So, you can quote the six steps in your sleep, the financial plan's sorted and you feel confident about putting it all into practice? Great!

But maybe that's not quite how it is.

Perhaps you want to talk it over with someone. That's fine too. In fact, it's probably a good idea if this is the first time you've really taken control of your financial planning.

You're always going to face a lot of options when you plan for the future, and making pension decisions is only a part of it. So, if you're planning long-term investments or for a major change in your life (such as retirement), or if you have a lump sum to invest, you should think about getting some advice.

Although you might find it reassuring to talk to friends and family, they're not really the ones you should be asking for financial advice. What you need is a financial adviser.

You've got three types of adviser to choose from.

• Insurance Brokers can recommend products from any company.
• Banks can recommend products from a specified range of financial companies. You might find one of these in your local bank branch.
• Tied advisers can only recommend products from one financial services company.

You're in charge

A financial planning adviser's job is to give advice – advice about your plan and the financial products that might be right for you. You're still the one taking the decisions.

That means the more work you've put into thinking about a financial plan, the more you'll get out of talking to an adviser. Ideally, you should have an idea of what you want to achieve, how much you can save or invest, what kind of a return you're looking for and how you feel about risk.

And that's where this site comes in.

If you've worked through the six steps, tried out some of the tools and started to fill in the retirement planner, then that's a great basis for talking to an adviser. You can also do your homework by exploring some of the links in the info centre of this website.

Find out more about working with an adviser .

Don't forget to save the information in the retirement planner, and come back to update it regularly – particularly when your circumstances change.