The Mid-Year Laundry List

We all have our to-do lists: lists of those mundane tasks we don’t necessarily want to tackle but need to in order to keep our dresser drawers, filing cabinets and garages clean and tidy, and our lives efficient and stress-free.

At Veritas, we refer to these to-do lists as our clients’ laundry lists. When we meet with clients for their regular review, we always run through the list of the things we were meant to do in the past year as well as cover the things that they were meant to do. This serves as a necessary measure of progress and keeps us all accountable and on track.

Our clients are generally very busy people doing what they do best so don’t always have the time to get into the nitty-gritty of the entire financial planning process. With that in mind, we try to keep the work we require from them to a minimum, but still need everyone to play their part as active participants in the process: working together, we can do our very best to help plan and secure each individual’s envisaged financial future.

The laundry list is one’s chance to run through the things that have been done and ascertain what is still outstanding: its completion by our clients makes the whole planning process run far more efficiently, freeing everyone up to do what they do best.

Halfway through the year is a good time to start ticking off one’s financial planning laundry list. So with this in mind, here are a few things to consider prior to our next meeting:

• Get pension/provident statement from work. Look at what percentage you are contributing. This will help us consider if you are maximising your contribution.
• Get details of group risk cover through work. This will help us review the types and level of cover you have.
• Assess medical aid plan. Although you can only change your plan in December of each year, consider if this is still the right option for you.
• Dust off your Will and read it thoroughly to determine if it is still valid and correct.
• Review your bank statement. Do you know what each debit order is and are you comfortable with each one (specifically short-term insurance, life policies, gap cover).
• Consider where you should allocate any surplus: to your bond, to your retirement savings or to discretionary savings.