According to a recent study, the value of using a financial advisor is a staggering £47K in average additional wealth per person; encompassing an extra £31K of pension uplift, and over £16K in non-pension wealth, so there can be no doubt that a financial advisor can positively change your overall financial situation and increase your income for retirement.

Whether you’ve worked with a financial advisor before, or it’s your first time, knowing the most constructive and worthwhile questions to ask them can seem daunting. However, it’s a valuable opportunity to receive meaningful guidance to help you achieve financial objectives. If you’re nervous about asking a “silly” question (by the way: there are no silly questions) or unsure how to maximise the value of a financial advisor, you’re not alone.  

As the experts, advisors will usually facilitate the conversation, so you don’t need to worry about knowing exactly what questions to ask; you only need to get the conversation started. So, we’ve set out some ideas of the questions you should be asking depending on where you are in your financial journey, as a helpful place to get going...

If you’re at the start of your financial journey…

At this point, you might have only just started to make waves in your career or perhaps beginning to build notable savings for a deposit to buy your first property or to set up an emergency fund.

• “How much should I be saving each month?”
• “How do I start saving?”
• “Should I start investing?”
• “How much do I need for a house deposit?”
• “How do I decide what my financial goals are?”

Knowing where to begin when it comes to investing in your future can be complicated. You might even feel that approaching a financial advisor for counsel when you’re not even sure what you need guidance on is preventing you from making decisions about your financial future.

However, approaching an advisor doesn’t need to be intimidating! Practically speaking, being in your twenties and thirties means that a lot of future financial projections apply to you as much, if not more than, an age group that presently has more financial considerations. Housing markets, Brexit uncertainty, student loan debts, budgeting and planning are just a few of the considerations about your future that the earlier you pay attention to, the better.

If you’re in the middle of your financial journey…  

As you approach this stage in your life, your priorities are changing - as should your financial planning.

• “Should I get a joint account with my partner?”
• “Can I afford to take a career break?”

Maybe you’re thinking about starting a family, remortgaging a house or changing career paths and you’re not sure what to prioritise - your pension, mortgage or your ISA. Maybe you’re worried about the financial responsibility of a child, and where those six - or was it seven? - pension pots from previous jobs are sitting now.

• “What should I be considering when I remortgage?”
• “How much should I be paying into my pension?”
• “Should I combine my pensions into one?”
• “How much will a child cost?”

At this point, guidance from an advisor will help you assess your finances and find the correct balance you need between spending and saving, as your earnings and expenditures usually peak and retirement planning grows in importance. With a financial advisor, you can navigate those tricky questions around appropriate trade-offs between mortgage payments and pension contributions, savings and investments, and assess whether your current arrangements are the right mix to support your financial goals.

If you’re at the end of your financial journey…

The golden years - hopefully, quite literally.  

• “How should I approach estate planning?”
• “How long will my pension last?”
• “Is my Will up-to-date?”
• “How do I financially look after my grandchildren?”

Sound familiar? You’ve likely already been thinking about your retirement for some time, or you might already be retired. Either way, you’ll probably be assessing the funds you need now and in the future, and the decisions you need to make may affect your standard of living for the rest of your life.

Not only can a financial advisor guide you through the options around taking your pension, but also everything from inheritance tax and protecting your estate from the taxman to will planning and protecting your assets for those you leave them to; whether that’s your children or an alpaca sanctuary.

At Bippit, we’re dedicated to supporting financial peace of mind throughout your lifetime by making it affordable and straightforward to access expert financial guidance. Before now, speaking to a financial advisor could cost you hundreds (even thousands) of pounds per hour, and you’d usually not even be able to meet with one unless you already had £50K in personal wealth. We’re democratising the financial advice landscape by reducing the cost by more than 10x (compared to traditional services).

So, wherever you are in your financial journey, and whatever your current financial goals are, you can receive expert guidance delivered by financial advisors and tailored to your unique financial situation. You don’t even need to leave your home; message advisors directly from your phone via our app!