Joan: Providing financial reassurance for the short, medium and long term

Key facts:

• Joan and her husband, Steve, were divorcing. Joan emailed our office after being recommended by a friend of hers
• They had agreed to split the equity in the house and his pensions equally. Consequently, Joan had received a pension sharing order for half of her husband’s final salary pension scheme
• Their two daughters lived with Joan, but spent every other weekend with Steve
• Steve had agreed to pay child maintenance until their two daughters turned 18

What did we do for Joan?

We began by finding out all about Joan; her hopes and dreams, her worries and concerns.

We discovered that whilst Joan needed to implement her pension sharing order, she also needed to understand how her income and assets would provide for the rest of her life. Joan was working; however, she was the less financially well off than Steve. Joan was therefore considering finding a new job to provide her with the income she felt was necessary for the future.

Joan was also concerned about her living arrangements. Steve had moved out of their house and didn’t want to keep it. While Joan knew that she couldn’t afford to continue living in the house, she was worried that buying a home for herself and her two daughters would mean moving to a different area. This would cause problems for her daughters getting to school.

We collected detailed information about Joan’s income, expenditure, assets and liabilities, allowing us to produce a cash flow model which mapped out Joan’s financial future in the short, medium and long term.

We then worked with Joan to consider different scenarios and see how things changed if she chose a different path. This was followed up by a recommendation of things that Joan needed to implement to make her plan work.

How did Joan benefit from our financial advice?

In the short term, Joan’s main priority was to find a suitable house to live in. Initially Joan thought she’d only be able to afford a house out of town, which would cause problems with her daughters’ schooling.

However, using the cash flow forecast, we showed Joan how she could afford to buy a house close to where she currently lived.

We then turned our attention to the years ahead and showed Joan the income she could expect to receive in retirement following the implementation of the pension sharing order.

Our advice gave Joan the peace of mind that she can live the rest of her life comfortably in an area she loves, without running out of money or changing jobs.