Financial Planning is a continuous process of money management to achieve personal financial goals at various points of time in life. Financial Planning allows you to control financial situation. It can enhance the quality of life by reducing uncertainty of future needs and resources. According to Financial Planning Standard Board India (FPSB India),“Financial Planning is the process of meeting your life goals through the proper management of your finances. Life goals can include buying a house, saving for your child's higher education or planning for retirement. The Financial Planning Process consists of six steps that help you take a 'big picture' look at where you are currently. Using these six steps, you can work out where you are now, what you may need in the future and what you must do to reach your goals.The process involves gathering relevant financial information, setting life goals, examining your current financial status and coming up with a strategy or plan for how you can meet your goals given your current situation and future plans.”

BENEFITS OF FINANCIAL PLANNING

Financial Planning can help you to

 (i) Ensure financial protection for you and your family from unexpected incidents in life;

(ii) Identify financial goals and design suitable strategies to achieve those goals;

(iii) Be realistic about what is possible;

(iv) Control/avoid borrowing money beyond your affordability;

(v) Achieve financial dreams which are impossible in your thought.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF FINANCIAL PLANNER:

• Trusted Professional : Relation between you and your financial planner is long term. As a true professional, he or she will frequently communicate with you to build a long-term relationship.
• Educate : Your Financial Planner will help you become more knowledgeable by providing advice and guidance regarding planning and investment.This includes giving overviews of different investment types and explaining how each can benefit,or hinder,your objectives.
• Determine Risk Tolerance : He or she helps you assess how aggressive you can be with your investments and the amount of risk you can bear.The planner must consider your long-term and short-term goals,family status,age, employment and expenses to give the most accurate advice.
• Planning Facilitator : Your Financial Planner has extensive planning capabilities and will design a path of process for building, managing and protecting your assets.
• Family Coordinator : Your Financial Planner will consider and plan for multiple generations of your family,collaborating with your other advisors,such as lawyers and accountants.
• Investment Manager : Your Financial Advisor's primary responsibility is to help you build, diversify and monitor your investment portfolio to reach your desirable goals.
• Debt Manager : A good Financial Planner is one who can help you to reduce your loan account taken from various sources in such a way that it will protect you from the debt trap and ensure your multiple goals to be achieved without any tension.
• Fiduciary Agent : During the planning process it is the duty of your financial planner to act in the best interest of you.

RESONSIBLITIES OF CLIENTS

Relation between Financial Planner & Client is like relation between Doctor & Patient. For speedy recovery from your diseases you have to give every detail about the disease to your doctor. In the same way to achieve your goals and manage your money, you have to detailed everything about your present financial condition to the financial planner otherwise very purpose of planning will be collapsed.

    As a client you have to have following responsibilities:

• to share your financial goals and philosophies with your planner;
• to develop a relationship with your planner based upon mutual trust and respect;
• be realistic about your financial goals and path of achievement;
• Analyse spending habits and develop a practical budget that suits you;
• Always get clarification from your planner about the meaning of financial word(s) which you don’t understand;
• Strict to the discipline until you achieve you goals.                                   

NEED FOR FINANCIAL PLANNING

After reading all of above if you think you don’t need financial planning or at present it is meaningless to you then just spend few more minutes and see below the points of your life and then decide.There are numerous financial sites/blogs and authority available in the net world who are either freely or taking reasonable fees to guide you to protect your financial world.But all these efforts will go to in vain if people are reluctant to step forward and accept the demand of practical life for financial planning.

1. Income : Financial Planning will help you to manager your income and balance your expenditure in respect to income. It will guide you analyse your need and manage your income in the best possible way. It will also guide you how to increase cash flow and maximise investment bucket.
2. Capital : Once your cash flow increased, it will enhance your investment portfolio which will ultimately build your capital base to fulfil your various financial goals.
3. Investment : A right investment planning will help you to convert your financial dreams into realities. It will guide you to allocate your money in different investment products for maximise inflation adjusted return.
4. Family Security : Actual need of coverage with right insurance product(s) will secure your family and give you mental peace in the long run. As a responsible person you need to give priority for your family security. It can be done by good insurance planning.
5. Standard of Living : By selecting right insurance coverage and right product(s) financial planning will help you to ensure that your family can live in present standard in absence of you without compromising in life.
6. Savings : How much money you need to keep in home? How much money you need to maintain in savings account? How will you organize your surplus money to deploy? All these sort of things can be solved by taking proper financial planning.
7. Assets : Financial Planning can help you to acquire various assets without  hampering your living standard and investment portfolio. How can you remove your liabilities or manage it? How can you easily control your financial burden by utilizing your present assets? All these can be possible by suitable financial planning.