Welcome to the summer edition of The Wire. This edition comes after some much-needed bursts of spring sunshine. It never ceases to amaze me how those early rays transform everyone’s spirits, with colour all around us, be that in the gardens or the clothes that people wear.
Best Financial Advisers to Work For 2023 winners
Just a few weeks ago we were delighted to hear that we were selected as winners of the Best Financial Advisers to Work For award for 2023, continuing our successes of 2019 and 2021 when we last entered.
Most of the assessment is based on an in-depth survey across our staff who respond anonymously to a comprehensive array of questions about working for the company.
We were delighted that nearly all participated and awarded the company an average rating across all categories of 95%. It sets a high standard for us to maintain for the future.
This national award is perhaps the one that we are proudest of as we believe that having happy and empowered staff translates to both exceptional service for our clients and with tremendous continuity of relationships.
Mental Health Awareness Week
Since the award we have also just taken part in Mental Health Awareness Week, coming together to dedicate educating, championing, and prioritising our own and others’ mental health, and breaking the stigma and biases associated with it.
With everything going on in the world right now it feels like there’s never been a more important time to support and protect our mental well-being, and so we organised several events throughout the week to provide additional support to our people, including encouraging our many remote based staff to come in, and also to each take time to check in on at least one other colleague. The feedback has been really positive.
Whilst a digital age brings huge convenience there is still nothing as great as mixing the virtual with meeting up in person at times and having a closer social connectivity in this new era of home working, where isolation can become an issue.
HFMC Wealth Website Refresh
Continuing the theme of a refresh, we are delighted to announce that we will be upgrading our main website in mid-June to better articulate our services and how we can help clients.
We recognise that so many of our clients come from a referral either from existing clients or from professional introductions, so we have tailored the site accordingly and made it easier to find out more about the adviser to which you have been referred.
We have also given our employee benefit and asset management divisions their own sites. These can be found at hfmceb.com, and hfmcam.com, whilst the private client site retains the hfmcwealth.com domain address.
These have been created to help ensure a more relevant experience from a client perspective. Please do take a look.
In this edition…
This quarter we again have a mix of financial and non-financial topics for you. Nick Rudd considers how your pension could be the secret to reducing inheritance tax for generations to come and looks into how the lifetime allowance has affected pension wealth since 2006.
May marks the 70th anniversary of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay’s first ascent of Everest and in January 2023 our very own Vince Lane climbed to base camp with his son. Vince’s article looks at the data which reveals that more people die coming down from Everest than going up and explains how the “decumulation” stage of retirement can often be more “dangerous” than the “accumulation” stage.
We often get asked about how to best help older relatives with managing their finances and care needs and Steve Jerome is glad to oblige with some thoughts. He dives into 3 ways you can help older relatives to manage their finances and care needs, covering Lasting Powers of Attorney, Advanced Care Planning options and navigating their money in the digital age.
Finally, with ChatGPT, AI music and “deep fakes” in the headlines, we look at constructive ways that people across the world are using AI technology now to create a positive difference, both for individuals and businesses.
We hope you enjoy the rest of this issue and find it to be an insightful and informative edition of The Wire.