Steve is in his early 60’s, Susan in her mid 50’s. They have two daughters in their mid-twenties.  They live a relaxed, comfortable life with time, money and energy to the things they love doing. But when Steve and Susan first came to see us, they were a million miles from feeling like that.

We first met after they were referred to us by their accountant, who had suggested that they look at making pension contributions from their business – which had had a good year.

This was around 8 years ago and was about 5 years before Steve was looking to sell his business – and retire.  This is not an unusual time in people’s lives for them to be considering taking some significant financial action and the trigger is often the need for a pension.

It became apparent in our early discussions that Steve wasn’t really sure why he was aiming to retire in 5 years’ time. He certainly didn’t know when he should go or what he was going to do when he did retire. He just felt that 60 seemed logical and given some industry developments specific to his business he wasn’t sure that business was sustainable much beyond that time

Although Steve and Susan had historically taken an ad hoc approach to their financial planning they had successfully acquired a number of pensions that amounted to a reasonable sum. They also had some savings and a couple of cash ISA’s each. This ad- hoc approach to finances is typical of almost everyone we meet.

We spent some time with Steve and Susan understanding what it was that they were hoping to still achieve. We wanted to instil a purpose to their planning and to give structure, direction and meaning to the myriad financial products they had collected.

We needed to understand where they wanted to go before we could help them to get there. Steve wanted to spend a little more time following his hobbies and Susan did not want to work in the business any more. She had aspirations of doing something entirely different – work in a primary school.

We liaised with their accountants and discussed how best to structure the exit from the business. Although there was no real value in the business, there was plant and premises that could be realised for some value.

We also referred them to a solicitor to get their house in order with Wills and Powers of Attorney.

Given the figures we were given by the accountant we were able to understand how likely it was that Steve and Susan could do what they wanted to do, and live their retirement on their terms, without the fear of running out of money.

It turned out that the future was bright. They were able to do all that they wanted to do – and sooner than they had ever imagined. With some initial saving commitments completed Steve would be able to retire earlier and Susan could begin her new career sooner than anticipated.

8 years on and Susan is far more fulfilled by her role and Steve is spending his days doing what he wants to do (mixed in with a seemingly endless list of DIY jobs around the house!). They have recently received an inheritance from Susan’s parents and as a result are able to look at some inheritance tax planning themselves and look to help their daughters in their own ventures.

This resulted in a referral back to their solicitor to assist with the drafting of a Deed of Variation and use of Trusts to ensure they retained some control of the funds as Trustees of the Trust.

We now regularly meet with both solicitor and accountant to discuss the strategy that we have implemented to ensure that it remains the right course of action.

Steve and Susan’s case demonstrates the benefit of coherent planning. Whilst they may have thought they wanted to see us about pension planning, they left with a plan that focussed on what they wanted to achieve with their lives. It was a plan with purpose and it removed the uncertainty and trepidation that they felt when they walked into our office.

We have since become good friends as well as a trusted accountability partner to them. We help them to consistently make better financial decisions and avoid making bad ones (especially important in the current economic climate and the doom and gloom of the mainstream media!). That has meant a better financial future for them than if we had never been introduced to them.

We are very grateful to their accountant for thinking of us, as are Steve and Susan.