TLC Business Solutions and Thornton Associates, with the support of the Isle of Man Government, have arranged a series of free talks on financial planning open to everyone in the Isle of Man. The new series leads on from the success of their first talk on the same topic, held in November last year. TLC is a leading Manx corporate training company and Thornton Associates is the Island’s only firm of Chartered Financial Planners. The Managing Directors of the two companies, Sue Gee (TLC) and Sharon Sutton (Thornton Associates) first teamed up to provide a government backed seminar last year, which was met with overwhelmingly positive feedback. Over one hundred people attended the talk, designed to encourage everyone, whatever their income, to think about the details of their financial planning. The attendees who left feedback said that they had gained something useful from it and would recommend it to a friend. One audience member said, “It was fantastic; the message was received and uncovered the steps to plan for my future – it was a great use of an hour!” There will be a series of four talks spread throughout March and April on different subject matters, all of which will be hosted at the Claremont Hotel. They will open for coffee and registration at 5.15pm, with the seminars starting at 5.45pm and lasting one hour. The first talk is on the 9th of March and will feature Sue and Sharon, covering similar ground to their previous event. Sue commented on the talk: “It is a myth that only affluent, high net worth or rich people need to plan financially for the future; it is actually more important for those of us who have less disposal income because we need to make our money work harder for us. If you didn’t hear about the last talk in time or couldn’t make it along, I would really encourage you to try it out – it’s free, after all.” Feedback from the last talk suggested that there were three areas in particular that attendees wanted to hear more about: money/debt management, wills and pensions. Sue and Sharon have addressed this by arranging three additional talks in this series. The second talk is on the 16th of March and will cover the subject of wills. Sally Bolton, Principal of Corlett Bolton and Co legal practice, will lead the seminar, which will cover areas such as why a will is so important, what your assets are, what can happen if you don’t have one and legal areas to be aware of. Andrea Tabb will present the third seminar on the 22nd of March. Andrea is the Advice Centre Manager at the Isle of Man Office of Fair Trading and will outline how to use credit while avoiding debt problems. Finally, Sharon Sutton will provide the last talk of this series on the 6th of April, on the subject of pensions: what are they really and how to get the most out of them. Sharon commented on the new series of talks: “We were very pleased by the success of the last seminar and it is good to see the Isle of Man Government supporting further talks. The feedback from the last event has given us the opportunity to understand more precisely the subjects that people struggle with and we have been able to tailor this series to address some common concerns in greater depth.” To register for any of the free financial planning talks, call Janet on 664 789. Ends