“We always prepare for our annual review meetings with FFP.  We look back to what we planned at the last meeting, check our mid-year forecast and compare them with our end year outcome.  Using this information and potential spend for the coming year we identify how much money we need and where we think it should come from.  This process can be viewed as a waste of time because the FFP review meeting always reveals strategies we had not considered and asks questions that we had not imagined or thought of.

So, why do we plan prior to the meeting? 

We do this because it helps us understand the quality of thinking that Mark and the rest of the FFP team have applied in their preparation.  We are both numerate and financially literate and yet we are left flat footed by FFP’s analysis, suggestions and questioning.  Comparing our plan with Mark’s recommendations has the effect of revealing the quality, elegance and monetary value of the process.  Left to our own devices we would not be able to ask ourselves the right questions, to think far enough ahead and make optimum tax efficient decisions. We are simply not expert enough and there is no way we can learn the ever changing rules around pensions, income tax, CGT, IHT, Wills and Trusts that are needed to plot the best course of action.

The above is justification enough for working with FFP.  However, it is not the whole story.  FFP know us and really care about our dreams and aspirations.  They want us to make the most of our lives and the financial planning is purely in the service of this aim.  This leads to open discussions with a high degree of trust and really solid financial planning that we know we could never achieve by ourselves. 

Thank you FFP.

August 2023