This month’s team spotlight is the Richard Peters, one of our financial planners, talking teamwork, studying and drumming.

You may already be aware of the imminent departure of Neil and Helen Bailey, two colleagues who have been part of the bedrock of Fortitude since the very beginning. If you’re not, we’d like to take this opportunity to celebrate their contribution and explain what their departure means for the business.

What’s surprising is that our approach to money, our financial personality, isn’t something that takes shape only when we start earning; it begins much earlier. Let’s look at how our early associations with money can have repercussions for decades to come, and how we can build a more fulfilling relationship in future.

Being able to show, rather than tell, is a great opportunity to demonstrate the value of proper planning. In recent months two key members of Fortitude transitioned into retirement – or to put it another way, have been carrying out their own life plan in real time. 

We’re spotlighting the Fortitude team over the coming months. Next up to the podium is our wonderful Paraplanner, Niamh.

Lockdown is and has been a serious challenge for all of us, so this time we're catching up with our retired Fortitude colleagues to see how they've been getting on and what they expect from the future.

Once you’ve got your money planned out for your retirement years, you can think even further ahead. It’s not the cheeriest of thoughts, but you do need to decide what will happen to your wealth when you die.

Today in the spotlight chair we have none other than Director Chris Bowmer. Here’s what he had to say.

If you decide to take some money out of your pensions or investments, you’ll need to think carefully about how to do it in the most tax-efficient way. The last thing you want to do is hand half of it over to HMRC!

At some point,  you’ll probably want to free up some money from your investments and pension pots, either just to maintain your standard of living – or to do something big and exciting. It’s all there for the taking, but how can you know what’s a safe amount to withdraw?

We believe that there’s more to life than money. That’s why when we help our clients plan for retirement, the focus is always on how much fun you can pack into your retirement years, rather than just how much cash you can accumulate in the bank.

As we locked down in late March, it was hard to imagine that we would see global markets return to the levels of pre-lockdown society as early as June. We have just lived through one of the most volatile quarters the world has borne witness to.

We’ve looked at your spending and what you want to achieve. Now you can assess exactly what wealth you have to work with.

Just a few months after delivering his first Budget as Chancellor, Rishi Sunak delivered a Summer Statement, dubbed a ‘mini-Budget’ on Wednesday 8th July 2020.

If we strip away the mystery, retirement planning is about getting an idea of how you want your retirement to look. And then taking the right steps to make it happen.

As your financial planners, we take the time to understand you. When you work with us you’ll be dealing with real people, whether it’s over the phone or face to face.

So, it seems only fair that you get to know us in return. Starting with Alex Allcock-Rouse, our Client Support Technician, we will be spotlighting our team over the coming months. Here’s what he had to say.

It’s never too soon to start planning for retirement – it will sneak up on you quicker than you think! But where do you start? 

We’re here to show you how simple it can be. You can even do a lot of it yourself, if you have the time and the inclination. 

As wonderful and helpful as this technology is, we can’t help feeling that it leaves something to be desired. And that something is human connection.

‘Heuristics’ allow us to make a judgement, reach a decision or solve a problem using as little time and effort as possible. The problem is that the very purpose of heuristics, to bypass detail, to simplify information, means that they give us a skewed picture.

You know we like to keep things simple for you at Fortitude. So rather than you having to plough through all the recent tax change announcements, here’s a handy roundup of the new rules and regulations that could have an impact on your financial plans.