Coach, planner or adviser?
Three jobs, regularly confused
They sound similar, they get used interchangeably, and only one of them is regulated. Knowing which you need saves money, and occasionally saves a great deal more than that.
They sound similar, they get used interchangeably, and only one of them is regulated. Knowing which you need saves money, and occasionally saves a great deal more than that.
Subject: your behaviour. Why you do what you do with money, where it actually goes, and the habits that make anything else possible. Not regulated, because nothing is being recommended. You want one if you know roughly what you should be doing and aren't doing it. That's Buzz Money Coach — same firm as us.
Subject: your numbers. Whether the whole thing works. Modelling your money forward, testing what breaks it, turning that into decisions and dates. Not regulated, provided no product recommendation is given — and here, none is. You want one if you have several moving parts and no idea whether they add up.
Subject: the products. Which pension, which fund, which policy, which mortgage. A personal recommendation you can rely on, with the protections that come with it. Regulated, and legally it has to be. You want one once you know what you're trying to achieve and need the right product to do it.
If your position is simple and you're already doing the sensible things, the honest answer is to save your money. You'll get that answer here if it's the true one.
Most people meet these in exactly the wrong sequence. They buy a product first, because a product is the thing somebody is selling, and only afterwards ask whether it was the right size, the right time, or the right problem.
Done the other way round, each step makes the next cheaper and better. Behaviour first, so the money is actually there. Then the plan, so you know what you're solving for. Then, if a product is genuinely needed, you arrive at a regulated adviser knowing what to ask for — a much shorter and much better-informed conversation.
This matters enough to be exact about rather than gesture at.
We'll model what stopping at 60 instead of 65 does to your position. We won't tell you which pension to move money into.
We'll show you what a shortfall would cost your family. We won't tell you which policy to buy, or from whom.
We'll show you what overpaying does against investing the same amount. Choosing an investment isn't ours to do.
We'll describe how your debts sit and what clearing them in different orders does to the plan. Telling you what to do about them is regulated debt counselling, and we don't do it — we point you at free specialist help.
When a decision genuinely needs a regulated recommendation we say so and can introduce you to Equity & General, authorised and regulated by the FCA (No. 474163). Optional, no obligation, and if you become their client E&G pay Buzz a commission — disclosed before the introduction rather than after.