Diary of Adviser: Trevor Goodbun

In the afternoon I carried out some calculations for someone taking flexible retirement from a large DB scheme. The scheme lists me as an adviser and I get a fair amount of new business through this.

Last year I started canoeing and kayaking, so on Monday nights I go to the canoe club to attend a course on improving my skills. And, yes, there is more to it than one might think.

Tuesday

I updated our Yellow pages advert - that is right, Yellow Pages. We are now one of the biggest advertisers in our local version and we get a reasonable amount of business through it. I am also quite proud of the ad - we get a lot of comments about how it stands out as being different to most of the others.

I then read through an actuarial report in relation to a divorce case where I am acting as the pensions subject expert. I will be meeting with the clients and their solicitors next week.

More often than not the member does not know they are going to get caught until it is too late

Later on I meet with a new client who is having to consider drawdown in order to release tax free cash as part of a divorce settlement.

Wednesday

I prepared a report on the pros and cons on the scheme paying the annual allowance charge for a new client who had a nasty shock when he found out he had a £40,000 tax bill. I do have to say that I find the way the annual allowance works in relation to DB schemes to be particularly nasty. More often than not the member does not know they are going to get caught until it is too late.

In the afternoon I meet with a prospective client who wanted advice on their retirement options. She could afford to retire but was not sure if she wanted to yet. I agreed to prepare a report outlining her options.

Thursday

In the morning I presented a pension switching report. The advice was to stay with the existing provider due to the guarantees available. The only challenge was the four months it has taken to get the provider to confirm that what I was telling them about their own policy was correct. I know a lot of advisers are anti-RDR and fees, but in the main we have found the results to be positive not least in the sense people are aware that advice is not free. This makes it a lot easier to charge for reports such as these.

Friday

I spent too much time worrying about and writing blogs on risk profiling. I am concerned that detailed psychometric questioning and using volatility as a proxy for risk loses sight of the client’s main concern, that is, what the risk is that they will lose money.

I then completed a report to present next week with my recommendations for autoenrolment. It is the first auto-enrolment case we have done and while it took longer than I expected I now have an effective template for the future.

Trevor Goodbun is a partner of Norwich-based Wensum Financial Planning