Here we are at session number 85 , and today I’m lgoing to be talking to my good friend Tina Weeks of Serenity Financial Planning in London about the emerging discipline of Financial Life Planning. More on that in just a short while.

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But first…

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Introduction

Tina Weeks is a leading light in the financial planning community in the UK for many reasons. She was an early adopter of Twitter giving her one of the largest follower counts on that network of any adviser in the UK financial services profession. She is very involved with the Institute of Financial Planning and sits on various committees with that excellent organisation, and she is a leading proponent of financial life planning.

Financial Life Planning is financial planning but with a particular emphasis on helping clients articulate goals and dreams and then placing them in the context of their finances, rather than starting with the money and working out from there. Tina explains it much bette than me, so I’ll just let her get on with it!

This isn’t a particularly long interview, because Tina is very economical with her words – a real gift in my opinion and one I’d like to learn from.

Interview

These are the questions I asked Tina, and the key notes. Check out the Transcript (coming soon) for the full conversation.

Who are you and what do you do?

Founded Serenity Financial Planning in 2010

What is financial life planning? How does it differ from ‘traditional' financial advice or financial planning?

Rather than sitting down and looking at the financial products in place and fill in any gaps, financial planning starts with the clients' needs and wants and organises the money around that. Financial Life Planning takes things further again and uses gentle questioning techniques to help clients visualise and articulate their life goals and hopes and aspirations. How can clients organise their finances to achieve these needs. It's less about building as big a pot of money as possible, and more about establishing what financial freedom means.

Where does the idea come from? How did you come across it and get involved?

There are several proponents of the structured financial life planning process. The Kinder Institute advocates a method called EVOKE, which stands for Exploration, Vision, Obstacles, Knowledge and Execution.

Are there some books or websites that listeners could read to familiarise themselves with the concept?

Google is a good place to start, but some specific books are both by George Kinder: Seven Stages of Money Maturity and Life Planning For You

What does the financial life planning process look like in practice?

It takes the basic financial planning process, and adds on life planning exercises such as the EVOKE method. A key part is identifying regrets and trying to rectify them before it is too late. Tina mentions a book by Bronnie Ware called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying

What benefits have you seen as an adviser and what benefits do your clients report?

Clients report that they value the peace of mind and reduced stress that comes from the life planning process. This satisfaction has a knock-on effect on Tina's business, but Tina reports that it has made a difference to her life because the joy clients experience is contagious.

Is this for everyone, or does it suit a particular kind of person/financial situation?

We Brits can dismiss so-called “touchy-feely” stuff, but financial life planning is about helping people to live the best life they can live. The money is just the financial architecture to enable that to happen. Everyone can benefit, but not everyone can afford to pay the fees. Books like Life Planning For You can help people go through at least some of the way through the process on their own.

How can people who are interested find a financial life planner? What should they look out for in determining the right adviser for them?

There aren't many registered life planners. The Kinder Institute website does have a list of UK registered life planners using their method. You can just search financial life planning and you should get some options. Check out lifeplanning4you.com too. Do take advantage of a free initial consultation with an advisers to gauge how you feel about the relationship. It's important that you can trust your adviser as this is a very important, hopefully long term relationship.

How can people find out more about you and everything you're doing in this area with Serenity FP?

Serenity Website: serenityfp.com Plus, you can just Google Tina Weeks and you'll find her!

Summary

My reading of the whole life planning movement is that there are many people who can benefit form the particular emphasis that it offers, and other who might be turned off by it. But that’s true of pretty much anything. I happen to like musical theatre, but some people would rather stick knitting needles in their ears than listen to Les Mis.

We’re all different, and that’s good. Financial Life Planning offers a level of depth to financial planning which is often absent. Money is an intrinsically emotional subject, because it both enables and disables us from doing so many things. Starting with the things that are really important to us and making the money fit around them is what all financial planners should be doing. Many are not, but maybe that’s fine for you.

I hope you enjoyed the interview. Do check Tina and Serenity FP out. She is one of few advisers in the country I would send my own family to if they needed advice (and I wasn’t around, of course!)

This week’s reviews

[This is where I read the reviews]

If you like what you hear on this podcast, please leave a rating or review on iTunes by going to meaningfulmoney.tv/iTunes just like Miss Money Pocket, ashish275 and MBamford did this last week. This helps others to hear about the show and to subscribe, because it keeps me near the top of the rankings.

News

Dropped two pounds to 16st dead. Feels like things are heading in the right direction. Well settled into a decent wintertime exercise regime and back onto the Primal eating plan too – watch this space.

Next Session Announcement

Next time I’ll be talking to two more of my friends: Martin Bamford and Justin King. They have recently produced a documentary and a book looking at the challenges facing retiring baby boomers, those born between 1945 and 1964. This important cohort of people are approaching retirement and face many challenges in retirement that previous generations did not. The film and the book are a real eye-opener, and Justin and Martin will be chatting through their experiences in researching for the project. It’s a great conversation and I look forward to sharing it next week.

If you have a question on this subject, or any other financial query that you want answering here on the show, then the best way to do that is to leave me a voicemail at meaningfulmoney.tv/askpete

Outro

That's it for this session of the MM podcast, I hope it was helpful. If I missed anything or if you have any questions, please leave them comments section below.

I hope you enjoyed this session. Thanks for listening – I'll talk to you next time.