2021 Lockdown Effect on Financial Advice
Published / Last Updated on 06/01/2021
The UK went into a full national lockdown again at midnight on 5th January 2021 due to record new covid-19 infections across the UK running at over 60,000 per day.
With regard to financial services, planning and advice, we confirm that our services are fully functional with all employees continuing to work safely from home. The directors of this firm (husband/wife) continue to be in the office to open up systems, maintain ongoing services for all. The directors will continue to work 7 days a week during lockdown to ensure you see no drop in service from us.
That said, the nature of financial planning is that we rely on other organisations to also be working smoothly such as HMRC, Court services, insurance companies, pensions and investment companies. Sadly, not all companies have coped that well during the first or second lockdown let alone this third, more serious lockdown. Some pension and investment companies have not responded to postal and email requests from the March to June 2020 lockdown. Some companies are still taking upwards of 1 to 3 hrs to answer their telephones with limited manpower capacity. Some companies do not even answer their telephones or emails.
Things Will Take Longer
Whether we like it or not, we are and will continue to be subjected to delayed responses from organisations. With the current higher infection rates and this meaning so many more employees (and relatives/friends) in quarantine or isolation, we expect things to be just as hard if not harder this time around.
Expect your financial planning advice to take just a little longer in the first 6 months of 2021 but know that we are working 7 days a week to deliver our services as quickly as we can for you.
