How financial planning could make a big difference to your life and happiness

When you think about financial planning, you’ll likely immediately conjure thoughts of pensions, ISAs, investment portfolios, and tax planning. Not to mention the high possibility of paperwork.

Yet these financial products are simply the tools used to help you achieve your life goals.

Ultimately, financial planning is all about you, your life, and your long-term aspirations.

In recognition of World Financial Planning Day on 1 October, read on to learn more about how working with a financial planner could help to make a big difference to your life and happiness, as well as influencing your potential wealth.

Conversations with a lifestyle financial planner can bring clarity for your future

One of the first conversations you’ll have when you meet with any good financial planner will be about your life. They will want to understand your responsibilities, priorities, long-term goals, and what in life makes you happy.

As such, instead of asking about the size of your mortgage or how much you’ve saved into your pension, expect questions like:

  • What is your life like now?
  • What makes you happy?
  • What matters to you most?
  • How would you like your life to look in the future?

The hectic pace of life means that many people fail to slow down long enough to consider questions like this.

If this is the case for you, your Blue Wealth planner will chat with you and ask a series of exploratory questions to help you set goals that truly matter to you. Once we know you better, understand your current circumstances, and appreciate your aspirations, we’ll explain the ways we could help make your dreams a reality.

These first steps of your financial planning journey are essential in achieving your long-term goals.

Setting goals can help you manage your money better

A clear understanding of your short-, medium-, and long-term goals can help you stick to your financial objectives.

And science proves it.

According to research conducted by experts at the University of Stirling, goal setting is key to successful saving.

After analysing a large sample of UK household data from the Office for National Statistics Wealth and Assets Survey, researchers found that “setting goals, alongside having confidence in your numerical ability and using professional financial advice, were all more likely to make you a successful saver”.

The study also revealed that people without access to financial advice are less likely to have any equity investments. Consequently, these people are “less likely to hit their long-term savings objectives”. For this group of people, setting goals is arguably even more crucial.

Setting goals that matter to you is believed to give the “greatest potential benefit” for your savings.

Practical goals are good but exciting life goals matter, too

While it’s useful to create practical goals that you wish to work towards, such as paying off your mortgage, helping your children through university or onto the property ladder, it’s equally important to consider what lights a fire in your belly.

What’s topping your bucket list? Do you wish to travel to far-flung countries, start a business, or buy a home abroad?

Once you understand your goals and can prioritise them, it’s time for pensions, ISAs, equity investments, and tax planning to come into play.

Your financial planner will use a selection of investment products to devise a financial plan that puts your money to work to help you attain your dreams. So, you can rest assured that you’re on course to pursue what makes you happy.

Read more: The true value of personal financial advice, revealed

Creating a solid financial plan and sticking to it could help you achieve your goals and reduce stress. Ultimately, a bespoke financial plan tailored to your unique circumstances and aspirations could lead to a happier and more fulfilling life.

Blue Wealth clients share the benefits of financial planning

Of course, many of our clients already understand the benefits of financial planning.

For instance, Steve and Jayne have said that working with us has helped put their mind at ease.

Meanwhile, both Marcus and Dave have enjoyed greater financial confidence. Dave, in particular, is happy that he’s able to “travel and enjoy … life without worrying about money”.

Hear complete client stories on our website.

Get in touch

If you’d like to explore some of the different ways we may be able to help you achieve your life goals and aim towards ticking off your top bucket list items, please email hello@bluewealth.co.uk or call us on 0117 332 0230.

Please note

The content of this newsletter is offered only for general informational and educational purposes. It is not offered as, and does not constitute, financial advice.

The value of your investments (and any income from them) can go down as well as up and you may not get back the full amount you invested. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Investments should be considered over the longer term and should fit in with your overall attitude to risk and financial circumstances.

The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate tax planning.

Blue Wealth Ltd is not responsible for the accuracy of the information contained within linked sites.

Blue Wealth Ltd is an appointed representative of Best Practice IFA Group Ltd, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Blue Financial Group

    Blue Wealth is a trading name of Blue Financial Group Ltd, an appointed representative of Best Practice IFA Group Ltd registration number 223112, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. www.fca.org.uk/firms/systems-reporting/register. Blue Wealth is entered on the FCA register https://register.fca.org.uk/ under reference 525994. The guidance and/or advice contained within this website are subject to the UK regulatory regime and are therefore targeted at consumers based in the UK.

    The Financial Ombudsman Service is available to sort out individual complaints that clients and financial services businesses aren’t able to resolve themselves.  To contact the Financial Ombudsman Service, please visit www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk.

    Our complaints procedures are available on request. If you wish to register a complaint, please contact us in writing or e-mail to the “Complaints Manager” complaints@benchmarkcapital.co.uk Benchmark Capital Limited, Broadlands Business Campus, Langhurstwood Road, Horsham, West Sussex, RH12 4QP. Alternatively, you can telephone 01403 334455. If you cannot settle your complaint with us, you may be entitled to refer it to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) further details of the FOS can be found at www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk or by contacting them on 0800 023 4 567.

    Registered in England & Wales, company number 7603456. Registered office 3 Westbury Mews, Westbury-On-Trym, Bristol, BS9 3QA.

    © 2024 Blue Financial Group.

    Blue Financial Group Ltd (“We”, “Us”) is committed to protecting and respecting your privacy. This Privacy and Cookies Policy (“Policy”) (together with and any other documents referred to therein) sets out the basis on which the personal data collected from you, or that you provide to Us will be processed by Us. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how We will treat it.

    For the purpose of the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (collectively the “Data Protection Laws”) the Data Controller is Blue Financial Group Ltd.

    We are an authorised representative of the Best Practice IFA Group Limited (“Best Practice”), who assist Us with various aspects of our compliance activity, including FCA compliance, AML checks and data protection. In order that Best Practice can provide these services, We are required to send across personal data We have collected. More information about how Best Practice will use your personal data can be found in their Privacy Notice at https://www.bestpractice.co.uk/best-practice/privacy-policy.

    YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

    Information we collect from you

    We collect and process some or all of the following types of information from you in the course of providing our services and other information to you and your use of our website www.bluewealth.co.uk:

    • Information that you provide to us by any means, when you request information from us, or provide information to us with the intention of enabling us to provide you with advice and/or ongoing servicing
    • The types of information that you are required to provide to us will vary depending on the products that they are advising you about, but will usually include:
      • your name
      • postal address;
      • email address;
      • telephone number;
      • date of birth;
      • gender;
      • bank details;
      • tax identifiers;
      • other information as required by your chosen product providers or as required by our regulators; and
      • information about your financial affairs, tax affairs, assets and liabilities;and may also include special category personal data relating to:
      • your health
    • If you contact us, we may keep a record of that correspondence.
    • We may also ask you to complete surveys that We use for research purposes, although you do not have to respond to them.
    • Details of your visits to the Website including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data, and the resources that you access.

    The provision of your name, address and date of birth, as well as certain other personal data that We will notify you of from time to time, is required from you to enable Us to advise you and to fulfil our regulatory and legal obligations. We will inform you at the point of collecting information from you, whether you are required to provide the information to Us.

    USES MADE OF YOUR INFORMATION

    Purposes of, and lawful basis for, processing

    We use information held about you for the following purposes:

    • To provide you with our services and to carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and Us, including:
      • To send you service, support and administrative messages, reminders, technical notices, updates, security alerts, and information requested by you.
      • To operate, protect and improve Our services, Our business, and Our clients’ experience.
      • To respond to any enquiries you submit to Us.
      • As part of Our efforts to keep Our services safe and secure.Where we have a contract with you to provide our services, and where the processing of your data is necessary to perform such contract, we rely on “performance of a contract with the data subject” as the legal basis for the processing. In all other circumstances we rely on “legitimate interest” and our legitimate interests are improvement of our services and/or prevention or detection of fraud.
    • Where you provide us with special category data, this will be used solely with your consent to research and advise on one or more products to suit your needs and to assist you with applications for and management of such products, and to provide such special category data to Best Practice and third party providers so that they can carry out the services that they provide to Us.
    • To comply with our legal obligations as an authorised representative of an FCA regulated entity, including preparing and sending reports and submissions to Best Practice and/or regulatory authorities such as the FCA. “Compliance with a legal obligation” is the lawful basis on which we rely when we are carrying out regulated activities.
    • To ensure that content on the Website is presented in the most effective manner for you and for the device(s) you use to access and view the Website. In these circumstances we rely on “legitimate interest” and the legitimate interest is the improvement of our services.
    • We also use your personal data where you have contacted Us via the Website, by e-mail or telephone or participated in any surveys. In these circumstances we rely on “legitimate interest” and the legitimate interest is responding to and contacting you regarding the enquiries you have made in relation to the services We offer.

    Marketing

    In addition to the above uses We may use your information to notify you about goods or services which may be of interest to you. If you do not want Us to use your data in this way, please either (i) tick the relevant box situated on your service charter on which We collect your data; (ii) unsubscribe from our electronic communications using the method indicated in the relevant communication; or (iii) inform Us at any time by contacting Us at the contact details set out below.

    DISCLOSURE OF YOUR INFORMATION

    We routinely disclose your personal data to third parties as follows:

    • We pass your information to Best Practice, who provide us with various compliance services. Best Practice is a separate data controller, and details of what they do with your data can be found here: https://www.bestpractice.co.uk/best-practice/privacy-policy.
    • We may pass your information to our third-party service providers, agents, subcontractors and other associated organisations for the purposes of completing tasks and providing services to you on our behalf (e.g. to host our servers).

    We may disclose your personal data to any member of our corporate group, which means our subsidiaries, our ultimate holding company and its subsidiaries, as defined in section 1159 of the UK Companies Act 2006 (where applicable).

    We may also disclose your personal data to third parties:

    • in the event that We sell or buy any business or assets, in which case We may disclose your personal data to the prospective seller or buyer of such business or assets; or
    • if We or substantially all of our assets are acquired by a third party, in which case personal data held by Us about our customers will be one of the transferred assets; or
    • if We are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data in order to comply with any legal obligation, or in order to enforce or apply our client agreement/service charter; or
    • to protect Our rights, property, or safety or that of our affiliated entities and our users and any third party We interact with the to provide the Website; or
    • in relation to selected third parties only, only to the extent that you have consented to such selected third parties notifying you about certain goods or services, which may be if interest to you.

    Other than as set out above and save insofar as is necessary in order for Us to carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and Us or with any regulatory or other legal obligation, We will not share your data with third parties unless We have procured your express consent to do so.

    STORING YOUR PERSONAL DATA

    Security

    We take appropriate measures to ensure that any personal data are kept secure, including security measures to prevent personal data from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed in an unauthorised way. We limit access to your personal data to those who have a genuine business need to know it. Those processing your information will do so only in an authorised manner and are subject to a duty of confidentiality.

    We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where We are legally required to do so.

    Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although We will do our best to protect your personal data, We cannot guarantee the security of your data transmitted to the Website; any transmission is at your own risk. Once We have received your information, We will use strict procedures and security features to try to prevent unauthorised access.

    The Website may, from time to time, contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks, advertisers and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies

    and terms of use and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies and terms of use. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.

    Keeping your personal data up to date

    If your personal details change you may update them by accessing this data through the wealth platform portal, or by contacting Us using the contact details below. If you have any questions about how We use data collected which relates to you, please contact Us by sending a request by email to admin@bluewealth.co.uk

    We will endeavour to update your personal data within 5 working days of any new or updated personal data being provided to Us, in order to ensure that the personal data We hold about you is as accurate and up to date as possible.

    How long we keep your personal data

    • We will hold personal data (e.g. name, address, date of birth and contact details) in line with our regulatory and legal obligations as set out by our regulator – currently a minimum of 5 years for investment business and indefinitely for occupational pension transfer or opt-out business.
    • If you contact Us as a prospective customer using Our e-mail address or via Our Website contact form, requesting general information about our services, We will hold that personal data you choose to provide such as your name, address, e-mail address, for 12 months from Our last point of contact.

    Where we store your personal data

    All of the information that We hold about you is stored on our secure servers within the EEA.

    The data that We collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”). By submitting your personal data, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is held securely and in accordance with this Policy. Countries outside the EEA do not have the same data protection laws as the United Kingdom and EEA and We have therefore ensured that any of our suppliers who may transfer your personal data outside the EEA has put in place appropriate measures to protect your data, either by being a member of the US-EU Privacy Shield, or by entering into a European Commission approved contract (as permitted under Article 46(5) of the General Data Protection Regulation).

    If you would like further information, please contact Us or the Compliance Director at Best Practice (see ‘Contact’ below). We will not otherwise transfer your personal data outside of the United Kingdom or EEA or to any organisation (or subordinate bodies) governed by public international law or which is set up under any agreement between two or more countries.

    YOUR RIGHTS

    Under the General Data Protection Regulation you have a number of important rights free of charge. In summary, those include rights to:

    • access to your personal data and to certain other supplementary information that this Policy is already designed to address
    • require Us to correct any mistakes in your information which We hold
    • require the erasure of personal data concerning you in certain situations
    • receive the personal data concerning you which you have provided to Us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and have the right to transmit those data to a third party in certain situations
    • object at any time to processing of personal data concerning you for direct marketing
    • object to decisions being taken by automated means which produce legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affect you
    • object in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal data
    • otherwise restrict our processing of your personal data in certain circumstances
    • claim compensation for damages caused by our breach of any data protection laws.

    For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the Guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individuals rights under the General Data Protection Regulation.

    If you would like to exercise any of those rights, please:

    • email, call or write to US or our Compliance Director at Best Practice (see the ‘Contact’ section below for details).
    • let Us have enough information to identify you [(e.g. account number, user name, registration details)],
    • let Us have proof of your identity and address (a copy of your driving licence or passport and a recent utility or credit card bill), and
    • let Us know the information to which your request relates [including any account or reference numbers, if you have them]

    HOW TO COMPLAIN

    We hope that We or our Compliance Director can resolve any query or concern you raise about our use of your information.

    The General Data Protection Regulation also gives you right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the European Union (or European Economic Area) state where you work, normally live or where any alleged infringement of data protection laws occurred. The supervisory authority in the UK is the Information Commissioner who may be contacted at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/ or telephone: 0303 123 1113.

    CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY POLICY

    We reserve the right to modify this Policy at any time. Any changes We may make to our Policy in the future will be notified and made available to you using the Website. Your continued use of the services and the Website shall be deemed your acceptance of the varied privacy policy.

    INFORMATION ABOUT OUR USE OF COOKIES

    We may collect information about [your mobile phone, computer or other device from which you access the Website] including where available [your IP address, operating system and browser type], for systems administration [and to report aggregate information to third party affiliates]. This is statistical data about our users’ browsing actions and patterns and does not identify any individual. We may, however, use such information in conjunction with the data We have about you in order to track your usage of our services.

    Our Website uses cookies to distinguish you from other users of our Website. This helps Us to provide you with a good experience when you browse our Website and also allows Us to improve the Website. By using our Website, you agree to our use of cookies as more specifically set out below.

    A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that We store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer’s hard drive.

    The cookies We use include:

    • “Analytical” cookies. They allow Us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around the Website when they are using it. This helps Us to improve the way our Website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.
    • “Strictly necessary” cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our Website. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our Website, use a shopping cart or make use of e-billing services.
    • “Functionality” cookies. These are used to recognise you when you return to our Website. This enables Us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).
    • “Targeting” cookies. These cookies record your visit to our Website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed to our affiliates’ websites. We will use this information to make our Website, offers e-mailed to you and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose.

    Please note that third party affiliates may also use cookies, over which We have no control.

    You may block cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to block all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of the Website. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies as soon as you visit our Website.

    CONTACT

    All questions, comments and requests regarding this Privacy and Cookies Policy should be addressed to Robert Bowers, admin@bluewealth.co.uk or write to Us at 3 Westbury Mews, Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol, BS9 3QA. Or alternatively please contact our Compliance Director at Best Practice IFA Group Ltd, Holmwood House, Broadlands Business Campus, Langhurstwood Road, Horsham, West Sussex, RH12 4QP, telephone number 01403 334455, or via email at info@bestpractice.co.uk