Meet the team - Rachel Wyatt

What is your area of expertise?

I have been working in the financial sector since 2000, and initially held a number of specialist roles within the pensions industry. I have been delivering wealth planning advice to high-net-worth clients and their families for the last 10 years and specialise in retirement and generational planning.

As a Chartered Wealth Planner, my role is to design a practical strategy on how you can use assets and resources to help you achieve your life goals. This then gives you a clear pathway on how you can realise your financial goals and gives you peace of mind about your finances.

You may be looking for advice about a particular need, such as estate planning or funding retirement, or you may want a holistic plan on how best to use a lump sum to fund planned expenditure, replace earnings and achieve legacy aspirations. It all starts with a conversation.

A key objective is to highlight any gaps in your current financial arrangements and to prioritise your needs. I will use my technical knowledge and experience to recommend a solution, and if appropriate, propose suitable investments and tax wrappers. My job is then to explain how this will meet your specific needs in an easy-to-understand way that gives you confidence and peace of mind.

 

What do you think sets Arbuthnot Latham apart in the market?

It is a privilege to hear what is important to our clients. When they confide their hopes and concerns, they are placing their trust in us, and this should be respected. Too often financial advice is product-sales driven, but this is where Arbuthnot Latham is different: our advice is objective-led and highly personalised, meaning our clients benefit from tailored solutions that reflect their specific needs.

We take great care in getting to know our clients. This involves not only understanding their financial situation, but the requirements of their family, business, and future aspirations. Our full-service approach means we can manage everything all under one roof. So, whether our clients require banking, financial planning, investment management or a combination of all three, our teams are joined-up and will work together to deliver a service that meets your precise and unique requirements.

 

What challenges are clients facing at the moment?

Interest rates on cash deposits are at a 15-year high and we have also had a year of turbulent markets, so it can be confusing to know if you are better off keeping your money in cash or investing it into the market. However, studies show that trying to time the market rarely out-performs adopting a ‘time in’ the market strategy.

A financial planner will challenge you to focus on your objective, rather than short-term returns.

Holding too much or too little in cash can be a risk to meeting your financial objectives. Getting the right balance between cash and investing will depend on your circumstances; what you are trying to achieve and when you want to achieve this by.

A savings account provides certainty – there is no capital movement and income is periodically received.  However, it does not offer the opportunity for real capital growth. Historically, equities have a far stronger track record of protecting against the effects of inflation and growing your wealth over the long-term.

We can help by using cashflow modelling as a tool in financial planning and investment management to help identify your cash needs and your ability to achieve your longer-term objectives. This will show the impact short-term volatility has in relation to your goals and give you greater confidence in your investment decisions.

 

What do you like to do outside of work?

I am blessed with two fabulous children, and time outside of work is mainly spent with them. They are at that beautiful age (three and six), where they find abundant joy in the smallest of things, and I love being part of their world.

While it is fast-paced and leaves little time for much else, I have recently prioritised investing more time into my own well-being. Much to my surprise, in addition to the physical benefits, I have found a serenity in running. Whilst there are no (current) calls for tackling marathons, I am enjoying clocking up the miles.

Outside of this, I love exploring new places and my husband and I are keen travellers with an extensive list of places we still wish to visit. And at home I enjoy baking and watching a binge-worthy TV series.

 

 

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Related services

Wealth Management  •  Wealth Planning