Veronica Mann, a specialist in later-life financial planning, helps people understand financial planning.

April 1, 2026

 

Veronica Mann is a Certified and Chartered Fellow Financial Planner, making her one of the best-qualified financial advisers in the country. She specialises in working with clients in later life, and is an accredited member of SOLLA (the Society of Later Life Advisers), an organisation signposted by both the NHS and Which, dedicated to helping older people navigate financial planning.

Most of Veronica’s clients are approaching retirement, or already retired, so they are focused on managing their retirement income, lifetime gifting to family, reducing the inheritance tax (IHT) burden on their estate, and ensuring they can afford care should they need it.

She works with men and women, but many of her clients are women who have been widowed and found themselves having to manage their finances alone – sometimes for the first time.

Veronica says, “I see many educated, intelligent women who don’t have a clue about financial planning. Not because they aren’t capable – far from it – but because they’ve never had to know. Often, they avoid talking to a financial adviser because they are embarrassed by their lack of knowledge, and worried about asking ‘silly’ questions.

“So one of my first jobs is to reassure new clients that there is no such thing as a silly question, and that I’m not here to judge, but to help. Part of that help is to educate people in financial planning and build their confidence. If you’re talking to an IFA who makes you feel embarrassed or silly, frankly, you’re talking to the wrong person!”

The importance of later-life financial planning

Veronica has been working recently with a widow in her 80s who had avoided taking financial advice for nearly 10 years for precisely this reason. With cash assets approaching £1million , her priorities are to use her estate to help her children and grandchildren while ensuring she can still afford care later if she needs it. Veronica has taken time to help build her confidence and understand her options. The three main areas that they have looked at together are:

•       Understanding how, by keeping large amounts in cash, her assets are losing purchasing power due to inflation;
•       Minimising her estate’s future IHT liability as far as possible;
•       Ensuring she can afford not only her future care fees, but also to help her family with expenses such as school fees, weddings, or to get on the property ladder.

Of course, not everyone has this level of assets, but the earlier you start with later-life financial planning, the more options you will have available to you to maximise the potential of what you do have.

Veronica says, “Whatever the level of assets, it’s quite common for people who have relied on cash savings all their lives to feel that investing is too much of a culture shock. My job is to identify your options and talk you through them until you feel confident enough to make a decision.

“Sometimes those options include ways of funding care fees, for instance, that people simply weren’t aware of.”

Funding care for later life

Planning for care fees is an area that many people find daunting, particularly as the period when a family member needs to arrange care is often emotionally demanding. 

Luckily, it’s an area where Veronica has specific expertise.

“Many people don’t realise that care can be funded through a specific care needs annuity, whether someone is moving into a residential home or having live-in care in their own home,” says Veronica.

“The tragedy is that, because people aren’t aware that they have this option, they start to use their assets – cash, investments, the family home – to pay for it. Care fees are means-tested, and anyone with more than £23,250 in assets must pay for their own care.

“I get so many calls via SOLLA from families concerned that their mum or dad is in a care home and the money is running out. By the time it gets to this point, there’s very little I can do. But by contacting me as soon as someone needs to start paying for care, and where there are sufficient assets, I can help you to buy a medically underwritten annuity that will pay a regulated care provider’s fees for the rest of that person’s life. Because the annuity payments go direct to the provider, there’s no personal income tax to pay, and it protects that person’s estate from being swallowed up by fees.”

To explore your options for funding care fees, or simply to talk to someone at your own pace about what later-life financial planning means for you, contact Veronica.