Financial planning

The main stages of retirement planning: the best is yet to come and the future is being prepared now!

The prospect of retiring is often welcomed as a new phase of life, with fewer constraints, fewer challenges, more serenity and more freedom.

However, it is also accompanied by a certain anxiety, because if everyone admits that income after cessation of professional activity will fall, very few future retirees prove capable of articulating a budget which will allow them to ensure the completion of their numerous projects.

This is especially true since the devil is often in the details, such as when the various retirement annuities can be paid, the evolution of household taxation, or even the ability to refinance your mortgage debt.

Therefore, good preparation for retirement will allow you to approach it with complete peace of mind.

And before this deadline, many questions weaken those concerned:

• Will I be able to preserve my standard of living once I retire?
  • Should I opt for the annuity or capital of my pension fund?
  • Can I retire early?
  • Should I repay my mortgage or rather make another use of my cash?
  • How can I pay less taxes?
  • Why make redemptions?
  • Do I have enough room to make donations to my children during my lifetime?
  • Is it appropriate to move? Which canton or country would be the most attractive in my situation?
  • Will I benefit from all my financial freedom based on all these choices?

Good financial planning, carried out in the best interest of the future retiree(s), makes it possible to achieve numerous objectives, in particular to clarify their current situation, to avoid all the pitfalls that arise in this transition important part of life, to offer great visibility on one's ability to realize one's future projects and, last but not least, to optimize the structure of its assets in order to gain flexibility and resources.

We present the main stages below:

First step: Establishing a relationship of trust and listening

Retirement planning ideally begins around the age of 50 because the more it is studied upstream, the better possible material gaps with regard to long-term projects can be identified and filled. Any existing financing methods or those necessary for certain projects will also be better understood.

During a first meeting, we establish an inventory with our clients and identify the various projects and desired objectives. We then translate all this into a quantified budget. These three elements will be decisive in establishing retirement planning and the foundations of a clear financial analysis.

Second stage: analysis, assessment and development of the plan

Once in possession of the relevant data, we formulate the working hypotheses and make projections until we reach approximately 85 years of age. We always study all avenues for optimization and draw up one or more alternative scenario(s)).

It should be noted that at this stage, the financial capacity and factual risk tolerance of each of our clients are key.

However, they must be supplemented by a good understanding of the emotional dimensions. For example, it is not appropriate to offer a high-potential and high-risk investment strategy to a very secure person, because random movements in the stock market could cause them too many concerns, even if their financial situation largely allows them to assume the underlying risks.

Third step: restitution of the planning and presentation of recommendations

We present and deliver a rigorous, clear and personalized analysis, oriented towards a good understanding of the desired objectives. It integrates comparative calculations relating to the different scenarios and our proposals for numerical optimization measures.

We attach great importance to the educational quality of this presentation, having too often encountered complete planning, but so technical that those interested no longer found their way around it.

Fourth step: implementation and monitoring

The roadmap is ready, visibility is good, optimization measures are understood, the capital necessary to finance the lifestyle is identified and secured.

Each of our financial plans includes an agenda that lists the steps to take year after year.  Be careful, however: "we can take actions, the universe has them"! A financial plan is based on certain assumptions. However, financial or legislative changes that are beyond our control, marriage, divorce, etc. can have a significant impact on the projections submitted. The analysis must therefore be adjusted according to important events and it is important to us to offer long-term support to our clients.

With our view as a financial planner, it seems unthinkable to us to approach this important stage of life without having first analyzed and studied all the opportunities that retirement offers you. In practice, we see that too many people still let themselves be carried away by life and only realize the brutality of this transition when the time comes, when it is no longer possible to act.

Investing in retirement planning is far from being an unnecessary expense given the economic and tax advantages it brings, in addition to the peace of mind it provides. Don't wait any longer. It's never too early, but sometimes it can be too late!