Most of the people who contact a financial planner are probably doing it for the first time and hence have a common question in their mind.

What happens during the financial planning process?

To give an idea, listing below the broad outcomes for life stages “Family”. Some of these will not be applicable for “Bachelor” category:

  • All your financial goals are identified and quantified. Examples: How much money would you need for the higher education of your child in the year in which she will reach that milestone? How much money would you need as retirement corpus in the year in which you plan to retire?
  • Your existing net worth is calculated to see whether you already have created the assets required to meet the goal. This also brings to light any shortfall.
  • If there is a shortfall, how much you should be investing per month or per year to cover the shortfall is calculated.
  • Your existing cash flow pattern is calculated from your income and expenses which will show whether you will be able to invest the required amounts to cover the shortfall. If not, goals, goal amounts, goal timelines etc would have to be tweaked till the shortfall looks manageable.
  • The above process will also help to quantify your emergency fund and insurance coverage requirements.
  • Once the goals, net worth and investible surplus are known, the existing assets/ future investments are restructured/planned considering suitability, tax impact, risk impact (as per the risk levels you are comfortable with) and cost impact (direct modes).
  • Once the plan is agreed upon, the same is implemented in direct modes. I don’t like to leave you with a plan which may or may not get implemented. Rather, I prefer to ensure that the plan is implemented by handholding wherever necessary during implementation.
  • Reviews, Estate Planning will be done as applicable for the service chosen.

The detailed steps involved are given below (The word “client” has been used for the prospective client also):

1) Client contacts me and schedules an appointment for an introductory call. This can be done either by mailing to brijesh@bvare.com or by pinging at 9961023640 (sms or whatsapp). Please include the following details while contacting:

  • Your Full Name
  • City where you are based at
  • Your applicable Life Stage as per “My Services” page
  • Three options of date and time convenient to you. Please factor in 30 minutes for the intro call. Kindly also check my working days / times given in point no.10 under “FAQs” page while providing the options.
  • Your preference for Tele-call or Web-con (Google Meet)
  • Email id to sent meeting invite (if pinging).

2) The introductory call is for me to understand the specific requirements and for the client to decide whether I am the right person to help him.

3) After the call, the client informs whether he is happy to go ahead.

4) Once the client confirms go ahead in principle, I will mail him the terms of engagement.

5) Client confirms acceptance of the Terms of Engagement and pays by account transfer 50% of the fees as advance.

6) Once I get the acceptance mail and advance fees, I will mail across the data collection template.

7) The client will share the duly filled data sheet.  Copy of Pan Card or Aadhaar Card or Passport will be needed for my compliance purpose.

8) Once I get the above inputs, I will start working on the same. The 1st discussion will happen between 7 – 10 working days. In total, the entire planning process will involve 3 – 5 webcons ranging 30-60 minutes each. The broad structure of these webcons will be as follows:

  • Webcon 1 – Big Picture. Whether the goals as given are likely to be met
  • Webcon 2 – Safety Nets (Emergency Funds, Insurances & Asset Allocation)
  • Webcon 3 – Investment Strategy
  • Webcon 4 – Investment products
  • By the end of the 4th Webcon, the plan is generally finalised and sent to the client (on a case to case basis, it may take lesser or more number of webcons).
  • Client pays the balance 50% of fee at this stage.
  • Webcon 5 – Teaching how to buy products in direct mode (if needed)

Structured knowledge transfer is ingrained in the above sessions so that the client can relate and apply the knowledge to his own plan.

This completes the onboarding stage.

9) Reviews as applicable will be conducted during the tenure of engagement.

10) During the tenure of engagement, the client can consult me in any matter related to his personal finance aspects. Please refer “Preferred manner of contacting me” in FAQs to get best results.