Build your own financial plan

Perhaps the question we're most often asked, it’s about how to use pensions, savings and other investments to fund retirement spending. So, which withdrawal strategy to choose for flexibility and to reduce tax? When and how much to downsize or release home equity, if needed? The Planner helps you explore the options and visualise your strategy.

Most people are interested in whether their future lifestyle expectations will be met, though may not be sure what this means in practice. The Planner helps you understand and model different phases of spending (e.g. kids' school years; empty nest; early retirement; later life) so you can assess how they should be funded.

This is many people’s first question, and is linked to plans for retirement timing and lifestyle. The answer is in finding the balance between: lifestyle and savings now; retirement timing; and lifestyle in retirement. The Planner can help you understand the trade-offs and make plans to save appropriately for the future.

Retirement is less clear-cut these days, with many different paths being taken in later life. Whether you plan a traditional retirement, to carry on working, to downshift or go part time, or to switch to a different type of work altogether, the Planner can help you understand the financial implications and when your intended transition should be possible.

The UK pension freedoms introduced in 2015 opened up a new range of pension income choices. Options include flexible income drawdown, annuities, tax-free and taxable cash lump sums, and combinations of some or all of these. The Planner allows you to compare different options to help decide which works best for you.

Most of us want the reassurance that we won't pay unnecessary tax. The Planner can help you make plans to achieve this, since it has UK tax rules and calculations built-in (including income and pensions, CGT and IHT) and helps you understand the tax implications of different options so you can reduce your lifetime tax bill.

The risk of running out of money is the greatest fear for many making big decisions about the future, and things may not turn out as we hope they will. The Planner lets you try out different scenarios (e.g. poor market conditions; early redundancy; unexpected expenses etc.) to see whether adverse events would cause a shortfall, and adjust your plans in response.

Many would love to go part-time to pursue second careers or other interests or to spend more time with family, but aren't sure how this would affect later retirement plans. The Planner can help you decide whether and when a move to part-time working could be affordable.

Many people recognise a need to increase retirement provision in their 40s, 50s or 60s. But how much more should they save ? The Planner can help you answer this question so you can save approprately for the future without unnecessarily compromising the present.

A decision to fund your children's education is a multi-year commitment, with important considerations for you and your family. The Planner can help you understand the financial implications in the medium and longer term, so you can make a better-informed decision.

Many of us have big plans for retirement, some of which may need significant funds to realise and so need to be planned for. The Planner allows you to model one-off cost items both now and in retirement, to help you decide whether your plans are affordable.

For those hoping to leave a legacy, inheritance planning can enable assets to be passed on in a tax-efficient way. The Planner helps you estimate your legacy, assess gifting options and calculate your projected IHT bill to help you work out how this can be achieved as part of your plan.