Meet the team – Phil Hart

Name

Phil Hart

Job Title

Chartered Financial Planner

How long have you been at Cowgills?

7 years 😊

Ok, so what exactly do you do?

I provide financial advice to individuals and businesses. For individuals and families, this usually involves setting objectives (e.g. I want to be able to retire at 60 and spend 40k a year or I’ve just sold my business for (X) and need (Y) to live on every year) and then creating plans that helps them get to where they want. We look at how any capital they have might be invested, what the risk factors to not achieving their goals might be and generally try to optimise their financial positions. For businesses, it mostly involves looking at the various issues that might come with the death/illness of a shareholder/director/key individual and how this can be mitigated, usually through insurance products.

Give us some highlights

It can be pretty rewarding showing people how they might retire a few years early or how they can afford to give their kids enough to pay off their mortgages without impacting their spending.

What challenges do you find clients are experiencing at the moment and how are you helping them to overcome them?

We usually find that clients are worried about the effects on markets and the news is great at telling people when markets are falling but not so good at the slower recovery. Keeping in regular contact with people is the best way to overcome this and it’s been a pretty positive conversation for our part – most portfolios have recovered to within 2% or so over 6 months and are up or flat over 1 year. Clients generally are not invested at the same risk levels as the stock markets but they see the downturn and fear that’s what’s happening to their money – it’s important for us to keep re-iterating that most are only seeing a fraction of those swings.