Inflation and financial planning — focusing on the bigger picture

A little over two years ago, inflation surged to a worrying 20-year high, placing financial planners in uncharted territory. Many, having recently adopted cashflow modelling as part of their proposition, found themselves unable to justify the assumptions they were using, leading to intense client scrutiny and awkward questions.  Imagine you're a well-to-do client. It's April 2022 and The Times has just reported inflation hitting 8%. In a meeting with your financial planner, you ask about the inflation rate used in their cashflow model, and they tell you it's 3%. When you ask "why", th...