For me it was Gemma’s approach to giving advice that was so impressive. I’d found Gemma initially via her Instagram account, and she was then recommended by a friend. When we met in-person she instantly put me at my ease; I felt comfortable and relaxed as Gemma was...
Claire Trott
Our Services
Gemma Darcy APFS, CeMAP
Director & Chartered Financial Planner delivering financial planning advice in a language everyone can understand.
Pension Tax Relief: Still one of your biggest benefits
One of the biggest benefits of saving into a pension is you receive tax relief up to the higher of £3,600 or 100% of relevant UK earnings capped at the Annual Allowance (£60,000 in 2024/25). How do I receive my pension tax relief? You’ll automatically get 20% basic...
Andy Harrington | Private Client
For me it was Gemma’s approach to giving advice that was so impressive. I’d found Gemma initially via her Instagram account, and she was then recommended by a friend. When we met in-person she instantly put me at my ease; I felt comfortable and relaxed as Gemma was...
Pension Tax Relief: Still one of your biggest benefits
One of the biggest benefits of saving into a pension is you receive tax relief on everything you pay in up to the annual allowance (currently £60,000 in 2024/25). Discover all the ways pension planing can help ensure you take advantage of any tax benefits available to you personally.
Andy Harrington | Private Client
For me it was Gemma’s approach to giving advice that was so impressive. I’d found Gemma initially via her Instagram account, and she was then recommended by a friend. When we met in-person she instantly put me at my ease; I felt comfortable and relaxed as Gemma was...
Welcome to The Investor – 121
In a world filled with change, having a financial adviser by your side can bring peace of mind. The latest edition of The Investor from St. James’s Place dives into how to navigate uncertainty together.
Want insights on global stock market trends and how they impact your investment portfolio? This edition is a must-read! Plus, learn how families can protect loved ones with learning disabilities financially.
What the Autumn Budget means for you
The Chancellor has increased taxes by a record £40bn and increased borrowing to £127bn for this tax year. Alongside the headline changes to minimum wage, fuel duty and increased spending for public services there were several changes that may affect you.
The power of long-term relationships
Establishing richer, successful, long-term relationships with clients means I’m able to understand their individual needs, helping them plan to achieve their short and longer term lifestyle financial goals.
The majority of individuals receiving professional financial advice across the nation have remained with the same adviser throughout. This was the outcome of a new study by St. James’s Place (SJP), highlighting the power of longstanding advice relationships. Discover more about the study’s key findings.
Top tips on how to track down your lost pension pots
Imagine finding a lost pension you never knew you had.
There are now an estimated 3.3 million lost pension pots, containing £31.1 billion worth of assets, with the average size of a lost pot highest among the 55-75 age group, at £13,620. Find out what happened when my Mum discovered hers!
Five top tips to help you achieve your dream retirement
In the final article of our series, we discuss the key stages required to help you achieve the best financial lifestyle possible in retirement. Most importantly: how to create a financial plan that will enable you to live in the now as well as in the future.
John Whitehead – a passion for cashflow
In its simplest form, our Visual Cashflow Plan illustrates how much money our clients will have available to spend at anyone time throughout their lives.
Colin Peters | Group Communications Director & Amy Peters | Paediatric Nurse
My wife and I discovered Gemma after requesting recommendations for a financial adviser on the Nantwich Facebook Group; her name came up so many times it was a no brainer. Some people you feel are just wanting commission; it was obvious that Gemma took the time to get...
Need Help with your NHS Pension?
The decisions you make around your NHS Pension are some of the most important you’ll encounter as there’s no opportunity to change your mind once you’ve taken your pension.
Whether it’s wanting flexibility in retirement, or making that career choice, I’ve not yet met a single NHS client who felt confident with the information they’d been given relating to their pension.
Jon Overton | Private Client
I’d been looking for a financial adviser to help me with my pensions for a long time. The fact that Gemma’s business Facebook depicted her as being very human and approachable was appealing and her website biography felt unique, personalised – that there was a real...
Mark Wilson | Head of Service UK & Ireland, GE Vernona
I initially approached Gemma as I was looking for help with cashflow planning, along with advice and guidance as to when I could hope to retire. I was immediately put at ease, as she explored what it was I wanted to achieve, explaining what she could, and couldn’t do....
Why I chose to follow Darcy Financial Planning Ltd’s pension advice
A Client’s Story: “After discussing my options in detail with Gemma, I realised my current company pension, like most generic employer-provided Defined Benefit schemes, assume you will use your fund to buy an annuity and progressively de-risk your investments as you approach retirement. This is not necessarily appropriate if you have a mixture of pension pots or intend to use your investments on a draw-down basis, in which case a significant proportion of your pension remains invested for 20 years or more.”
When your life’s suddenly turned upside down
You’re nearing the end of your career, you’ve saved for an adventurous retirement, and suddenly life throws you a curve ball. This is what happened to Sue last October. Here she shares her personal story with us – a reminder that health and wealth are most definitely a partnership to be valued.
Leaving an inheritance a third less likely for future retirees
Latest research finds that while 68% of UK adults believe it’s important they leave an inheritance, the study highlights future retirees are sacrificing their inheritance plans to support other generations.
Imagine your future – Is your workplace pension enough?
When imagining your long-term future – in my experience more difficult in your 20s and 30s – we should include how many years we could spend in retirement. Women today have a 1 in 4 chance of living to 94, and men to 92*. How are you doing on your current journey? And what can you do to resolve any gaps along the way?
*ONS figures July 2024
John Fielding | Company Director
When it came to planning our financial future, we needed to find an adviser we felt we could have a meaningful relationship with; ensuring you have enough money in retirement is so important. When you find someone like Gemma who you can trust and respect, the rest is...
Meet our Chief Investment Officer
Our Chief Investment Officer, Justin Onuekwusi, sat down with Lauren Hardy at Portfolio Adviser for the latest ‘View from the top’ interview series. He tells of how he has set about achieving the primary goal of achieving good client outcomes through a relentless focus on transparency, advocacy and clear communication.
Imagine your future – Does NI pay for my State Pension?
I wanted to explore the future of pension planning in the UK. Oh no, I hear you say, this is just because you’re in the business of selling pension plans. While of course this is true, I also feel strongly about sharing my expertise and knowledge to encourage younger people to take responsibility for their financial futures as soon as they’re able. And so this three-part series explains what the Government is responsible for today, along with their plans for the future, and what we can all do about ensuring we don’t need to work until the bitter end.
Welcome to The Investor
Good advice – really good advice – has the power to change your life. Sometimes in momentous, memorable ways, and sometimes in quiet, gradual ways. We devote this issue of The Investor – our 120th – to the invaluable advice that’s passed on to us from trusted sources throughout our lives.
What being Chartered means to me
All Chartered Financial Planners need to satisfy rigorous criteria, but anyone who’s read my story knows my formal education was interrupted by having my son Josh at 18. Gaining chartertership was my way of proving to myself that I had the ability to go the full educational course.
Your Guide to the Financial Planning Hierarchy of Needs
Like Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – a model for understanding what motivates and fulfils us as humans – the Financial Planning Hierarchy illustrates the various stages which can guide us towards our financially secure future. We start with an emergency fund saved at the beginning of our career and end with the management of the estate we leave behind.
Why succession planning is so important for businesses
A key factor when you create a thriving business is what happens when you retire or semi-retire? This is a recurring topic for anyone wanting to understand what needs to be put in place for business succession planning. Although Helen has quite a few years to go, here she explains the various options open to her when the time comes.
Retirement incomes forced to stretch further
Almost one million UK families will have multiple generations in retirement at the same time within the next 10 years, a new study1 by St. James’s Place reveals. As a result, retirement income is expected to stretch across multiple generations, causing many...
Financial Planning? It’s all about lifestyle
Gemma Darcy, Director of Darcy Financial Planning, has been advising clients for over 20 years. She tells us why understanding her clients’ lifestyle choices is the key to delivering the best service.
How to reduce or avoid high income child benefit tax charge
High income child benefit tax charge (HICBC) is nothing new, introduced in 2013, it made those earning over £50,000 liable for a tax charge. However, from 6 April 2024, this figure rises to £60,000.
In conversation with: GE’s Lisa Gilkes
“Inclusion, Diversity and Equality is important to me and my co-leadership role of the GE Women’s Network Renewable Energy UK&I allows me to support the improvement of gender within the organisation”
Howard and Alison | Private Clients
The Visual Lifestyle Cashflow Plan did a great job of illustrating the potential of our pension pots. The meeting with John, Gemma’s Cashflow Manager, demonstrated to us that options we only considered as possibilities, are all now achievable and on top of that we can...
Professor Sarah O’Brien | Chief Nursing Officer, NHS & Martin O’Brien | Chartered Management Accountant/Finance Director
Experiencing Gemma’s Cashflow Planning Service and receiving our subsequent report was very valuable. It enabled us to make decisions about investment now that will ensure we have an adequate income to meet our planned future lifestyle. I also commissioned an NHS...
Mike and Louisa Swift | NHS Pension Service
The initial discussion with Gemma was very helpful and informative and provided a baseline on information to allow us to decide what further information we wanted to receive. We opted for four reports covering potential retirement at various ages and depending on...
Gemma Salmon | Private Client
We first met with Gemma at our home pre-Covid for an informal chat. I’d never discussed my finances with anyone, but she quickly made me feel comfortable and I felt supported through our following meetings and decisions. I lost my dad unexpectedly, which is one of the...
Dr Catrin Barwick | Radiologist
Gemma has been my financial adviser for five years and always been very approachable, friendly and easy to talk to. Although I believe I’m financially savvy, all the recent changes to the NHS pension scheme means it’s been great to have an expert on hand to offer any...
The Categories
Categories