"Investors Chronicle" Personal Finance Planner Book

"Financial planners take what they call an 'holistic' or integrated approach to your financial affairs", states the author in chapter one of the Personal Financial Planner. "Each item has an impact on one or more of the other categories; so financial planners would tackle them in the light of all your investment, tax and insurance needs".In many respects this book is a tour de force. Debbie Harrison writes with great technical assurance and economy. The style is matter-of-fact and may be a little dry for some tastes but content is always authoritative and refreshingly free of the histrionics that habitually accompany press coverage of contentious areas like pensions, endowments and financial advisers. Whether the content is truly "holistic" is a moot point. The missing player is the financial adviser incarnate to "develop a structured investment portfolio that takes all your financial arrangements into consideration". In the adviser's absence, a series of "holistic" case studies might have done very nicely.Such quibbles apart, the Personal Financial Planner is a valuable tool for all who wish to take a grip on their personal finances, a jargon-buster par excellence and, not least, a handy reference book for those of us who think we know it all. --David MeyerRead More