At InsingerGilissen, we work with you to help you invest in the life you want for yourself and your loved ones. Your personal financial planning and estate planning will help you do just that. At InsingerGilissen, these are in experienced, discreet hands. A comforting idea: after all, your money matters are very personal and tailored to your specific goals.
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What is financial planning?
Financial planning, also known as wealth planning, is organising your finances so that you optimally align your income, expenses and assets with your current and future wishes, plans and ambitions. Think of a business transfer, sabbatical, wealth transfer, supplementary income or mortgage repayment. Financial planning and estate planning (the planning of wealth transfer) is about optimally structuring your assets. This involves arranging your (business) interests, investments, mortgages and debts so that they are optimised for your personal plans and goals. So that, for example, you can help your (grand)children buy their first home or donate and bequeath to the charities you care about.
For whom does financial planning make sense?
Practically everyone does well to think about their financial future, regardless of age, income or wealth. At InsingerGilissen, we focus on clients with free investable assets of one million euros or more. If we then consider the possible financial consequences of a marriage, the start or termination of a business, retirement, gifts, bequests or the purchase or sale of a house, the amounts involved are usually considerable. A well-thought-out financial plan then provides guidance. It clearly indicates where the financial risks lie, should such a life event occur, so that you can make informed and timely decisions.
What does a financial planner do?
A financial planner or estate planner helps you make sound financial decisions so that you can achieve your financial goals. At InsingerGilissen, we work with independent, certified financial and estate planners, whom we have personally selected for you. They, together with your Client Advisor (your contact person at our bank), will first discuss your wishes, motivations and ambitions with you personally. This covers the whole spectrum of financial matters, from investing and saving to financing your (grand)child's university education or supporting charities.
Financial planners therefore know the ins and outs of personal finance, taxation and budgeting. Some planners specialise, for example in, retirement planning or estate planning. Based on all the collected personal data, goals and wishes, financial planners draw up a personal financial plan. At InsingerGilissen, we call this your Private Plan (or Estate Plan, if the plan concerns your estate). Needless to say, your Private Plan (or Estate Plan) is discussed with you personally by the independent financial planner (or estate planner), together with your Client Advisor.
What are the benefits of financial planning?
Financial planning helps you achieve your personal goals by helping you make timely and informed financial decisions. The power of timely thinking about your financial future is that you can then make time work in your favour by giving investments longer to yield returns. It can also give you peace of mind that you have a realistic picture of your financial situation in the future and what you have arranged for your dependants. Below are 5 benefits at a glance:
1. You know better where you stand
Over a period of years, a lot can change in your personal circumstances and preferences. Think about your family situation, your spending goals or the level of your income. Your Private Plan (or Estate Plan) maps out what is known, so you can gain insight and take timely measures if necessary.
2. Your goals come more within reach
Do you want to buy another house, acquire a house abroad, buy a yacht or realise another goal? Your Private Plan gives you a better understanding of your options. So you can take targeted steps to work towards them.
3. You can cover financial risks
Your Private Plan gives insight into how your financial situation will change if your circumstances change. For example, what will your financial situation be, if you are no longer able to generate income or your business falls on hard times? What happens if your partner dies or you split up? These may not be pleasant thoughts, but these questions are important enough to think about. Fortunately, there are several options for covering financial risks. Your Private Plan identifies risks and suggests solutions.
4. You can plan the transfer of your wealth to the next generation
The final piece of personal financial planning is estate planning: planning your estate, such as leaving a partner in good financial care and thinking out how to transfer assets to the next generation. Sometimes it can be advisable to bequeath (parts of your) assets under certain conditions so that you can provide some guidance. Consider the exclusion of (ex-)partners of children. You can also stipulate the condition that an adult child (up to a certain age) cannot decide on the assets independently. In that case, an administrator will supervise to prevent the assets from being spent too quickly or unwisely. This is called a guardianship arrangement and, like the exclusion of (future) partners of children, you record it with a notary.
5. You can support the people and charities you care about
Who you pass on your assets to, is of course entirely up to you. For example, you can support several family members at different stages of life. Many of our clients also are gifting to charities. If you want to include charities in your will, you can include them in your estate planning. But you can also support causes close to your heart during your lifetime. For example, by creating a fund in your name (foundation) and having it periodically donate to the charity of your choice. The government encourages this with tax breaks for individuals and (family) businesses, although the current cabinet plans to adjust the scheme from 2028. If you choose to donate money during your lifetime, the chosen charity can reap the benefits immediately. More on this in the paragraph ‘Philanthropy via foundation or registered fund’.
Your Private Plan or Estate Plan with InsingerGilissen
Your Client Advisor will draw up a recommendation for setting up your assets based on the Private Plan of the financial planner or estate planner. In most cases, this will include an investment proposal. The planner will then periodically review your personal situation and your income and wealth position to assess whether any changes affect the feasibility of your objectives. Where necessary, you can respond to the effects of a change in consultation with your Client Advisor and make adjustments when your situation calls for it.
Your Private Plan answers questions like:
- Are your wishes financially feasible?
- What are the legal and tax issues involved?
- How can you arrange the assets?
The focal points from the Private Plan can help you realise your goals.
Your Estate Plan answers questions like:
- What have you and have not arranged in the event of your death?
- How can you ensure that your next of kin are left without financial worries?
In an Estate Plan, we describe your wishes regarding the protection of your assets and indicate which forms of wealth transfer are appropriate.
Private or business financial planning?
The question of whether you want a financial plan, drawn up for you as a businessman or for you as a private individual, is easy to answer because we always combine both aspects. A Private Plan or Estate Plan therefore takes your private situation and that of your business into consideration. So the planner looks at both your interests, income, credits, rights and obligations as a business owner, and your income, assets, debts and spending goals as a private person. In cleverly aligning your business and private finances, the financial planner proves his or her added value.
InsingerGilissen: our approach
As mentioned, your personal situation and wishes form the basis for a Private Plan. These include wealth accumulation, maintaining your lifestyle, possibly retiring early and, for example, whether there is room to transfer assets in advance. Your Private Plan answers questions such as: are these wishes feasible? What are the risks? And how should I organise my assets?
Your Private Plan is the basis for our investment proposal
Your wishes will first be translated into financial objectives, after which their feasibility will be determined on the basis of these analyses:
- What is your overall asset position?
- What do your long-term income and expenses consist of?
- How can those expenses be financed?
- What are the opportunities and threats?
- How does this translate to the management of your assets?
- What are the possible adjustments and action points?
The answers to these questions form your Private Plan. The Private Plan and Estate Plan formulate points of attention, which are intended as signals or recommendations. These points require further advice by a specialist in the field (such as a tax expert, accountant, pension specialist or civil-law notary). With us, your Private Plan forms the basis for our investment proposal to you.
Please help us
To support you with a Private Plan to achieve your personal and financial goals, we need your cooperation. We will ask you about your financial goals and the planner will also need certain information from you. Consider the set-up of your assets, your income tax return, pension statement, your financial statements and so on. What is your desired future spending pattern? Do you want to transfer assets already? In short: you will also need to do some homework yourself.
Example of financial planning
As an example, we will take a fictitious couple (both aged 50), who engaged in a conversation with us about income and wealth goals. The trigger for this conversation was that Mrs. and Mr. each received an inheritance from their parents. Mr. has also recently sold part of his business. His intention is to sell the last part of his business in five years and then retire. Mrs. is currently salaried and would also like to retire, once her partner stops working.
These clients have a few questions: can they both stop working permanently in five years? Is it feasible for Mrs. to invest her inheritance in a second home in Italy? Is it feasible to have the garden at the residence redone, including a heated pool? They do not understand the implications and feasibility of these various goals. We therefore suggest drawing up a Private Plan for them, addressing the questions.
The Client Advisor sits down with the couple and one of our (external) independent financial planners to discuss in more detail what their wishes and goals are. The planner then gets to work on them and presents his calculations, observations and conclusions during the final interview with Mr. and Mrs., which is also attended by the Client Advisor. This reveals, among other things, that they can maintain their standard of living even after Mr and Mrs have stopped working. To do so, however, they will have to make annual withdrawals from their investment assets. They therefore discuss with their Client Advisor according to which investment profile and in which asset classes their assets will be invested.
End result is that Mr. and Mrs. are very satisfied with the outcomes of the Plan. It gives them insight and overview and, above all, peace of mind because they know where they stand and where the financial emphases are for them.
Cost of your Private Plan
At InsingerGilissen, the costs of an independent external financial planner or estate planner are included in the all-in fee of the investment services if you invest assets from €1,000,000 via Discretionary Portfolio Management or Investment Advice. The Private Plan is part of our service and forms the basis of our investment proposal. It is not a one-off: because of the importance we attach to it, we offer clients this every five years.
More about DPM
Want to pass on your wealth?
Financial planning also raises the question: do you want to pass on assets? You can support family members, for example, at different stages of life. A financial plan provides overview and gives you insight into your options. Passing on wealth is also possible through the family business. You can transfer your stake in your company to the next generation, taking advantage of various tax facilities and schemes, such as an exemption of up to 100%.
Many of our clients are keen to support charities. The government encourages this with tax breaks for individuals and (family) businesses who donate (part of) their assets in life or after death, although there are plans to reduce or eliminate the tax break. If you want to leave something permanently, there are tax-friendly structures that make it easy to donate to charities. You can then opt for ‘philanthropy’: a form of direct involvement in social initiatives aimed at society as a whole or the welfare of other people.
Philanthropy via foundation or ‘registered fund’
If you want to dedicate part of your assets to a specific social initiative, you can consider setting up your own foundation or opt for a charitable fund (‘named fund’) that you hang under a (umbrella) foundation. A named fund is suitable for clients who want to play an active philanthropic role and have sizeable donations in mind. Through the named fund, you can be sure that your money will be donated to your desired charities. The advantage of a named fund is convenience, as the management, implementation of the objective(s) and administrative obligations lie with the board of the (umbrella) foundation. You can also decide how involved you want to stay and you can attach your name and face to the fund or, on the contrary, remain completely anonymous. Finally, what makes a named fund even more attractive is that you can be sure that the fund will be run according to your values and standards.
If you want to involve your children, grandchildren or other relatives in your fund's donations, you can do so through a so-called advisory committee. Incidentally, you can continue to make donations on behalf of your named fund even after your death. We work closely with Ars Donandi. This is an umbrella foundation for now 44 registered funds with a variety of objectives, but there are also other similar organisations.
Learn more about philantrophy
What other financial services does InsingerGilissen offer?