Money matters for women

HELEN PERRIN: Our aim today is to provide you with some practical financial planning tips to improve your financial position no matter where you are on your financial journey. But first, let's start with some introductions. So I'm Helen Perrin. I've worked as a financial planner for more than 25 years now, the last 20 of which have been at WTW. And I now head up WTW's individual financial planning group in the UK.

During my time as a financial planner, I've worked with many female clients at different stages of life and facing different financial decisions to help them make the most of their personal finances. One lesson I've learned along the way is that the sooner we engage with our personal finances, the better, but it's never too late to start. So I'm keen to encourage you all to review your current financial position and take at least one action away from today's session.

And I'm lucky to be joined by two female financial planning experts from Atomos today to explore this important topic with us. A big welcome to Dawn Mealing and Jane Martin. Dawn has worked in financial planning and advice for more than three decades and leads the development of Atomos advice services, with a particular interest in financial planning for women and the development of the specialist female advice team at Atomos.

Dawn is going to focus on where we can go wrong when facing midlife challenges and, importantly, what we can do right at that time. Dawn, thank you very much for joining us today. Any key messages you want to open up with for women approaching midlife?

DAWN MEALING: Yeah. Thank you, Helen, and good morning, everyone. It's great to know that so many have joined us today. So as financial planners, we often see women who have put their finances on the back burner. And then as they move into their 50s, their thoughts turn to retirement, and worry sets in. So I'm thankful for the opportunity to share some practical insights today to get your finances in order during your 40s and 50s so that you have the financial security and are well-prepared for later life.

HELEN PERRIN: Great. Thank you, Dawn. And Jane, you've also worked in financial services for nearly 30 years, working with major insurance companies and accountancy firms to help individuals gain clarity around their personal finances. And I know from our discussions that you're especially passionate about supporting female clients in building financial confidence, and you're going to talk us through financial planning in the later stages of life today. Any teasers from you on what we're going to hear about today?

JANE MARTIN: Yes, Helen. So I, like Dawn, am really excited that we're doing this today, and it's especially meaningful for me, being a financial planner, because I do work with a high proportion of female clients. And that's not necessarily been by design. But females do tend to seek out female advisors, but it tends to be at certain times of life after a life event. So it can be a divorce, a separation, a bereavement. And invariably, that's quite late in life.

And some of those ladies do share with me one regret is that they wish they'd done something sooner. So it's fabulous to be doing this today. It's great that everybody that's dialed on us to do something has taken one positive action to do something sooner. And if you get anything from today and you do anything, your future self will thank you for that. So really looking forward to this making a meaningful difference.

HELEN PERRIN: Great. Thank you, Jane. And on that point, we will be surveying you after the webinar to find out what actions you might be considering as a result of that. So we're really keen to hear those thoughts. And you can also use our Q&A function at the top of your screen to make any comments as well as ask questions. So please do that.

And whilst we do want to answer all of your questions-- and do ask as many questions as possible-- I just need to cover that by saying that we can't provide you with financial advice in today's group session, but we will do our best to answer your questions as long as they don't stray into advice. And we'll signpost those options as well for those of you who would value some individual support. When asking your questions, you can choose to ask those anonymously if you prefer to. So you just need to toggle to the anonymous option in the Q&A to do that.

And then another quick caveat before I share my first slide. We want today to be about practical financial tips to help you rather than lots of statistics to highlight the wealth gap between men and women. However, cause and solution are, of course, linked, so it's perhaps worth us starting with just a few stats to demonstrate the gender wealth gap and highlight some of the contributing factors which have led to the need to run something like this today with that dedicated female financial planning session. So I will just share my slides.

So there are lots of figures quoted for the gender wealth gap. And we at WTW have collaborated with the World Economic Forum on this topic and found that women globally accumulate to 74% of the wealth of men by retirement age. And the stats around the gender pension gap suggest a higher gap for pension savings at around a third by age 55. Interestingly, the research suggests that the wealth gap between men and women is actually higher for those in senior positions. Now, when you look at some of the reasons for the wealth gap, that's perhaps not as surprising as it first sounds that the higher your earnings, the greater the gap is likely to be relative to a man working in a similar career.

Now, we're not even going to touch on the gender pay gap in this session. That would take up an hour on its own, I think. But career progress delays caused by women taking on a greater share of family responsibilities and being more likely to take time out of the workplace or work part-time are a big contributory factor.

And those career breaks are not just down to caring for family. So women working through the menopause have also reported reducing hours and leaving work due to menopause symptoms and potentially retiring sooner. And I know when we were discussing this before today's call, it's very rare for us to find a female client who wants to go on working much past 60, which could be related to that but something to be aware of as well.

So financial confidence is another reason often cited for the wealth gap. And you'll see here on the slide that 73% of women don't feel confident investing their money versus 58% of men. And evidence suggests that women and men address that lack of confidence in slightly different ways too, with women more likely to retain money in cash and safer amounts or safer investments and men more likely to take advice on investing and delegating that decision-making to a professional.

And when we were preparing for this session today, we spoke to colleagues, friends, and family between the three of us about why that is, with a lack of trust often reported back to us. So that perception of financial advisors as salesmen desperate to get their hands on our money and sell us a product or women feeling patronized or overlooked when taking advice, particularly with a male partner. But it shouldn't be that way.

So Dawn, Jane, and I were discussing this, and we all agreed that if we're working with a client who is in a long-term relationship and wants to address their financial planning as a couple-- and there might be times when they don't want to, which is also fine. But if they do and a couple are pooling their finances, will encourage both partners to attend every meeting and be equally involved with financial planning decisions. It makes absolute sense to consider the views of both partners to make sure a financial plan addresses those equally and to retain that relationship as well, especially when with women living longer than men on average, they're ultimately inheriting family wealth in many cases.

So we all get very frustrated with the reputation of the industry, which has been tarnished in the past by some bad financial advisors working on commissions to sell products rather than provide that holistic financial planning. Our regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, has taken steps to address that, and the profession has moved on. So good financial planning should involve building a financial plan with a couple where relevant, which may or may not include products. And an advisor's role is to explain everything clearly to their clients. And if we can't explain a product clearly to a client in a way that they fully understand, we wouldn't want them to invest in it.

Now, I should say we're not saying that all female financial advisors are holistic, empathetic, and impartial, and all-male advisors are patronizing and salesmen. That's far from true. I know some very good male financial advisors. But what we are saying is, if you speak to an advisor, whether they're male or female, if they don't make you feel included, valued, or understood, or they don't explain your options clearly, then just don't work with them. There's going to be a better option out there for you.

And then just one more interesting stat to share with you before we get started with the main content of today is on engagement levels by women with long-term financial planning decisions. I find this stat really interesting, actually, in terms of what we were saying about encouraging women to get involved sooner. So a recent Wealthify study found that only 23% of women globally take charge of their long-term financial planning decisions but that 76% of widows and divorcees wish they had been involved in those decisions whilst they'd been married.

So we'll pick up on that point a little bit later around some of the triggers we've seen for women to approach us to take advice and how we all wish they'd been much more proactive from a younger age. But it's never too late. So don't be discouraged if you're focusing on this for the first time.

And to bring that to life, we're going to take you through financial planning for women through different life stages. Now, we fully appreciate that not everyone's life is going to follow the exact same pattern, and we all have different situations. So even just taking the three of us, I have two children under the age of 12. I've been in a long-term relationship for the last 18 years. But despite getting engaged in 2012, we haven't yet got married.

Now, as a financial advisor, I should probably be telling myself to consider that for the budget coming next month in terms of inheritance tax from April 27 and the inclusion of pensions because actually, there are some tax planning advantages to being married. But for now, cohabiting with my partner and raising our two children. Dawn is happily single, and Jane is now happily married with her second husband, having previously been through the divorce process firsthand as well as supporting lots of clients through that. So we've all got our own personal experiences to bring, as well as those that we've been through with clients.

And not all of the topics we discuss will be relevant to every woman who's joined us today. We know that. But we hope there will be a couple of scenarios which resonate with each of you, either for your own personal financial position or perhaps for children, relatives, or loved ones, making sure that we each do our own bit to address the wealth gap now and for future generations.

And actually, I'm going to start from childhood here. Now, you may think there's not a lot I can do in terms of financial education for young children, but actually, our relationship with money starts from such a young age. And there's no formal financial education at school to support us in managing our personal finances.

Research shows that parents, particularly dads, are more likely to speak to their sons about personal finances than their daughters. So that's something those of you with children can change from today. So I'd encourage you to normalize conversations about money with all of your children, regardless of gender.

And there are some really useful guides actually available to talking to your children about money on the Money Helper website. So we'll mention that quite a bit today, and we've included lots of links to that in the useful resources sheet that we'll share after the session. But Money Helper is an impartial source of information on personal finance matters sponsored by the government. So do take a look at those guides if relevant. And as I say, we've included that link in the useful resources follow-up.

So turning to young adults, most young adults will be facing competing demands on their money, with rent and living costs taking up a large proportion of their income. And they may also be trying to save for a house deposit at the same time and actually wanting to enjoy their first paychecks too. But it's a great time to form some of those good financial habits. So starting to use a budget planner to understand what income is coming in and going out each month is a great tip. And using impartial sources of information to work out how much rent you can afford to pay, for example, how to save for an emergency fund, and what bank account might work best and give the most competitive return for your time frame.

Now, when seeking out sources of information, it's really important to seek those right sources and impartial sources of information out. There are lots of influencers today. So influencers are social media personalities who use their platform to promote financial products and share insights and advice with their followers.

And many of those are acting legitimately and actually encouraging open discussions about money, which I think is great. But others tout products or services illegally and without authorization through online videos and posts where they use this lavish lifestyle, often a false representation of that, to promote success. So the city watchdog has reported increasing numbers of young people especially falling victim to scams, with influencers playing their part in that.

So I saw a stat the other day. I think it's something like 70% of young people do follow influencers, and influencers are part of that. So I'd encourage young adults to seek out impartial sources of information, such as the government-sponsored Money Helper website, which is a great guide to supporting yourself financially for young adults aged 16 to 24. And to fact-check any information provided on social media platforms is also a good tip.

And I think, at this age, investing for your future through pensions and other long-term savings, products can seem like something way too far about in the future to worry about. But investing at a younger age can make a real difference to your financial future. So as a minimum, I would encourage people to at least maximize your employer's pension contribution by paying the maximum match contribution if that's the structure that your employer follows, which is an increasingly popular structure for pension contributions.

So if you can find the money to pay the maximum employee amount that gets the maximum match from the employer, I'd really encourage you to do that. I look at it in terms of, would you give up a 4% salary increase, for example, if your employer offered it? Well, actually, probably not many of us would do. So I think if you can then get the extra amount from your employer as a pension contribution, it's the same thing.

And this chart here shows that each pound paid into your pension and longer-term savings vehicles at a younger age is likely to have that much more impact on your future savings than money paid later in life. And that's because investment returns compound, which means we get growth on growth or interest on interest. So delays in saving will have a big impact on how much you can get back. And bear in mind as well that within a pension wrapper, 50 pounds a month costs you less than that with tax savings as well.

Now, I also want to talk to younger women and women of all ages about risk. So research suggests that women take less financial risk when investing. That may seem like a good thing, and it can be if you're talking about betting on red or putting all your money in one company share. But this chart shows the performance of different asset classes over a 25-year term. And you'll see that equities or shares in companies have significantly outperformed other asset classes.

That's not to say that there haven't been dips along the way, but typically, if you're investing for the longer term, you'd expect a higher return on a well-diversified portfolio of equities than on cash or fixed-interest investments. And by taking a long-term approach, you can hopefully ride out some of those short-term fluctuations. That's especially relevant to pensions when considering how long you're likely to be invested in that pension for.

So understanding what you're investing for and the time frame is essential. Cash will have a place, especially if it's a short-term need, such as saving for a house deposit. But if you're investing for the longer term, do consider asset-backed investments and make sure you don't miss out on growth potential.

So let's move to a life event where we start to see those first signs of differences in wealth and provision between men and women, so that's becoming a parent. So we've discussed women are much more likely to take time off currently or reduce their hours to care for children and others than men. But does that mean that women should see more of a reduction in their pension savings and long-term savings at this time?

Now, I fully acknowledge and know firsthand that household finances will be impacted by children and reduced earnings or higher expenses on childcare. But I'm a big fan of family budgeting in this scenario. So if you are raising a child as a couple, ensuring there's that fair distribution of any surplus income available.

So what I would always look at in this scenario is what's your joint income. What are your expenses? What's left? And I'd encourage independent provision for each partner in a fair and equitable way. So too often, the women will cut back on their pension contributions or their savings, and they'll pay for childcare out of their part-time earnings because they've chosen to work, which means they both earn less, and they pay more of their expenses of running the household, reducing their wealth in potentially two ways. It might not seem important whose name you're investing in if you're planning as a couple, but as Dawn and Jane will come on to, it's important to have independent provision just in case, and that's even more important for non-married couples.

And there are also tax benefits to making independent provision for each partner. So even when you're not working, you can automatically receive 20% tax relief on pension contributions of up to 3,600 a year. And then in retirement, you'll each be able to make use of your lower-rate tax bands as well to take money out. And if one partner is paying a lower rate of tax, it can be sound financial planning to hold taxable investments in their name too.

And there's lots of other things to think about at this time in terms of making wills, nominating guardians for your children, making sure you've got life assurance health cover to protect your family. So lots to think about. And I know Dawn is going to cover some of those as well when she talks about those midlife decisions. So it's probably a good time for me to hand over to you, Dawn, to talk through some of those additional midlife considerations.

DAWN MEALING: Yeah. Thanks, Helen. That's really great information. So I'm going to talk about midlife and share some strategies to help you take control of your finances in your late 30s, 40s, and into your 50s. And if you've tended to leave the financial decisions to others, this middle age is the age to improve your confidence in managing money and get help and be sure that you're building wealth to take you through to an age where you want to stop working.

So I'm going to take you through four strategies that I recommend, and let's launch into those now. So strategy number one is really understanding your ambitions. So at this stage, it's really important to start working out what is the future lifestyle that you want, when you want it, and how much money you need to achieve it.

And if that's daunting and you don't know where to start, I recommend working with a financial planner such as Jane or myself or Helen because we wear three hats. And hat number one is as a life planner, and that's to help you figure out those life goals, what lifestyle you want, and when you want it, but also in what priority order.

And once we know that, we can put on our second hat, which is that as a financial planner, and that's plotting the financial resources that you have now and working out what income they provide for life. And knowing that, we can then stress-test that, and we can run an impact analysis to say, for example, what happened if you stop working now and lost that income but also perhaps the impact of divorce and what would happen if, say, you invested your bonus each year or increased your monthly savings. So doing that will give you insight in your current situation and if you can achieve your goals.

And if not, if there are gaps, this is where our third hat, and that is of a financial advisor. And what we can do then is figure out strategies, products, and services to help you improve your situation and achieve the lifestyle that you want. So that's my first strategy to share today is to understand your life ambitions and create a plan.

The second strategy is to build your wealth and get optimal on tax. And here's what I recommend. So the first thing is budget planning. And so this is knowing what you earn, knowing what you spend, knowing what you save, but also what you fritter. And then you can potentially set more money aside towards achieving that lifestyle that you've just plotted out.

So the first thing that I do here is obviously use your ISA and pension and your allowances, make sure that you've maximized the contributions if you can. And if that's pensions, Helen's mentioned some of them. But there are four things in addition to the contributions that you're making today that you could perhaps do.

So Helen mentioned about maximizing matched contributions from your employer. So if you're willing to set aside a further 3% from your earnings, your employer may well match it. So it's worth finding out and asking them. And the second is to contribute all or some of your bonus each year if you're lucky enough to get bonus, and I think most of us do now.

So the third point is to use salary sacrifice. Now, what you're doing here is sacrificing some of your salary in favor of contributing it to a pension instead. And the advantage here is that you reduce national insurance contributions and income tax you pay, so it has an added benefit to it.

And the fourth strategy around pensions is carry forward. And if you haven't maximized your last three years' worth of pension annual allowance, you can sweep that forward to make a larger contribution this year. If you've already maxed out your ISA and your pensions, there are other tax-efficient investments that you can make, such as venture to capital trusts that have really valuable tax benefits to them.

And I think, Helen, we're running a seminar next year on what to do if the annual allowance bites. So if you've maximized your pension contributions and used up everything that we talked through today, what else can you do in order to save for retirement or future lifestyle?

HELEN PERRIN: Yeah, so that one's going to be on the 12th of January, Dawn, and I think there's an email coming out to promote the forthcoming webinars in December. But that's also on our landing page, which we'll share in the follow-up email as well.

DAWN MEALING: That's great. So it'd be really great to see you on that future webinar as well. So I think the final thing, as well as using your ISA and pensions, annual allowances, and budget planning, is to use your annual capital gains allowance. So if you do have some investments that are taxable-- so either they're subject to income tax or maybe capital gains tax-- one of the things that you can do is take gains out of those investments and then reinvest them into those more tax-efficient investments.

So really important that you do that because paying tax in itself can obviously mean that you achieve less investment growth over time. So it's better to be in as tax-efficient investments as possible as you can. So that's strategy number two, which is maximizing your wealth and getting optimal on tax.

And then strategy number three is protecting your wealth. So, unfortunately, your health is likely to decline in your 40s onwards. And this can create a financial and emotional strain on family if you can no longer work or bring in any earnings.

So Helen mentioned it before. It's making sure that you've got adequate levels of insurance cover. And the most important ones of those, in addition to life assurance cover, is critical illness cover and income protection insurance because together, they will provide either a lump sum or replace lost earnings. So it's really important that if you are unable to work, then you have those covers in place because they will obviously fill in the income gap.

So the next thing to do to protect your wealth is ensure that those you cherish will benefit if something happens to you. So it's really important in your 40s and 50 to make a will and review it every five years. And that seems quite frequent, but things do change. Life, love, taxes, they all change over time. And perhaps what you were thinking in the last five years might change now and could change in the future five years. So that's why it's really important to, one, make your will, but, two, review it frequently.

And the second point here about making sure that those that you cherish will benefit if something happens to you is nominating who you want to benefit from your pensions because if you don't do that, if you don't make your wishes known, the pensions administrator will make that decision for you. So it's really important that you fill in your form, nominate who you wish to benefit from your pensions so that the scheme administrator knows that in advance.

So the final thing that you can do to protect your wealth is pre-nup and post-nup agreements. So if you're married now or if you're getting married or if you're divorced and remarrying, if you bring in the high earnings or have a family with significant wealth, it's really important to protect that on marriage and on divorce. So it's not impossible to do a post-nup agreement. And I'd recommend talking to a lawyer if that's something that interests you. So that's my third strategy that's having built wealth is making sure that you're protecting it and making sure those you cherish benefit from it if something were to happen to you.

And my final strategy is strategy number four, which is preparing for divorce and separation. So 42% of marriages in the UK will end in divorce. So it's not a stat we like to think about, but it is likely to happen. And it's really important to prepare well.

So when a relationship ends, assets are divided, and this can really impact your later-life plans and your life goals. And pensions and property are probably the biggest assets to think about and how they get divided. So it's really important that these are properly considered.

So if you haven't, I'd really encourage you engaging with a financial planner early so that you know where you stand. And this enables you to go into a financial settlement and get into those negotiations well-informed, and that will help you achieve a good outcome. And just talking of Atomos here, we have some really amazing female divorce specialists who can help you navigate the pre-divorce, during divorce, and post-divorce.

So look, I talked about some of the challenges that women have in dealing with their finances. I hope I've given you pause for thought for that by outlining four strategies for dealing with midlife finances. And I'm now going to hand you over to Jane. And, Jane, what's your take on later-life challenges for women?

JANE MARTIN: OK. Well, thank you, Dawn. And such an important time in life in midlife as well because, like I said earlier, I meet clients a little bit later on, often after a life event, and that reflection often comes in-- wish I'd done something a little bit sooner. But it's worth pointing out that it's not too late.

I'm going to talk a little bit about some of the things we can do at this stage but also about how we work as financial planners with clients at this stage to take them through this part of their journey. So, again, we would start to look-- you've both talked about equalization and using tax allowances. So important to try and get this as good as we possibly can because the less that goes in terms of tax, the more that stays in your pot for the use of your goals and your financial goals and things that you want to do.

So that's a great interest. So we're going to look at tax allowances again at this stage. Is there anything that can be used in terms of pension tax allowances if you're still working? Or if there is the-- Helen mentioned earlier that you can actually pay to pensions when you're not working.

Using advisor allowances using that current year. Or can we use investment vehicles that will make sure that we're using the ISA allowance each year going forwards? And, again, really building up the tax efficiency of your plans and your parts.

Looking at state pension, I mean, it's really key. You can still go back six years and make sure that your state pension is as efficient as possible. And as Dawn mentioned earlier, bringing in that time of reviewing wills, power of attorneys, and pension nominations. And, again, because at later life when we meet somebody, it's usually through a life event, then actually, that's a key time because there may be different people in the consideration at this time in your life.

As planners, we sit down with a client at this stage, as things have changed at later life, and really consider with them how much income is needed to meet their goals and their financial plans in the future. And that's really split down between what's essential, what do I absolutely need to keep the lights on and to keep food on the table and put the heating on at the same time, what's absolutely cast iron that I need-- and then the fun bit is what gives me joy, what do I enjoy doing, and who with and who's important to me, and how can I do more of that. It's a bit I love when we sit to talk about that as we put that plan together.

And as part of that and as part of through the financial planning and the cash flow forecasts that we do and the projections that we do, one of the really important considerations is for that person, for the female here, is how if needs be, in the future, they might need later-life care, help around the house, and how that might be funded. It's really important to touch on that because the average care costs in the Southeast and picking on that as the highest at the moment for dementia care is topping 90,000 pounds a year. So it's an important consideration in terms of what we're looking at for our plans for the future to make sure that all of our future is covered and considered.

If anybody is going through that at the moment, which many of us do with elderly relatives, parents, then please do seek out qualified financial advisors for this, planners. We do, at Atomos, have a number of people qualified in this area because there are actions that can be put into place to provide really valuable reassurance at this very difficult time.

So, as I said, through the financial planning, our key area is to make sure that you, as the client, can achieve your major goals, your major ambitions for you, for your family. And we do that through financial planning and cash flow but also considering your future. But you may want to be passing down wealth at this stage as well. So can you afford to do that, still achieve what you want to achieve, and cover your later-life concerns? And we say that's passing gifts down with a warm heart rather than a cold hand. It's important to do it to make memories with your family and be able to enjoy that time with them.

And this slide here, where it comes through the journeys, is really quite interesting because I always use this journey analogy. And I sometimes apologize for repeating it because I find that it gets corny when I keep coming back to it, but it just fits so well. So Dawn's explanation there on the midlife is stopping at the services, checking your destination, checking where you want to go and who with, and then maybe just checking the tires and the oil and making sure that you're set for the rest of that journey.

But it's also important at later life because there may have been a roadblock along the way. And that could be a divorce, a separation, or even a bereavement. So you might be doing this journey with somebody different or even on your own or with your family. So it's really important to see what's changed.

And from a financial planner's point of view, I think we touched on this earlier that that doesn't have to be a female financial planner. There's very, very good male financial planners at this stage. But if you're at this time or you're not feeling that you're being listened to or heard or maybe feeling slightly patronized, whoever that is, then move on because the planners should be listening to what-- understanding your relationship with money, what you want to achieve, and helping you put something together that suits that.

You've probably come up with a range of investments that you've made over those years through that journey. And then at this stage, we're trying to make them suitable, make sure they're suitable to achieve your goals going forwards. So as I speak to women in later life, many of the times, their goals actually include their family. And that's what I'm saying, talking about if they can pass wealth down in a tax-efficient way, that's really very important.

We also talk about risk. And sometimes, as Helen alluded to earlier, that risk conversation, sometimes this is the first time the conversation has been had. And it's really about the financial education there because risk is a really emotive word. I'd perhaps like to change the word because the opportunity cost of not taking risk is sometimes greater and more risky.

But also, it's about the financial education because risk is something that we have uncertainty about that we don't know. And the more education we have on it, the more we know about the measured risk that we're taking, the more comfortable people feel about it. So, again, it's really worth opening up that conversation and talking about it in a different way, reframing it. It's not bungee jumping. It is an educated risk, but it's taking people through that journey carefully and considered.

Really also helps me at this time to get to the bottom and to understand the person's relationship with money up until the point that I've met them. How has that happened in their lives? How have they dealt with money? Has that been naturally a saver, naturally a spender? And how have they dealt with that if they've been in a relationship and are no longer in one?

And I always think about my client, Joan, at this time. She always comes to mind because when I first met Joan, sadly, her husband had just died. I had met her husband. And these come into lessons learned a little bit before he was passed to me by an advisor that was retiring.

And we discussed having a meeting with him and Joan because Helen said earlier, we positively encourage both partners to come to the meeting. When you're planning for a financial future, you're planning for the family's financial future. It's key.

But this hadn't happened. And sadly, her husband contracted an illness and died very quickly. So the first time I met Joan, she came along with a family friend. And, again, it's something we encourage.

It might feel a little bit like going to the doctor's and knowing that you're going to get a lot of terminology and information that you're not comfortable with, you feel a little bit uncertain with. And we encourage a friend or a family member to come along because at least somebody else can remember what was said. You can talk about it afterwards. You can assimilate whether you understood it, whether you felt the person listened to you. And it's a great sounding board for them.

So Joan came along with a friend. She had never been involved in her finances up to that point in time and was really quite staggered and shocked about how well off she was, how well off her husband had left her, which left her with a nice feeling as well, but it was quite staggering at that point in time. But what we did, we'd set some plans up for Joan initially. Some of the retirement income had reduced after her husband had died, and we set a big cash reserve so that she could still do what she really wanted to do, which, at the time, it was tending the garden and making sure all the house maintenance was sorted and getting people in to do things like that, going to meet friends for lunches, and carrying on doing some of the things that she did before.

But I went back quite quickly after that time-- about three months. I usually make the touchpoints a little bit quicker at this time so that the financial education piece can be in small, bite-sized chunks. And me and her friend were quite surprised that she had not dipped into her cash reserve and actually stopped doing a few things. And it wasn't then until we delved in a little bit further that established that Joan was used to money coming into the bank account like a salary. And what was in the savings account was rainy-day money that was more than enough for any rainy day there but hadn't gone to the bank because that's just not how she was wired and had dealt with things in the past.

So on learning that, we were able to send up an income stream from her bank to her current account so that in her checking account, she knew what she had, and she could spend what she was spending before and felt far more comfortable there. That was a key learn for me, is actually it was not just about the fact that there was more than enough money there for her to do that. We joked about her getting the expensive handbag habit, which she never did. But there was lots for her to be able to do as the future unfolded for her. But actually, because it wasn't coming in like that, that wasn't the way that she dealt with it. So it's understanding the background.

What I also learned through some of my clients, like Joan, is that women don't talk about money like men do. There's no bragging rights down the pub about how much their investments have made or how much they have. And I often hear this from widowed clients, is that there's lots of things they'd like to do that they know they can afford to do, but they don't actually know which ones of their friends can do that because they don't talk about it.

I often thought that maybe-- and it's still an idea I'm toying with. I set up a club where we don't share any details or numbers, but we introduce clients to each other to just say, this lady could still do this Far East cruise with you. And that's what she wants to do as well. And hopefully, that they start to live their lives and do more from that.

But at this stage in life, it really is all about education. I think that comes through every stage of life-- education, education. But it's gently, it's respectfully-- these women that I've met at this time are incredibly, incredibly proficient and capable and intelligent. And there's always something they know so much more about than me, which is then I defer to them for that because they can then defer to me without fear that the subject of the finances is my speciality.

And I can make it very, very clear to them, and I can see that their understanding gets better as years go on, which is really satisfying. It's why I love what I do. But I make it really, really clear right the way through that there is no such thing as a stupid question. I'll leave that one with you, Helen.

HELEN PERRIN: Thank you. So, yeah, absolutely no such thing as a stupid question. It's probably a good time for us to go to our Q&A. We've had a couple of questions come in. So let's go start from the earlier questions first. The later ones jumped to the top of my screen. So here we go.

I'm 47 and have, for the past eight years, used a financial advisor, and my pension fund plan is currently thankfully looking relatively healthy. However, I always worry about the stock market crashing and me losing huge amounts from my pension. The Liz Truss tenure comes to mind. And also, I worry about the amount of commission I pay to my financial advisor. It seems a lot, but then I can see how much my fund has grown with his guidance. Should I shop around for a new financial advisor?

So I suppose that what we all want is net of cost and tax return. So if you're getting that, then great. Is your relationship good with your financial advisor? Are you feeling like everything is explained clearly?

I suppose there's no harm in getting a second opinion on these things. So speaking to another financial advisor, seeing if they would do anything differently. Dawn, Jane, anything further to add to that?

JANE MARTIN: Yeah, and I don't think there's ever any harm in a second opinion. But you're absolutely right. Helen's absolutely right. If your relationship is OK-- and I quite like the fact that they've probably been transparent about their costs because you know them-- then that's one thing.

But the stock market crashing, then again, it's just maybe looking at the risk, looking at the-- we use cash flow planning. We do a stress test. We look whether your goals can still be achieved because what markets do, it is that and generally recover. So it's just, again, that second opinion or talking to your advisor about that, being candid about it is going through the, well, what happens if, because the cycles of the market do do that.

And how do I deal with that? And do I have the capacity to absorb those times? And am I still going to be able to achieve my goals if these things happen? And that reassurance, it comes with time, but it also comes with somebody understanding that that's what you're concerned about, yeah.

HELEN PERRIN: And I guess in terms of those investment returns as well, I mean, stock markets have done very well over the last 10 years. So when somebody tells me that their funds are doing very well, I like to see, well, what does that mean in terms of a benchmark? So you're saying your funds have done well but so has the World Index.

So let's compare the two and see that you're still doing well in relative terms after costs and charges. So that's another part that a different financial advisor can take an impartial look at and just check that they're doing as well as you think, I guess. Sorry, Dawn, did I interrupt you then? Were you going to say something?

DAWN MEALING: No, I was just totally agreeing with you, both you and Jane, Helen. Yeah, absolutely.

HELEN PERRIN: Thanks a lot. OK, great. And then our next question-- is there an Excel budget planner that you can recommend? I have tried putting one together myself but found it time-consuming and lost interest as what I could put together wasn't very engaging or interactive for things like graphs, pie charts, bar graphs to show meaningful information.

Yeah. So absolutely, there's a couple of options here. The Money Helper website, which I keep going on about. I'm not on commission, I promise. It is an impartial government website, but they have a great budget plan at all where you can save down your expenses and your income, and you can go back and revisit that in the future. So that's a good starting point in terms of a budget.

We've talked about cash flow modeling as well, which gives you that more comprehensive look into the future in terms of, Have I got enough to meet my future needs as well as my current needs? and brings it all together, and it allows for things like taxes and things like that. So it can bring everything together in a bit more detail for you.

But in terms of self-service tools, there's lots out there. There's the Money Helper. Lots of banks and building societies also have similar tools where they automatically put your spending into different brackets so you can see what you're spending where and review that and think about whether there's any savings to be made there and whether you're spending that in the way that you want to. So lots of tools out there to help.

They wouldn't be shown as Excel, but behind the scenes, that's what they're all doing. They're using Excel spreadsheets to show you in a very interactive way and user-friendly way this position. Anything else, Dawn, Jane, on that one?

DAWN MEALING: Yeah, I guess I'd add to that, Helen, is that some of the Excel stuff is quite basic. And I think the most important thing would be to make sure that you've got access to more sophisticated software.

The kind of software that we use in financial planning does take into the tax optimization of your affairs and can project forward future income and how that income can be paid tax-optimally when you retire because that's really important, is not just saving for the point that you retire and start to take that income but how you can take that income with maximum tax efficiency as well. And that's something quite difficult for an Excel spreadsheet to do. And that's something where the more sophisticated software that a financial planner will use would probably give you a better indication and, more importantly, help you achieve more tax-efficient income in retirement.

HELEN PERRIN: Great. Thank you. And then is a financial advisor the best place to go for understanding just how much my pension is going to give me from a monthly income perspective once I retire? So we're going to come and talk about the different levels of support available.

So there are DIY tools that you can look at your position. We have a guidance service that can give you that strategic-level support. And we also have the regulator advice option, which can help you put a plan into action as well as talk about it at a strategic level. So we'll talk about those in just a moment. But, yes, financial advisors can absolutely do that for you in terms of working out how much you're going to have available and ways to boost that as appropriate.

Few more questions come in now. So just trying to make sure I address those in the right order. Let's have a look. So one is just saying, thank you for the budget panel. So that's good.

Jane and Dawn, can you scroll down? Because it's a little bit-- no, OK, here we go. I've used [INAUDIBLE], which is great for showing me how long my pension pots might last depending on desired income. Is this the best one, or can you recommend another one?

So, yeah, Guide is actually quite a useful tool. What I would say about Guide is that it's a free tool to the user, which is great. But some of the post-offs at the end of it are to-- it has to raise revenue in some way. So some of the post-offs at the end of it are two specific products. But if you're using it just as a planning tool, it's a really, really good tool.

Not a question but suggestion. I use an app called Snoop. It is paid for but worth it. Links you to bank accounts and shows a live view of your spend today. And that's helped me to not overspend every month.

OK, yeah, I've not used that one myself. But, yeah, there's lots of tools out there where you can keep an eye on what you're spending and check in. OK, I think I've missed one down the--

JANE MARTIN: Yeah, it's just one there, Helen, I've just seen. Just curious, from all your experience, what you tend to find is the most common financial mistakes women make in their 20s or 30s. And how can we avoid them? It's a good one.

HELEN PERRIN: Yes. So I think we talked about some of those in terms of not really prioritising longer-term savings at that stage, which is completely understandable in terms of immediate priorities. But, as I said, the sooner you can start paying into pensions and longer-term savings, it just makes that such a big difference at retirement with those 20, 30, 40 years of growth on growth. It's just incredible what difference that can make.

And I think as well, we talked about divorce and death, cetera. We all go into long-term relationships wanting them to work and hoping that they do, and many of them will, but also just being, I guess, mindful and protecting yourself for the worst. Whilst that relationship is working, you want to be in that relationship. But if it isn't working, you don't want to feel financially tied to that relationship. You want to have the freedom to be able to exit that if it's the right thing to do.

DAWN MEALING: Yeah, I'd probably add to that, Helen. I think one of the things that we quite often come across is the concept that if you are cohabiting but not married, that you would get some kind of protection. And actually, you're not. It's as if you are still single.

The fact that you're cohabiting and not married, it doesn't afford you any financial protection. So if your partner was to pass away or something happened to them or divorce or separations happens at this age, you wouldn't benefit from the life insurance. You wouldn't benefit from the unused pension funds. So it's really important that even though you are cohabiting at this stage, is to make sure that you personally are adequately protected because you certainly wouldn't benefit from anything if you're unmarried.

HELEN PERRIN: And I guess making sure that you and your partner each update your beneficiary nominations for things like pensions because then the trustees know that that's what you want to happen to that money. But I guess it makes those points around making independent provision even more important for non-married couples because there are laws in place to protect married couples in terms of if you do separate divvying out those assets, those just don't apply to people in a relationship that aren't married. So when I was saying about using that family budget to make independent provision, I think that's even more important for those of you who are in relationships but not married.

OK. We had another. What level of financial advice from Atomos could we expect from the flex benefits, financial benefit option compared to a direct engagement? So we're going to come onto talk about those two, but there are actually two distinct services.

So the flex benefit guidance service is delivered by WTW by the financial planners in my team. And the Atomos option where you can book and have a triage meeting to work out if advice is right for you is delivered by Atomos. So should we skip onto that and just explain a little bit more about that? Keep an eye on the questions just in case any more are coming through.

First of all, just to point out, we will share a useful resources sheet with you by email after today to give you that option for self-help and signposting these resources. The guidance service, which I think is what you're asking about here in terms of the flexible benefits platform option, is something delivered by my team, and it gives you a chance to check in at a strategic level that you're making the most of your finances. So exploring employee benefit options, checking at a strategic level that you're on track, anything you could be doing better.

So we'll make suggestions at a strategic level on what you can improve. But through guidance, we can't recommend a specific financial product. So we can talk about ISAs, pensions, but we can't say you should invest this amount in this specific ISA, for example.

For those specific recommendations, you would need to move to advice. And Dawn is going to talk that through in just a moment. But just quickly on how you access that guidance service so you can elect that on the flexible benefits platform. It's an opt-in salary sacrifice benefit.

So the cost of that service is 500 pounds. But it is tax NI deductible. So the after-tax savings are somewhere between-- sorry, the after-tax cost is somewhere between 265 and 360 pounds, depending on your tax position.

If you elect that in the benefit window, it's collected over the year, so usually 30 pounds a month or less. But it isn't in any time benefit, so you can opt to use that service at any time. And then, Dawn, do you want to just talk through the advice process and where that might be relevant as well?

DAWN MEALING: Yeah, absolutely. So, look, who are Atomos? Let's take a step back. Well, today, really only 11% of women work with a financial planner. And our profession is really different to how it was nearly 30 years ago, which was very product, very sales-orientated, very commission-driven. And this really doesn't exist now. We are here to make sure that people achieve the lifestyle that we want through various means.

But, look, most importantly is that nearly 20% of all financial advisors now are female. So we're here to help with no judgment, no agenda, no jargon, just empathy and straight talking. So, of course, Atomos have a number of female financial planners, and we'd be delighted if that was something that you felt more comfortable dealing with female financial planner.

So what do Atomos do? Well, we offer life goal planning, financial advice, and financial planning, as well as investment management for those building wealth or have already built significant wealth. And just thinking about that, we support investing, planning for retirement, tax planning, passing on wealth, and figuring out how to pay for later-life care, which Jane talked about. We have a team of great female financial planners who can help you with some of those challenges but also some really fantastic female divorce specialists who can help if you're thinking about divorce or going through divorce.

So we'd like to help you make sense of your life and finances. So we'll offer a one-hour session with a financial planner to help you do that. That's free. No obligation. And you can book that in using the QR code on-screen to access an online booking tool.

It's really important to stress here that, first, you'll talk to one of our associates who will talk through what you'd like to achieve and get some information from you and then understand your circumstances and finances. And if the chemistry is right, then we can match you to the right financial planner based on the experience and expertise that you need. So I think the first thing is that there's no obligation, no fee to get in touch and take that first step and understand if financial planning, financial advice is right for you. And we'll put you in touch with the planner based on the expertise that you need.

HELEN PERRIN: Thanks, Dawn. And a related question, actually. So would you be able to provide advice on the pension pot management and use at retirement when you have various pensions from different employers as well as SIPP? So I guess that comes back to that point we were making earlier about holistic financial planning as opposed to product recommendations. So do you want to answer that one? Sorry. Talking for you.

DAWN MEALING: Yeah, absolutely. So, look, it's quite common that midlife, later life, you'll have a number of pension pots that you built up if you've had a number of employers and perhaps even only your own financial provision. But also, you might have built up some savings as well. And perhaps those can be put to work more tax-optimally, perhaps by using up any unused pension contributions. So it's really important to take that holistic view across all of your finances, whatever that looks like.

And, yes, one of the things that we can do, particularly as you're going into retirement, is to consolidate all your pension pots into one pot so you've just got one scheme and one thing to think about. So simplifying and consolidating your financial affairs is something that we can do but only if that's right for you because if you've got certain types of pensions with perhaps guarantees or safeguarded benefits or protected benefits, then it's really important that you leave those intact because that might give you better benefits later on in life than if you just had a straightforward SIPP or personal pension scheme that didn't have any of those protected benefits. So I think that's the importance of taking advice at that stage and not just consolidate pension pots on your own, just in case you make the mistake of giving up any valuable benefits.

HELEN PERRIN: And I think to add to that as well, all of the Atomos advisors will be familiar with the workplace pension schemes where we work with the corporate clients. So they will have that knowledge around your employer benefits and can talk at a strategic level as well as around the product level. So, yes, definitely worth taking support through guidance or advice.

For those cohabiting, if they are in the beneficiary list of your pension life insurance, is that enough? So, yes, if you nominate somebody, then usually, the trustees will distribute the benefits within those wishes unless there's any complex situations where they need to do something different. But typically, they will distribute those benefits within those wishes. There are tax considerations around that as well, as I alluded to earlier, in terms of-- probably from a tax planning perspective, it would be wise to get married because there is inheritance tax on benefits that pass between non-married spouses, or at least there will be for pensions from April 27, whereas for spouses, typically, transfers between you are tax-free from an inheritance tax perspective.

So there are measures you can take, so worth checking in and thinking about measures you can take. But, yes, you can nominate a non-married spouse-- sorry, non-married spouse-- a partner if you're not married, and they should usually receive those benefits.

Actually, that point around inheritance tax changes, probably a good time to mention our next webinar coming up on the 27th of November. So we're expecting changes on inheritance tax and potentially lots more. And we want to talk you through what those changes might mean for your personal finances the morning after the budget. So if you've not yet registered for that one and you're interested in doing so, we'll be hosting that one on the 27th of November at 8:30.

No more questions. So we're running a couple of minutes over time, but big thank you for attending today. I'll put in a feedback survey in the Q&A. We'd love to hear your thoughts, A, on the webinar itself, what you'd like to hear more about, and also any steps that you're thinking of taking as a result of today's webinar. We do want to know that we're making a difference. So do please take the time to feed that back. Should only take a minute or two.

I do need to quickly share my limitations of reliant slides to say that the information we've shared today is for information only, shouldn't be relied on for advice, and similar caveats from Atomos to just finish off with. But thank you very much for your time today. We really hope it's been useful. And we look forward to speaking to some of you for guidance and advice in the future.

Popped in the feedback form in the Q&A. So, as I said, I'd be really grateful to hear your thoughts. But thank you for joining us today and have a lovely rest of the day and a great weekend.

DAWN MEALING: Thank you.

JANE MARTIN: Thank you.