Personality Disorder

A financial plan is a comprehensive look at your financial goals and what steps you need to achieve them. Most people typically have the same long-term financial goals: how to save for a college fund, pay a debt, and plan for retirement. This questionnaire is for everyone interested in creating concrete financial plans.

Who needs financial advice?  Who is the best person to provide this advice? Often it’s someone in the family, a friend or worse someone down the pub.  There are professional people who give this advice for a living, and are regulated to different degrees.  You may have heard them call financial advisers or planners. What’s the difference between a financial advisor and a financial planner?

In many countries, the use of the title “financial planner” is tightly controlled and regulated, for example in the US, where a Certified Financial Planner has to have accreditations and has to follow a process. However, that’s not the case in the UK.  To be a financial adviser in the UK you need to have a level 4 qualification in financial advice recognised by the Financial Conduct Authority.  The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is a financial regulatory body in the United Kingdom, but operates independently of the UK Government, and is financed by charging fees to members of the financial services industry. The FCA regulates financial firms providing services to consumers and maintains the integrity of the financial markets in the United Kingdom.

So, what’s a Financial Planner?  In the UK, any financial advisor can call themselves a financial planner, regardless of whether they actually deliver a financial planning service.

What’s the difference between a financial planner and a financial advisor?  You can see here at Investopedia

Full market or Restricted Advice – Restricted advice is where the adviser only recommends certain products, product providers or both.  This doesn’t mean they don’t cover a broad market range.

Then there is Financial Guidance – where you are only given general information on products or have them explained to you – there is no advice given and no product sale at the end.  People offering this service include the Money Advice Service and the Citizens Advice Bureau – see SavingsDrive for more details.

Irrespective of whether you are considering consulting a financial adviser, there are times when you and your family need to take stock of financial matters.  These questions are all about some general principles related to planning family finances.