.co.uk/Misc/Security or contact me for further assistance.

July 2015 – What are your values?

What are your values? If anyone was to ask you, could you clearly state what your top ten values are? (And just as importantly what they are not!) Your core values are the underlying principles by which you live your life. When you live according to your core values you find that life is easy, you’re happier, less stressed because you are focusing on the values that are important to you. My top ten values start with: ‘Integrity, Compassion, Respect, and Contribution’. I recommend that you log on to ‘Life Goals’ at www.interfaceifa.co.uk and pick out your top ten and see if they are compatible with mine. When you log on you will also see the other six of my top ten. The Life Goals log on is my own creation and when you log in you will find that there are three other exercises in addition to Values. They are designed to be fun and to stimulate serious thought about who you are and what you want. At Interface I have spent 25 years helping my clients sort out their finances but what has been shown time and again is that it is just as important for clients to understand themselves as it is to understand their money. Hopefully the four exercise will help you to clarify and give you some direction and I hope that you will find them fun at the same time. Last month I was in news again – published for the third time this year. Nucleus wanted an expert opinion on how to run a client centred business and their interview appeared in an article on ‘Illuminate’. You may like to read it at the following link: Six thoughts on back office systems. Later this month I am being interviewed and filmed by Intelliflo so there may be another link to look at next month.

June 2015 – Life goal exercise

I hope that by the time you read this the weather will be warming up and you are starting to enjoy summer, it seems to be a long time in coming this year. In my May newsletter I explained why Interface had made a slow start to the year though I am pleased that we are now steaming full ahead – I hope that the summer weather will do likewise. Last month I talked about my poor experience with Xplan and this was taken up by Money Marketing in an article on 14th May. Since it was printed my phone hasn’t stopped ringing with sympathy from other advisers throughout the UK. If you would like to read the article in full you can click on the following link at: “Iress Xplan system failures”. You will know that we provide you with the best investment portfolios in the UK and that all of our portfolios are doing what they should. It’s a good satisfying feeling and a lot of work goes on in the background that you may or may not be aware of; perhaps I’ll pick this up in a later newsletter. However you will also know that getting the ‘money’ sorted is only part because ‘marrying your meaning with your money’ is just as, if not more, important. To this end I have developed a series of exercises on my website which I think you will find very stimulating and interesting and hopefully have a bit of fun too. Simply go to my website and click on Life Goals on the Client Log in page, enter your email address and create a password and have some fun. This is unique to me and I have personally developed it with the help of Software developers, JFD Consultants. It starts off with a Life Balance Wheel to see if your life is in balance – will your wheel roll or will you have a bumpy ride? Then you are asked to identify your values – mine are listed so see if they are compatible with yours. The Bucket list and Life Planning questions are so very important and you deserve to give yourself some time in these areas. When you have done all four exercises keep coming back – log in again in 3, 6, & 12 months and see how much progress you have made.

May 2015 – An apology

I want to start this month with an apology because my recent client service has been poor. When you know that the sole purpose for me being an adviser is being available to help people you will understand me when I tell you that I have had a very frustrating time. For the last six months my time has of necessity been dominated by business structural and organisational changes. I started using ‘Adviser Office’ from ‘1st Software’ as our back office system in 2003 and this became the hub of the business. ‘1st’ was bought by ‘Avelo’ and then was subsequently bought by ‘Iress’ an Australian company who brought with them their own system called ‘XPlan’. Six months ago on the first of November I moved from Adviser Office to XPlan – What a nightmare! Nothing worked and there were so many errors that it was impossible to do anything. You may not understand how much of a difference it makes to a modern business but if you imagine what it is like driving a car which only does 10 miles per hour and constantly breaks down you may start getting the picture. I did what you might expect and left my car and started using my bike but I was constantly having to return to the garage because the mechanic wanted me to try their latest modification. By March enough was enough and while I didn’t want to spend more time with back office systems I decided to move to a new company, Intelliflo. Much of April was taken up with transferring data and training and while there is still a lot to learn the new system ‘Intelligent Office’ actually does what is says on the tin – it works. I am quite excited by Intelliflo because they offer additional services which mean that you will get more over the coming months. Now that we are in May we are now doing what we are here to do – looking after our clients. We have a bit of catching up to do so your continued patience is appreciated. Nicola has been a stalwart throughout and I don’t want to think where we would have been without her. Please excuse me if I only mention the election in passing but if you are like me you have probably had enough. Regardless of your political persuasion we are where we are and the markets like certainty which is always good for everyone’s investments.

March 2015 – A busy month

When reflecting over the last month I couldn’t help but think of Harold Wilson when he said “a week is a long time in politics” and a lot has certainly happened at Interface over the last month. I was pleased to be chosen as a ‘New Model Adviser’ and I was featured on the front cover of the professional magazine. Little did I realise how much time was going to be required by the pre-interview questionnaires, the intensive two hour interview with Tim Cooper, the follow up information, the photo shoot with Roger Brown on Barr Beacon on a cold Monday morning, and the discussions with editor Will Robins. I became nervous about whether Tim had understood the way that I provide financial advice and I was apprehensive about what he was going to write. However I relaxed when I thought of the trust that my clients have given me over the years when they have relied on me to do the right thing and I realised that this time it was my turn to trust another professional. The front cover and a link to the article is on the front page of my website at www.interfacefp.co.uk and I will let you be the judge. Please let me know what you think. There are a lot more exciting developments taking place at Interface. If you visit our website you may be intrigued by the new range of log in services available on your Client Login page – more about that next month.

February 2015 – New newsletters

I hope that 2015 has got off to a good start and I look forward to seeing you soon. My apologies that you haven’t received a newsletter for a few months, our Moneywise newsletters stopped suddenly in October and we had to engage a replacement. This is the first newsletter using the services of Clients-First. If you could spend a couple of minutes letting us know what you think it would be much appreciated. There were many business changes in 2014 and keeping on top of them was a challenge. In January I engaged Nicola Hession-Kent as my first line of contact for clients and Nicola will be there to help with your queries. She will be in touch by phone, email, text, or letter and I know that you will appreciate the enhanced service that she will provide. There’s a lot on the horizon for 2015, especially surrounding the upcoming pension reform and the general election in May. We’ll therefore be keeping you up to date with the most significant changes that may affect you whether that be in our regular monthly updates or an ad hoc message.