When financial planning is about more than just money

Clarion adds value to all our clients’ lives, but it can often be the non-financial ways that are the most life-changing.

Catherine Parry was introduced to Clarion by her father when she bought her first property in 1997.

Catherine, 51, is originally from Shropshire and her husband Gareth, 47, hails from North Wales. They met out in Australia and Gareth joined her as a Clarion client three years ago.

Parkinson’s disease nurse specialist Catherine has worked for the NHS for 30 years and Gareth is a self-employed electrician.

They had been living in London long-term with their two children, Gethin, 13, and Nia, 12.

After being in the London property market since the late 90s, the family’s wealth was entirely tied up in their self-renovated five-bed family home in Balham valued at £1.4million.

They had long been thinking of a move and a change of lifestyle, but a period of negative equity, busy careers and a clash in motivation levels had led to inaction.

However, with a pandemic as the backdrop, Clarion’s client care process proved to be the catalyst.

Having a crystal-clear understanding of our client’s motivations and desired outcomes is key in enabling us to provide the tailored advice that we pride ourselves on.

As part of Clarion’s Annual Planning Meeting, we ask our clients to complete a Vision and Goals Analysis.

This is a detailed document which aims to get our clients thinking about their objectives and the lives they want to live – importantly, the questionnaire is not focused on clients’ money, but on their aspirations, hopes and concerns.

For the Parrys, their Vision and Goals Analysis arrived at just the right time. The whole family had been in isolation for 10 days with Covid in October 2021 and it was the first time in years they had the time to fully think through how they saw their lives panning out.

The document asked a lot of trigger questions that made the couple fully reflect on their situation.

Catherine was burnt out by nursing ventilated covid patients, their sport-mad son had no opportunities at school and their daughter was not enjoying her first year at her large inner London state secondary.

Catherine and Gareth realised that they did not want to continue living in London. They wanted to live in a less crowded area and to release the accumulated wealth in their property to fund their new priorities.

Although they had a lovely home, they only had a very small outdoor space and were overlooked from all angles. For their children, they wanted better school experiences, more sporting opportunities and to have space for animals. As a family, they needed more space and better quality of life at a slower pace, close to relatives.

Gareth was looking for the opportunity to pursue property development and Catherine needed to take time off to decompress from her time on the covid frontline, with the possibility of retraining as a counsellor.

They had a substantial amount of money tied up in their property but much lower cash flow so releasing that equity was important.

Their Clarion Financial Planner Peter Butcher discussed the financial implications of the potential move and reviewed the long-term position via Catherine and Gareth’s bespoke Financial Plan.

By Christmas 2021, discussions with Peter had given them the confidence that the plan would be a success, with Catherine’s stipulation any move had to be completed within six months to ensure the least amount of disruption to the children’s education.

In the new year, the London house went on the market and so began the search for a new home.

They soon established they were not going to swap one built-up busy town for another so began to look at more rural locations in Shropshire close to Catherine’s parents.

Last summer the Parrys completed the move to a beautiful Grade II listed 4-bed cottage in 2.2 acres of land in rural Oswestry.

Both children love their new school. Gethin has access to fantastic sporting facilities and numerous activities while Nia is thriving academically in a much smaller school.

With Peter’s expertise, Catherine and Gareth are now mortgage-free, something they realised had become a priority to them after understanding the upcoming financial uncertainty and its potential effects on mortgages. They have been able to fund the private school fees as well as account for their own long-term financial requirements.

He worked closely with the couple to build into their financial plan capacity for Catherine to take a year out of work initially to recover from her period in ITU with covid patients and help the family settle into their new life with their new dog to give them peace of mind.

Catherine admits that if they hadn’t had the Visions and Goals Analysis questionnaire, she doesn’t think we would have made the move, that their new life would have continued to be something they just thought about, rather than lived.

The financial solution

The Parrys’ Financial Planner Peter Butcher explained how Clarion achieved the family’s goals: “After a detailed discussion around Gareth and Catherine’s objectives, in conjunction with their bespoke Financial Plan, we were able to determine the requirements for our future strategy. Using a Cash Flow Model, we looked at how the various potential solutions impacted their situation; this gave Gareth and Catherine a clear sense of both what their future could look like and also the understanding of the rationale behind the recommendations.

“Holding a suitable amount of cash was one of the first areas we addressed. This is an important aspect for anyone’s financial plan, but even more so when there is the prospect of a future investment property.

“We then set up several investments, with each investment having their own characteristics, the combination of which created a tax-efficient solution that provided Gareth and Catherine with the ability to flexibly access their funds when required. Given the need to use the funds to pay for the new school fees, accessibility was critical for them. The investments also allowed Gareth and Catherine to have the funds invested in a manner that matched their risk appetite while maximising the investment returns.

“As well as paying for the school fees, the investments will also be used to provide additional retirement funding for Gareth and Catherine. It was therefore vital to ensure that the investments also complemented the existing retirement provisions.”

If you would like to talk to a trusted financial planner about how you could make the next phase of your life happen, please contact us on 01625 466 360 or email [email protected].