Life is full of twists and turns. Some can be exciting and pleasantly surprising, while others can leave you feeling adrift.

Whether you’re welcoming a new member of the family, approaching retirement, or dealing with a bereavement, major life events can have a significant impact on your finances.

Being prepared can ease you through transitions that may otherwise be challenging and help you avoid making important financial decisions under pressure.

Read on to discover five life events worth planning for and some of the ways we may be able to help you prepare for them.

1. Welcoming a new child or grandchild

The arrival of a child or grandchild is an exciting time, but it can also bring new financial responsibilities.

The costs of raising a child can be significant. From childcare and everyday essentials to paying for years of education, expenses can quickly add up. You may also need to account for a period of lower household income if one parent takes extended parental leave.

If you’re a grandparent, you may also want to offer financial support, perhaps by contributing towards the child’s education costs or putting money aside for their future security.

There are several ways we can help you plan for welcoming a new family member, and the best option will depend on how you want the money to be used and the time horizon involved.

For example, you may want to consider the following:

  • Opening a Junior ISA to invest money on the child’s behalf that they can access once they reach 18.
  • Putting assets in trust to be used at specific junctures in the child’s life, such as when they finish university or paying for their school fees.
  • Setting up a pension for the child and making contributions that may enjoy multiple decades of compounding growth.

It’s also worth reviewing your life insurance and estate planning arrangements to make sure your new family members are accounted for.

2. Going through a divorce

Divorce can be one of the most emotionally stressful events you can experience.

Alongside the personal challenges, there are also multiple financial considerations. These might include how you split assets such as your family home and pensions, what financial support one party may need to offer the other, and how you will split any ongoing costs, such as school fees.

It’s important to understand the full picture before agreeing to a financial settlement. For example, pensions can represent a significant proportion of your joint wealth, but many couples fail to include them in a settlement.

You should also review your financial arrangements, which might include updating your will, pension nominations, and insurance policies.

We can help ensure that a divorce settlement covers everything you need, that you understand your new financial position, and that you can make informed decisions about your future.

3. Retiring from work

Retirement is a significant financial transition, and moving from earning to relying on pensions, savings, and investments requires careful planning.

A good starting point is to work out how much income you’ll need to maintain your desired lifestyle. Consider your essential living costs, as well as discretionary spending on holidays, hobbies, and other activities. We can use cashflow modelling to show you how your income needs may change over time.

You can then assess how much you will need for your retirement alongside how much you have. This can give you an approximation of how much (if any) shortfall you have and what steps you may need to take to bridge the gap.

You’ll also need to have a plan for where your retirement income will come from. This might include your State Pension, workplace pensions, personal pensions, ISAs, savings, and investments. How you draw from each of these can affect your tax liability, so it’s important to work with us to create a tax-efficient withdrawal plan.

You can read more about this in our previous article on the topic.

4. Paying for social care

As you get older, you or your partner may need additional support with everyday activities. This could involve care at home, moving into assisted living, or residential care.

The cost of social care can be considerable, and even under new proposals for a National Care Service, you may end up paying a lot depending on the level of care you need.

Planning ahead can help you understand how you might fund any care needs, and what steps you can take to ensure your wealth and estate are protected.

While you may not end up needing it, it’s a good idea to have early conversations with your family about your wishes so they are respected should you be less able to make decisions in later life.

We can also help you explore different ways you can both plan for care costs and protect your legacy. This could involve buying an annuity, adapting your gifting strategy, or putting assets into trust.

5. Losing your partner

When you lose your partner, financial matters may be the last thing on your mind, but there are often important decisions to make.

The earlier and more carefully you plan for this eventuality, the less work you will have to do if and when it comes.

You may need to review household income, mortgage payments, bills, and other expenses. There may also be money available through life insurance, pensions, and other sources of inheritance.

If you die before your partner, having an up-to-date will and a watertight estate plan can help ensure they have less to sort out after you’re gone.

We can work with both you and your partner to put a plan in place that ensures the surviving partner is supported and their work is kept to a minimum after the other dies.

Get in touch

Life changes can be challenging, and even the positive ones can create issues where there previously weren’t any. But having a plan in place can help ensure you are ready for those changes when they come.

When it comes to your finances, that’s exactly where we can help.

If you would like to talk to us about this further, reply to this email or call us on 0117 959 6499.

Risk warnings

This article does not constitute tax, legal or financial advice and should not be relied upon as such. Tax treatment depends on the individual circumstances of each client and may be subject to change in the future. For guidance, seek professional advice.

This article is for general information only and does not constitute advice. The information is aimed at individuals only.

All information is correct at the time of writing and is subject to change in the future.

Please do not act based on anything you might read in this article. All contents are based on our understanding of HMRC legislation, which is subject to change.

The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate estate planning, cashflow planning, tax planning, trusts, Lasting Powers of Attorney, or will writing.

A pension is a long-term investment not normally accessible until 55 (57 from April 2028). The fund value may fluctuate and can go down, which would have an impact on the level of pension benefits available.

The value of your investments (and any income from them) can go down as well as up and you may not get back the full amount you invested. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

Approved by Best Practice IFA Group 11/11/2026