Financial Planning And Wealth Management

Financial planning and wealth management are terms used quite interchangeably by the financial services industry, perhaps because from their point of view,either way. it’s just sales of financial products and services to generate revenue for their businesses.

But as a consumer it makes sense to make a clear distinction between the 2 terms.Personally,l’m of the opinion that the latter can delegated but never the former,at least the value based part.

Financial Planning involves articulating exactly what you wish to do with your life and figuring out how you can ensure the financial wherewithal to do so.Of course there are plenty of financial planners out there with cookie-cutter financial plans along the lines of :X months emergency fund,corpus for down payment for house,EMI for house,2.5 or is it 1.5 in India ?kids education funds,retirement funds,health and life insurance,with perhaps a marriage fund in case of singles and funds to supports parents and other dependents.Taking the services of such a financial planner or simply spending time with a couple of templates of this nature downloaded from the net,is perfectly adequate for most regular folks.However,the more you deviate from the norm,the harder you’re going to find it to find a planner who shares values with you or is at least non-judgmental and lets you freely determine the value component of your financial plan.Personally,I find the personal in personal finance,pretty personal.And having had enough of the person who felt it necessary to warn me that more than one woman has been done in for her valuables,to the person who simply couldn’t get why I would want to get started on legacy planning before I had any children and the endless prattle and judgement on how couples or more precisely a woman with a man or those who hope to keep a man ought to handle financial matters,I no longer have a financial planner.However, I have had successively refined financial plans ever since I was 26 and drew up my first financial plan as part of a money mindfulness workshop.

Frankly,I find having a financial plan makes relaxed in money matters.And having my resources directed to achieving the things I really care about,rather than what the wider world tells us we ought to care about makes me happier.So having a financial plan is something I highly recommend every person has,in consultation with the significant people in your life.

As part of any financial plan,most probably a few financial vehicles are going to be chosen.In case of bigger and more complex plans,especially the ones more dependent on passive income and managing business assets to derive income,a body could do well to have assistance.Professional assistance.After all,there is only so much that a person can monitor closely or be the ultimate expert at.So wealth management is something you can and perhaps should delegate,especially if doing so produces better results after costs.

So,something like whether you should fully fund your children’s college education or leave your children an inheritance or not or how much,is something that ultimately only you can decide.Though there is no dearth of opinions ,advocacy and research on the topic.Experts could easily summarize them for you.So this part of financial planning,the decision making on competing values,is something you really can’t delegate.But how to grow a corpus,protect an inheritance,transfer it in a tax-efficient manner…..that sort of thing,wealth management,you would do well to take professional help.