It is perhaps little wonder that so few people are willing to discuss their finances with a professional adviser, when research shows that less than half of Britons (44 per cent) work with their spouse on long-term financial planning.
If you cannot talk through these issues with the person you share a bed with, then what chance is there for an IFA to get to the bottom of things?
Published ahead of Marriage Week, which began this weekend and runs to next Saturday, Blackrock clearly figured now was the perfect time to reveal results from last year’s investor pulse survey carried out amongst 2,000 UK adults.
It found that 13 per cent claimed talking money with their partner only causes arguments, with 11 per cent stating that they do not involve their other half at all in financial planning.
The US asset manager called it the “great British relationship taboo”, but maybe it goes deeper than that. I certainly remember being told that it was bad manners to talk about money in polite conversation.
Does this mean, then, that as a nation we are pre-disposed to secrecy when it comes to financial matters, hiding potential problems until they get too big to handle alone?
This is surely where a financial adviser comes in: preferably discussing matters with both sides of a couple, but at the very least making sure that an individuals’ ducks are all in a row.
Alex Hoctor-Duncan, savings and investments ‘expert’ at Blackrock, seemed to agree, stating: “For those couples who prefer to keep their finances separate, a financial adviser is always there as a third party to provide advice.”
It’s not something we’ve really covered in that much detail, but it would be interesting to get an idea of how many of you advisers assist couples, or whether you have experience of trying to solve financial problems that are kept from a wife or husband?
peter.walker@ft.com
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