All the best athletes employ coaches to make sure they’re at the top of their game – the same principles could work for your investments too.
Nick Colman, Financial Planning Writer
Last Updated: 14 August 2023
If you’re already investing, you’ve probably done your research – you know your ISAs from your EISs and your bonds from your gilts. You’ve read up on pension rules and kept on top of the stock market news. But does this knowledge always translate into the outcome you want?
Financial advice is for anyone who wants to get more from their money and plan for the future. If you’re not seeing the results you want or you’re not sure the plan you’re following is the best fit for you, then some coaching from a financial adviser could be a solution.
To put it in sporting terms: think about training for a marathon – you’ve bought some trainers and read Roger Bannister’s autobiography for inspiration. You’ve got the tools to get you to the finish line, but you might not make it in your target time.
An adviser can act like a sports coach to help you refine your ‘training’ and put a plan in place to help you achieve your goals.
Even if you’ve already got a plan in place, a second opinion can tell you if there could be a better way to reach your goals – or confirm that you’re on the right path and give you the confidence to carry on.
Just as a coach would review a team’s tactics, an adviser will look at where your strengths lie and where there’s room to improve. Like any good coach, your adviser can draw inspiration from past successes and explain how to apply similar principles to your situation. A good coach will explain these concepts in a way that’s easy to understand and act on.
Our mission at HL is to help people save and invest with confidence. By offering one-off advice, our advisers aim to give their clients the knowledge and confidence to carry on investing by themselves.
If you’d like more support, we do offer ongoing advice, which means yearly reviews of your portfolio and circumstances. Our one-off and ongoing advice charges differ. So, it’s worth discussing carefully with your adviser which service will give you the most value.
The important part of a client-adviser relationship is the mutual understanding of what you’re trying to achieve and how you’re going to get there. Team coaches ‘lose the dressing room’ when the whole team isn’t bought into the same idea.
What are you aiming for? It may sound obvious, but before you achieve anything you have to set realistic goals. You may have a simple goal to save more or retire comfortably. But in order to achieve that, you also need to have other, short- to medium-term goals, too.
For a sports coach, there’s a certain amount of taking each game as it comes, but there’s generally a bigger objective, too. An adviser can help you map out your financial future and understand how smaller goals build up to achieving something greater. Your adviser may also be able to suggest objectives that you hadn’t thought of or thought were out of reach.
It’s inevitable that your investment journey will have its highs and lows. Investing is a marathon, not a sprint. An adviser can help you manage your risk to make your investments and strategy resilient to setbacks. They can also offer support and the reassurance of having an expert on your side when the unexpected happens.
Remember - investments can go up and down in value, so you could get back less than you put in.
In the world of sport, different athletes respond differently to certain coaching styles. The same applies to our financial advice clients.
Some clients come to us for a helping hand but prefer a ‘hands off’ approach that allows them to keep control but act on the guidance of an adviser. Others prefer an adviser to take the reins and be more involved.
Our flexible approach to advice means that you choose what sort of advice is right for you. The first step is speaking to our advisory helpdesk. They will talk through your options, how we can help and advise on the charges if you decide to take advice.
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