Mike Stafford CFP^CM of Stafford and Co in Hertford- one of the first firms to become an IFP Accredited Financial Planning Firm- recalls a week to remember.

Monday

Monday mornin’ you gave me no warnin’ of what was to be...

Walk to the office (as usual) in bright sunshine (unusual). As I take the narrow cobbled hump-backed bridge on the Folly I think - with a sizeable leap in imagination - Hertford can look like Venice on days like this, what with the three rivers flowing though the town. No gondolas or gondoliers mind, just the usual parking attendants seeking to drive away tourists and boost council coffers.

The usual 80-90 emails await including one from the financial controller of a business client seeking info on how their current GPP measures up to the forthcoming pension regime. Call her to reassure her that the scheme is compliant and the only change they would need to make was auto-enrolment of new employees if they requested it before the end of the standard probationary period.    “Would we have to pay contributions for people who insisted on joining the scheme from day one? Yes. “If we don’t keep them on, can we get those contributions back” Er... No. The contributions are ‘employer incentives’ for people you keep on. They become another form of employer taxation for those you don’t. Her response has to be omitted - children may be reading this.

Tuesday

Tears on my pillow. Well not actually the pillow, but the desk.

A third meeting with a newly-divorced client to discuss my analysis of her finances and objectives. She sheds a few tears when I show her how her financial plan would enable her to retire early and do all the things she had wanted to do for many years. There are usually a few moments of incredulity while it sinks in. Sometimes disbelief, until we run through the assumptions again. Then elation and very often tears. We have taken to having boxes of tissues readily to hand. This is the joy of Financial Planning. The number crunching - while essential, extremely important and, it must be said, often tedious for clients - pales into insignificance compared to the impact of what the planning actually does for clients and their lifestyles. Getting that message across to the general public is the challenge. I’m very hopeful that the promotion of the new Accredited Financial Planning FirmTM concept to the general public will focus on achieving desired lifestyles.

Wednesday

Today’s client is in for his annual planning meeting which includes a review of his pension drawdown arrangement. He is on maximum drawdown and this year was facing a significant drop in the maximum permitted. However last year we were able to bring forward the review to give him a further four years at the higher level. This is his fourth drawdown review and on each occasion he rejects the opportunity to buy an annuity. Only time will tell! In the evening a visit to local solicitor’s Jazz & Pimms event in a marquee next to their offices. Always an excellent evening and the opportunity to meet existing and prospective clients.

Thursday

No clients in today. Catch up on management issues and liaising with our accountant on end of trading year stuff. Monthly office meeting in the afternoon. Main issues: new content for the website, some refinements to our fees menu, RDR gap fill, a request from our Paraplanner to enrol in the IFP’s Certificate in Paraplanning course. We look at the options and decide on a way forward.

Friday

New potential client in today who was referred by a local accountant. Businessman planning to sell his business and phase his retirement over two years. We show him a preliminary cashflow projection and he is shocked to find that if he had taken the offer he was made four years ago he could have retired then.

The current offer is less generous but his choices are diminishing, as his health is not the best and he wants to help his soon-to-be-married daughter get on the property ladder. Loads of issues to address. He readily agrees the fees, but wants to bring his wife in before committing. Ah yes, the boss should be in attendance! Pilates class in the evening, keeping the body flexible has its rewards.

Weekend

Both ‘kids’ visit home with their respective partners. We all head off on Saturday morning to a local client who is a professional photographer, to update the family portrait and get a new mugshot of me for the website, which was a tad overdue. An IFA in a nearby town had remarked that the existing one on the website was something my wife found in her purse 20 years ago! (Thank you Ian). Garden barbeque in the evening. Great fun, but thirsty work which requires considerable quenching.

On Sunday we all visit Windsor Castle. Not the first visit for some of us, but always interesting. The treasures and finery on display from many countries serve as a subtle reminder that ‘souvenir collecting’ was once a prolific national pastime. A lot of the fun has gone out of it now that it is called looting. It’s even a crime in some parts of London. Home for a late dinner and early to bed, as Monday beckons.

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