What is a Retirement Plan Advisor?

What is a Retirement Plan Advisor?

In a 2019 survey*, only 15.1% of respondents said they felt confident planning their retirement goals and choosing where to invest their money. You wouldn’t set off on a long journey without knowing the way, and the same is true when it comes to your finances.

If you too don’t feel confident navigating all alone, it might be worth engaging the help of a financial expert. With retirement, it’s better to plan ahead of time, and that’s what financial planners do best!

Hansford Bell are a team of financial life planners based in the UK. We’re passionate about helping our clients feel more confident about their money. Our plans are bespoke, designed to help you achieve and sustain your target lifestyle. We won’t rest until your rest is set to be golden.

In this blog, we provide a comprehensive guide to retirement plan advisors.

* Note – when you click this link you are leaving our regulated website for another for whose content we are not responsible.

What is a Retirement Plan?

A retirement plan is essentially a financial roadmap, helping you plot your route towards the lifestyle you want in later life. A crucial part of any retirement plan is the growth of your provisions during your working life, and then how you plan to access them.

Retirement plans generally have an accumulation phase that covers your working years. In this time, you will hopefully have regular money coming in and as you reach maximum income potential should be able to add as much as possible to your chosen pension scheme.

Vesting age is the term used to describe the age you set as your desired point of retirement. It can change, but it’s useful to have a year in mind so that you know how much you need to set aside to live in the way you want.

Finally, the decumulation phase describes the period after your vesting age – that’s right, your retirement! These are the years you will be receiving a retirement income.

A good retirement plan will also cover things like life and health insurance, estate and tax planning, and how best to withdraw or transfer your pension.

What is a Retirement Plan Advisor?

A retirement plan advisor is a kind of financial professional who specialises in retirement planning. Not only will they help you formulate strategies for investing and accumulating wealth, but they will use their additional experience, training, and in-depth knowledge to ensure you have a reliable income in retirement and are fully prepared for later life. The term retirement plan advisor can also be used to refer to a financial expert who works with employers to advise on company retirement plans, developing solutions that help companies best meet their obligations as plan sponsors.

What Does a Retirement Plan Advisor Do?

A retirement plan advisor will help you identify your financial goals and target lifestyle in retirement. With this information in mind, they will use their expertise to review and tweak your current strategy. Then, they’ll research the market on your behalf, finding the best financial products for your requirements and bespoke investment opportunities to expand your wealth.

They will help you grow your pension as well as offering advice on things like equity release, tax mitigation, managing your estate, and passing on your legacy in the best way. They should also help you incorporate potential care cost considerations into the plan.

How to Choose a Retirement Plan Advisor.

When it comes to choosing a retirement plan advisor, it’s important to look into their professional background and check that they are chartered by the Chartered Insurance Institute. This demonstrates that they are working at the forefront of their profession.

Check out their fee structure and style of operating. For example, if you’re passionate about ethical investing, you’re going to want to make sure your advisor has expertise in things like ESG.

Make sure they are an independent financial advisor, not restricted. Restricted ones can only recommend certain products or providers. With an independent advisor, you can rest easy knowing that you will receive authentic, unbiased advice across the whole market.

Finally, meet them for a chat and make sure you like them! You generally work with retirement plan advisors for a long time, so make sure they understand your goals, are highly knowledgeable, and friendly too!

Understanding, knowledgeable, and friendly you say? Meet the Hansford Bell team!

Benefits of Using a Retirement Plan Advisor.

Opportunities Tailored to You

A retirement plan advisor will locate bespoke investment opportunities to add to your portfolio tailored to your goals and attitude to risk. Their expert knowledge and experience of the market means you are more likely to receive higher returns, and you don’t have to spend hours doing the research yourself. The financial industry can be complex and confusing for the uninitiated. With a professional at your side, you can navigate it more easily and set yourself up for success.

What is the Difference Between Financial Planning & Financial Advice?

Portfolio Monitored by Expert

With a fine eye for detail and a tendency to check and check again, financial professionals love the small print. A good retirement plan advisor will monitor and analyse your portfolio’s performance constantly, adjusting and altering the plan to better serve your needs. This means your retirement funds are likely to grow without you having to keep an eye on things.

Read about one retired couple’s experience investing with Hansford Bell >

Help Rationalising Multiple Pensions

Over the course of your working life, you’ll probably work a few different jobs. With each employer, you may have a workplace pension. Consolidating everything into one fund can be complex – you’ll need to consider withdrawal and transfer rules and locate pensions you’ve forgotten about. A retirement plan advisor can advise you on how best to go about it, helping you rationalise all these pots.

Protect Your Legacy

After ensuring you have enough to enjoy a fulfilling retirement, most people also want to pass on their remaining wealth to the next generation. A retirement advisor can help you protect and preserve your assets for your loved ones, providing guidance on legacy and estate tax efficiency.

Greater Peace of Mind

Planning your retirement can be exciting, but it can also create unnecessary stress. Making sure you have enough money put aside can be a worry, and so can choosing the best pension scheme, fund, or investment options for your money. Working with a professional means you don’t need to go at it alone anymore. Instead, you’ll receive the benefit of years of technical knowledge and on the ground experience, ensuring your retirement plan is the strongest and most stable it can be.

Craft Your Retirement with Hansford Bell.

Here at Hansford Bell, we’ve been helping people refresh their finances for years. From wealth management to cash flow forecasting, we combine state-of-the-art technology with plenty of friendly, no-nonsense advice.

Retirement should be an exciting goal to work towards, not a source of stress. So, don’t waste time worrying – give us a call instead! We’ll arrange a free initial consultation and talk you through our services.