Our Services
Pension Review (Pre Retirement)
This is one of our most popular services, as most of our clients have various pension plans from different companies they have worked at during their career. We offer a full pension review service including company final salary schemes where we will analyse all your plans to ensure you are not paying too much in charges and more importantly, we review where your money is invested and make suitable investment recommendations in line with your risk profile.
Pension Review (Post Retirement)
This has become a very important service for our older clients. Pension freedom was introduced in April 2015 and with annuity rates being seen as poor value for many, it is important to consider all your retirement options to be able to make the most informed choice. Most will end up keeping their pension invested and just draw an income from it. This means it is really important to get ongoing investment advice to make sure your pension value has not eroded too much due to the income you take. Regular reviews are extremely important and we recommend an annual review as a minimum.
Tax Planning
We can help you plan your wealth over your lifetime to achieve the maximum return whilst reducing your tax burden now and in the future. We ensure your pension allowances are used fully; ISA allowances, capital gains tax allowances, tax dividend allowances and investment in offshore bonds. For those with a higher appetite for risk, we look at venture capital trusts and enterprise investment schemes. We apply a simple series of steps to ensure your assets are structured correctly to give you income and capital at the lowest possible rates of tax. Then, as you get older, we work with you to plan ahead for the benefit of your family by reviewing your inheritance tax liability. We will advise you of the various options available to pass on as much of your wealth as possible, whilst still giving you the access to your capital you need.
You have worked hard to earn your money and we want to make sure as much of it as possible can be passed on to your family.
Investments
Investing means taking some risks with your money. This is not necessarily a bad thing as more risk could mean better returns. However, if you are going to invest you need to be prepared for the fact that you could lose some of your savings and this will depend on what you invest in. Our job is to understand your appetite for risk and what time horizon you wish to invest over. We can then advise you of the right investments to match your circumstances. There are many different types of investments to choose from and for most investors having a diversified investment portfolio reduces the risks of losing money whilst maximising your chances of better returns.
Life Cover & Family Protection
Many people overlook life cover as we don't want to think about what will happen if we die. However, it is extremely important to consider especially if you have taken on a mortgage for the first time or increased your mortgage due to a bigger house purchase. It is particularly important to arrange if you have children, to ensure they are taken care of should anything happen to you. Your life changes forever when you have children and we talk from experience. Suddenly, with children, you worry more about your own health and mortality as you want to be around to look after and protect them. If you are the main earner in the family, you should consider what your partner and children would do if you died. It is important to protect not only your outstanding mortgage, but also leave a lump sum for them to live off when they no longer have your income coming in. Life cover can be a relatively small sum of money to pay out each month and could be anywhere from £10 to £100pm depending on your age and the level of cover you need.
Critical Illness Protection
Critical illness protection is important to consider as the chances of getting a critical illness are higher than you may think. A non smoking man has a 1 in 3 chance of getting a critical illness before the age of 70. Thankfully, with improvements in medical science, more and more people are surviving, and with critical illness cover you will be protected and paid a lump sum on diagnosis. This money could support you so you can focus on getting better and you don't have to worry about rushing back to work. It may also cover your mortgage payments and living expenses whilst you recover, or even pay for a nice family holiday once you are well again.
Business Protection
Companies should have some protection in place to protect against risks that they may encounter within the business. This is particularly relevant to smaller businesses who may not have the people or the capital to cover some of these business risks. You will find below some of the key areas we can help businesses protect against:
1. Key Person Protection – Protect against the financial consequences of the death of a key person. For example: an employee who has a specific expertise, or is central to the running of the business.
2. Shareholder Protection – Protect against the death of a shareholder or partner, and use the money to buy out the shareholder or partners share of the business.
3. Business Loan Protection - Protect the repayment of a loan or mortgage in case a shareholder or partner dies.