Your guide to retirement planning
About us
Everyone has lifetime goals, for themselves, for their families and for some, their business. It’s important to take some time to consider the future and to find that balance between the wealth you have accumulated and your wish list. You may well be on target to achieve your desired lifestyle already, but if you aren’t, it is better to give yourself as much time as possible to get back on track.
At Old Mill, we believe that sound financial planning is the starting point to realising your personal aspirations, and as one of the West Country’s leading accountants and financial planning firms, we can help you reach those goals.
As a client of Old Mill, you’ll be trusting a firm with a long history of delivering financial planning services to the highest professional standards.
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You’ll have a dedicated financial planner who will work closely with you on an ongoing basis to provide bespoke advice and help manage your affairs. And, with the support of a 70 plus strong team working alongside them, there’s always someone available to help you.
Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), our planners are among the most highly qualified in the country.
The adviser team also includes specialists who focus on Trust and Later Life work, Tax Planning, Pensions Consultancy and Estate Administration.
Bringing clarity to your finances through informed choices that align to your priorities now and in the future.
Financial Wellbeing
For those that are still working, even if retirement may seem some way off, the years can fly by. Starting to think about when you want to retire and the cost of your lifestyle in retirement, as early as possible can give you the best possible chance of achieving this.
There are some financial steps that many of us can probably take ourselves without the need
for professional advice, and with just a little research online.
As you start to accumulate assets and your situation potentially becomes more complex, it’s natural to think about seeking advice.
True financial wellbeing isn’t about having the most - it’s about making the most of what you have.
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An objective based on your wish list
In order to plan we need something to plan against. To do this we need to establish what’s on your wish list so we can then agree your primary long term objective.
Clarity on what you have and where it is
To deliver financial planning we need to know all of the resources available to you. We can’t do this with limited information or pieces of information missing.
A vision of the future
Once we have an objective and details of available resources we can map out the client’s future (through the use of cash flow modelling). The plan will be challenged; can it be done sooner? can it be done better?
Improving the chances of success
Having agreed a plan, we then look at how we can improve the chances of success. This is the product recommendation element of financial planning.
Ensuring you remain on track
The next element is to continually review the plan to ensure you remain on track.
An objective based on your wish list
Finding the right balance isn’t always straightforward but it is achievable. And the first step is simply taking the time to consider it.
Ask yourself:
• What’s your current financial position?
• What kind of lifestyle are you trying to build?
• How much does that lifestyle cost?
• What are the things you really want to do (your wish list)?
• Is your wish list achievable?
Answering these questions provides the foundation of your financial plan for retirement. This process isn’t about cutting back or denying yourself enjoyment. Instead, it’s about making informed choices that align with your priorities – now and in the future.
When you take the time to reflect on both your finances and your aspirations, you open the door to smarter, more confident decision-making.
When your wealth and your wish list are working together – rather than in opposition, you begin to feel more in control, more secure, and more free to enjoy the life you’ve worked so hard to build.
Clarity on what you have and where it is
When we start to work with you, after understanding your lifetime goals we piece together the resources you have available to you, your wealth.
When listing your wealth there are going to be four main categories of wealth – your current assets and liabilities, and your income and expenditure.
Some people have a spreadsheet or up-to-date list of all their resources, others have a drawer or box where all the financial papers go.
Summarising what you have and where it is, is a great first step to clarity for your financial affairs.
• When are liabilities due and is there money to repay them?
• What income is coming in now and how might this change in years to come?
• Working out your expenditure can be a bigger job but spending time listing your costs can be worthwhile, especially if you can identify some savings to be made.
Common themes
Everyone will have different requirements, but we find they fall into some common themes:
Make sure you get what you are owed
When listing your assets think back to old plans you may have taken out in the past, especially if you’ve moved several times in the past. There are resources available to locate pensions with old employers or other lost plans.
How much do I need?
If you’re still working you can estimate your expenditure in retirement by deducting the costs that will come to an end: especially mortgages, workrelated costs like travel and costs relating to your children.
When life changes
We don’t know what the future brings and look out for plans or insurance policies to deal with unexpected death, accident or illness. Sometimes when going through your expenditure and direct debits it can identify policies you took out and have forgotten about. If you are employed talk to HR about the benefits and policies that are in place for you.
A vision of the future
Personal Cashflow Modelling
After working with your financial planner to understand your desired lifestyle costs and the wealth available to deliver this, it’s possible to undertake a cashflow modelling exercise, that will provide you with a clear visual view of your current financial position and how long your wealth can support the future lifestyle you desire.
The results of this exercise usually fall into three main categories.
Enough
Reassurance that, based on some conservative assumptions your wealth is sufficient to provide your desired lifestyle throughout your lifetime. We assume that you will live beyond normal life expectancy to the age of 100.
More than enough
Many of our clients fall into this category. For those with substantial assets or income that exceeds their expenditure the result can be wealth accumulating into the future.
While many people save diligently for the future, it can be difficult to determine whether what you’ve put aside is enough. enquiries@om.uk | om.uk
This brings its own challenge, not least Inheritance Tax. But it also gives flexibility; were your expenditure requirements on the low side, are there items or experiences you never thought you could afford or does this enable you to pass money to your family to help them?
Not enough
Whilst this is more challenging situation if your cashflow shows your lifestyle may not be achievable, it’s better to identify this as early as possible. While it may be possible to rein back your expectations it can also direct your thoughts for future saving or give added incentive to build your business as you approach retirement.
When life changes
Modelling some ‘what-if’ scenarios will help enormously to inform any decision making as part of the retirement planning process and beyond. For example, whether it’s possible for you to retire earlier than you have planned, or if that once in a lifetime trip to celebrate retirement could be done business class rather than economy.
Or depending on your life stage identifying if you can make gifts to your family in your lifetime, perhaps to enable children or grandchildren to get on the housing ladder, without affecting your financial position.
Improving the chances of success
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After working with your financial planner to provide you with a clear view of your current financial position and how long your wealth can support the future lifestyle you desire, we can then look to advise you on an effective plan of action, any obstacles you may face and the potential solutions to overcome any pitfalls.
Personalised financial advice
This is the more traditional financial advice side of planning. Your adviser will work with you to optimise your tax planning strategies, maximising available allowances and tax efficient investment opportunities like ISAs or Pensions. As you approach retirement this may also include maximising the state pension you are entitled to.
Navigating investments
Our clear and established investment process can ensure that your wealth is in line with the risk that you are comfortable with to deliver the lifestyle you aspire to.
To us ‘good investing’ is about being able to sleep well at night knowing that your portfolio has a good chance of delivering you with the growth in wealth that you need. We think this is best achieved by being guided by the academic theory and empirical evidence available to us. It turns out that focusing on broad diversification (across asset types, markets, sectors, and companies) to capture broad market returns makes sense.
Not trying to time when to be in or out of equity markets or picking individual companies to invest in, keeping investing costs low and sticking with the plan, all really improve the odds of a successful outcome.
We also aim to reduce the amount of unnecessary paperwork you receive from your policies and investments, ensuring a more efficient service.
Dealing with the unexpected
If your plan has identified a shortfall, perhaps if you or your spouse die early, then your financial planner can consider bridging that gap to ensure that the survivor and your family can continue to strive towards your lifetime goals. This can involve structuring your policies or stand alone solutions like life assurance to provide protection against these unforeseen circumstances.
Ensuring you remain on track
While many people save diligently for the future, it can be difficult to determine whether what you have put aside is enough.
Staying in touch
In order for us to build long lasting and trusted relationships with our clients we believe that regular communication is vital in order to maintain that you are on course to achieve your goals long into the future. Our service means we will meet with you in person at least once a year to review your personal priorities and ensure that your wealth is still on track to pay for your wish list.
Regular reviews also allow for your plan to be agile, we know that life changes and we are here to adapt and to ensure that your plan remains robust. If you invest with us we monitor your portfolio regularly to ensure it is performing as we would expect and that you are achieving the maximum tax allowances available. We also rebalance any investments, which allows us to keep your
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portfolio at the level of risk you are comfortable with. At times more support is needed, like through the Covid crisis in 2020. Along with this you will have telephone and email access to your financial planner and their team throughout the rest of the year.
Working together
Our advice and approach to financial planning deals with many aspects of your life and Old Mill also has a fully integrated service of accountants and tax specialists internally which you can access if needed. We often have close relationships with our clients external advisers and other trusted professionals such as solicitors and bankers. This collective approach allows for all possible scenarios to be accounted and planned for and ensures that there are no hidden surprises.
Our other specialisms
• Inheritance Tax mitigation
• Later life planning
• Trust planning and administration
• Executorship and estate administration
• Cash management
Our service
Our Wealth Management service is the ongoing service you will receive from Old Mill as one of our valued clients.
As part of the core service, you will benefit from:
• Minimum annual face to face or remote financial planning meeting at location or medium of your choice
• Investment strategy – product choice and use of available allowances
• Ongoing management of your investment portfolios, including weekly fund monitoring/quarterly fund and asset allocation review
• Regular portfolio rebalance, to bring your investments back in line with your attitude to risk
• Quarterly investment portfolio valuation report and monthly Insights
• Access to the Old Mill Your Wealth App
• Access to a financial planner and support team
• Cash flow modelling
• Financial review and associated advice
• Check in meetings by phone or video call
• Intergenerational planning (parents and children)
• Family/friends consultation.
The following specialist services are also included:
• Accountancy/Tax opinion service
• Pension Administration opinion service
• Access to our Estate Administration service**
• Trust Administration opinion service.
If you’d like help creating your financial plan, please do get in touch.
Access to external legal and other professionals** who can assist with: Wills Power of Attorneys Trusts
The standard fee for our service is 1% of assets under management (AUM) subject to a minimum of £3,000 per annum.
** Additional fees may be payable for these services
Contact
If you would like to discuss anything in this brochure, please contact us for an at our cost initial consultation.
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Exeter
+44 (0)1392 214635
Chippenham
+44 (0)1225 701210
Wells
+44 (0)1749 343366
Yeovil
+44 (0)1935 426181
Ilminster
+44 (0)1460 259852
Trust services will be provided by Old Mill Trust Corporation Limited. Accountancy services will be provided by Old Mill Accountancy Limited. Financial Planning and investment management services will be provided by Old Mill Financial Planning Limited. The registered office for these companies is Maltravers House, Petters Way, Yeovil, Somerset BA20 1SH.
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Version: September 2025
