Each week that goes by we learn more about ourselves as individuals and society.  So far I’ve learned that I’m glad to be at home with my family and we get on well! 

I’m also glad to have a home office after my days working with the AIC which makes ‘leaving work’ easier as I can close the door to the office and leave work behind.  I have been able to exercise more without the commute to London and probably like many of you, I’m still busy, so the days go quickly.

I’m also taking this opportunity to take stock of my life generally and I wonder if your clients might be doing the same. 

Do you think that some might want to step off their hamster wheel when we get out of the other side of this?  When they have set ‘their number’ -  that is the amount they want to retire with - might that change do you think? 

Might some clients want to re-evaluate that number and explore if they are comfortable with a slightly lower amount?  Personally, I think clients will fall into two categories:

Re-evaluate and change tack: That might mean retiring much earlier than originally planned and spending more time with the family or working with charities to help others.  Or it might be to travel more.

There are places that many of us have on our wish-list but we haven’t quite got to visit them yet.  The consequences might mean planning to stop working, taking sabbaticals or unpaid leave to achieve these things.  But all this effects the cashflow and needs to be fed into their financial plan.

Re-evaluate and get back on that hamster wheel: There will be clients who are not where they want to be and the knock-on effects of the pandemic will highlight this.

They might have a desire to work harder or take more risk to achieve their objectives in the defined timeframe.  How will you manage those discussions?  Remember, that we are affected most by our immediate past.

I wonder which of your clients might become more conservative and which more adventurous. Overall I’m not sure any of us will come out of this with the same attitude with which we went in.

• This article appears in the latest issue of Financial Planning Today magazine https://bit.ly/3cGagra

Jacqueline Lockie CFP™ Chartered FCSI, is Head of Financial Planning, CISI