Free Financial Wellbeing Reviews for WitLUK members from HWIFM Ltd

Catrina Walker-Jones is a Chartered Independent Financial Advisor at HW Independent Financial Management, providing guidance to individuals throughout their financial journey. Her areas of expertise include pension, investment, Inheritance Tax Planning and protection, offering unbiased advice to ensure her clients make informed decisions.

In this article, she outlines the importance of financial wellbeing and offers a free financial wellbeing review for members of Women in the Law UK.

Financial wellbeing derives from understanding the overall financial picture and projections of the future. Financial wellbeing is vital for women, as it empowers them to take control of their financial futures and achieve their life goals. There is a growing recognition of gender disparities in all parts of a women’s life, career, and commitments to caring. Regarding financial planning and wealth management, women need to acknowledge the importance of addressing the distinctive financial needs and challenges faced by them.

As women there may be challenges such as the gender pay gap, longer life expectancies, career interruptions due to caregiving responsibilities and lower levels of retirement savings compared to men. According to Aviva’s recent study (March 2024), the pension gap at age 60, women on average have a third less pension fund than men.

Many financial institutions are advocating for greater financial inclusion and empowerment for women through tailored financial products, educational resources, and initiatives aimed at promoting financial literacy and independence among women.

Here at HWIFM, we as Independent Financial Advisers, look to ensure that our clients understand the plans we have in place for them and how this relates to financial planning.

Our priorities are empowering women, ensuring they are making informed decisions about their finances, enabling them to take charge of their financial futures with confidence and independence.

Being secure and safe is often the keystone to women’s planning, we often find they prefer to have large amounts of cash for emergencies and often are more cautious on how they invest. We spend time talking about capacity for loss, whether it is from investment or loss of income due to illness. Reviewing all the protections that you have in place is essential. For example:

Women can insure against loss of income through ill health, through an income protection plan. This can cover all illnesses, including mental health and injury. The benefit pays out 50-70% of income, tax free, and will pay out “mimicking” the missing income, for a specified time period or a plan to retirement age. The cost of the premium, like all insurances, will depend on the amount that is insured for.

Women can create a secure financial foundation for themselves and their families, providing a safety net for unexpected expenses or life events.

We also look to building Wealth and Legacy, financial planning allows women to build wealth over time and create a lasting legacy for future generations, whether it’s through investments, property ownership, pensions or estate planning. For example:

We can review pensions and investments and how they may grow to over the next few decades, including possible market downturns. This can ensure that they understand their goals i.e. a living income in retirement and the “map” to get there.

We would recommend that we all review our financial positions at least once a year and we offer a free financial wellbeing review for members of Women in Law UK, by contacting Hello@hwifm.co.uk and quoting #WomanintheLaw.

The value of an investment and the income from it could go down as well as up. The return at the end of the investment period is not guaranteed and you may get back less than you originally invested.