Cash Flow Modelling Services

Cash flow modelling is a financial planning tool that helps you understand what your finances could look like in the future.

Rather than simply looking at how much money you have today, cash flow modelling considers your income, spending, pensions, investments, property, debts and future financial goals. These are projected over many years to help answer important questions such as when you can afford to retire, whether your money could run out and how much you can afford to spend or give away.

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Saltus - Award Winning Financial Planning		Minimum £250,000	Initial Fees 1%-2%	Ongoing Fees 0.6%-1.5%	Customer Reviews 5.0★★★★★★★★★★(Based on 500 reviews)	Request Info Saltus Reviews	Featured Financial Planner	Features: FCA Regulated FSCS Protected	Our Review Saltus Expert rating Our expert rating is the average of the areas listed here, each scored out of 5 by our team. 5.0★★★★★★★★★★Excellent Our experts have rated Saltus across one key area of our review framework. Wealth Manager Rating5.0 Pros Strong investment performance Bespoke client service Transparent, tiered fees Cons £250k minimum investment Initial advice charge Limited DIY option Our verdict Saltus won "Best Wealth Manager" in the 2026 and 2025 Good Money Guide Awards for it's tailored financial planning and investment services. Saltus stands out in the UK wealth management industry by blending personalised financial planning with a sophisticated investment approach more often found in institutional circles. Founded in 2004, the firm manages over £10 billion in assets and holds Chartered status for its financial planning division, reflecting high standards in advice. Summary Saltus takes a highly personalised route from the outset, matching clients with advisers who align with their goals and communication preferences. Their planning process includes robust cashflow modelling and tax optimisation, resulting in comprehensive strategies that span life planning and investment management. Their investment performance, as independently benchmarked by the ARC Private Client Indices (ARC PCI), is particularly impressive. Saltus has outperformed peers over 3, 5, and 10-year periods across cautious, balanced, growth, and equity risk categories — all while generally taking less risk. For instance, their core Growth strategy delivered an annualised 7.2% return over five years to the end of 2025, compared to 4.6% for the ARC benchmark. Fees are competitive and decline as portfolios grow, with no exit charges and transparent upfront costs, especially for larger portfolios. The ongoing cost for a £1.5m client portfolio in their core investment strategies is around 1.45% (including financial planning), and investment-only clients benefit from reduced charges. Client satisfaction is high, reflected in a 2025 Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 67 (well above the financial services average) and a 97% client retention rate. For context, Apple’s 2025 NPS score was 61 and Amazon’s 47. Bain & Co suggest that a score of 70 or more places a company in the ‘world-class’ category. A good choice for high-net-worth individuals seeking top-tier financial planning and strong, risk-adjusted investment performance.

How Does Cash Flow Modelling Work?

The process usually begins by establishing your current financial position.

Your financial planner will gather information about your income and expenditure alongside assets such as pensions, ISAs, investments, savings and property. Liabilities such as mortgages and other debts are also included.

The next stage is establishing what you actually want your money to achieve. This could include retiring at a particular age, maintaining a certain income in retirement, buying another property, paying school fees or helping your children buy their first home.

Saltus says understanding how different financial objectives interact and when they are likely to occur is important when determining whether you have sufficient money to achieve them all.

Seeing Your Financial Future

Cash flow modelling software uses your financial information to create a long-term projection of your finances.

Assumptions can be made about factors such as investment growth and inflation to estimate how the value of your assets could change over time.

The result is usually presented visually, allowing you to see how your wealth could accumulate and then potentially decline as you begin drawing money from pensions and investments.

It can identify a future shortfall, but it can also reveal that you have more money than you are likely to need.

Answering the Question: Do I Have Enough Money?

One of the most useful applications of cash flow modelling is retirement planning.

You might have substantial pensions and investments but still be unsure whether they are sufficient to allow you to stop working.

Cash flow modelling can estimate how long your money could last based on your expected expenditure. This can help answer questions such as whether you can retire at 55 rather than 60 or whether you could afford to spend more during retirement.

It could equally show that you need to save more, retire later or adjust your expected retirement spending.

Testing Different Financial Scenarios

The advantage of cash flow modelling is that you can change the assumptions and see what happens.

For example, you could compare retiring at different ages, selling a property earlier or later, increasing retirement spending or making a substantial gift to your children.

More sophisticated modelling can also consider different investment outcomes. Saltus explains that stochastic modelling can test a financial plan against thousands of potential market environments to indicate how robust the plan might be under different conditions.

These are projections rather than guarantees, but they can provide useful information when making major financial decisions.

Cash Flow Modelling for Gifting and Estate Planning

Cash flow modelling can also be useful when deciding how much money you can afford to give away.

For example, you might want to give your children money for house deposits but be concerned about leaving yourself short later in retirement.

Modelling the gift alongside your expected future expenditure can show how it could affect your longer-term financial position. Saltus highlights this as one of the potential uses of cash flow planning, alongside considering the inheritance tax implications of retaining wealth.

How Can Financial Planners Help With Cash Flow Modelling?

Financial planners like Saltus uses cash flow planning to help clients understand whether their existing assets are sufficient to achieve their financial and lifestyle objectives.

Its financial planners can incorporate assets, liabilities, regular savings and financial goals into cash flow modelling software and then apply assumptions such as investment returns and inflation. Different scenarios can then be modelled to demonstrate the potential effect of decisions such as retiring earlier, spending more or gifting money.

Saltus also stresses that cash flow planning isn’t a one-off exercise. Financial circumstances, markets and personal objectives change, so a plan should be regularly reviewed and adjusted.

Ultimately, cash flow modelling can help turn a collection of pensions, investments and other assets into something more meaningful: an indication of what you can actually afford to do with your money throughout your life.