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How our financial advisor works with you – When we meet a new client we are often asked about how we work with clients. This is a great conversation to have with any prospective financial adviser, as it is very easy for them to just tell you what they do i.e. they provide financial advice, arrange financial products, etc. However, we like to think at Harvest that it’s the way in which we work with you that helps us to stand apart from other financial advisers.

So how does a Harvest Financial Advisor Work with You?

It all starts with lots of listening

We start every new client relationship by doing a lot of listening. We seek to fully understand exactly what your objectives are, whether these are about building an effective retirement plan for you and your employees or indeed whether your objectives are in relation to your personal wealth. In these latter cases, we want to understand the life that you want to lead and what your future lifestyle looks like to you. Maybe one of your financial goals is to never run out of money, or to be able to retire at a certain age with a particular lifestyle.

Then it’s our job to help you to understand what it will take financially for you to achieve that life that you want to lead.

What’s your view of risk?

We then spend some time talking about risk. At the end of the day, the level of risk that you are willing to take in relation to investment or retirement funds could have a significant impact on the actual returns that you achieve, which in turn could determine whether or not your financial goals will be achieved.

So we spend a lot of time understanding your attitude to risk. We’ll want to understand if short term stock market events that affect your investment portfolio will keep you awake at night, and will you sweat over short-term losses? Or indeed are you an investor comfortable with risk and who takes market volatility in your stride? Each of these investors needs a different type of investment portfolio.

We’ll also want to build an understanding of your capacity to understand, and financially bear, the risks associated with different asset classes. Do you actually have the financial firepower to withstand any short-term losses along the road to potential gains? What level of loss over a given time period would you be willing to accept, either on the recommended investment or on the overall investment portfolio. This is another critical factor in advising on the right investment portfolio for you.

And then once we understand your financial goals and your risk profile, we’ll want to see where you are currently on your financial journey. Maybe you’re fully on track and just need some guidance, or indeed maybe you need to take more concerted action. So we’ll look to build a full picture of your current financial circumstances, as these will help us to see the size of the gap, if any, that you have to close in order to achieve your financial goals.

Then we advise

At this stage, we put our qualifications and experience to good use. We take all the inputs of your financial position, your investment needs and objectives, your risk appetite, your liquidity needs, your capital security needs and your current circumstances, and we analyse all of this information very carefully. Our goal is to develop a financial roadmap to guide you towards your financial goals, that ultimately will enable you to achieve your desired lifestyle.

This financial roadmap might include recommendations around financial products, a suite of investments from our list of recommended funds and the suitability of your current investment portfolio. It may also include suggestions around funding your retirement plan in the most effective way and protecting you and your family financially against unforeseen events such as serious illness and death, as these could completely undermine your financial goals.

The financial roadmap will demonstrate what’s needed for you to achieve your financial goals and we’ll then help you to implement the recommendations. If the required solutions are beyond your financial capacity at this stage, we’ll help you to make choices and to prioritise the different recommendations. And then we’ll agree a strategy to fully implement all of the required solutions on a phased basis.

Of course if there are financial products needed, we’ll advise on the most suitable products to meet your specific needs, etc.

Let the journey begin!

You might think that the job is now done. We don’t see it that way, in fact we see you now as simply having started your financial journey. The job is not done until your financial goals are achieved.

We will look to agree a schedule of regular review meetings with you. The purpose of these meetings is to keep you headed towards achieving your financial goals. Is the financial roadmap still the right plan? Are the solutions we put in place achieving as expected, or have better potential solutions emerged? Have your circumstances changed in a way that impacts the financial roadmap – maybe you’ve changed career or your family has grown?

We want to travel on your financial journey with you. We’ll help you make sense of any changes along the way and will adjust your financial roadmap accordingly. Our work ends at the same time as your financial journey ends i.e. when your financial goals are achieved.

We hope that this gives you a sense of how Harvest advisors work with clients and gives you a sense of the value of having a financial adviser in your corner.

How do I find out more?

To find out more about how a Harvest Financial Advisor works with you, please contact us on 01 237 5500 or email justask@harvestfinancial.ie and one of our advisors will be in touch.

The material is not intended to provide advice and is provided for general information purposes only.


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