Maintaining my lifestyle

Walter, 53, Lawyer, married, 2 children, £1.6m in assets

A senior partner in a professional services firm was guided to a strong understanding of his personal affairs and created a long lasting strategy that will allow him to retire early and maintain the lifestyle he desires.

Walter is one of our many clients who are senior partners in a professional services firm. Like so many, he is very financially astute in business but considerably less so in respect of his own finances. Walter recognised that personal financial planning is a multi-faceted activity which is becoming increasingly complex and so he wanted to know what we could do for him.

What became clear was that Walter had been a saver, not an investor and that he had, over the years, bought a range of products but with no idea of the hidden fees or exit penalties. Many had been bought from commission-based advisers with the result that returns had been significantly eroded by their charges.

He had no understanding of the benefits available to him via his firm and of his retirement plan.

Our Personal Wealth Strategy exercise made clear what needed to be done and why. Walter is now well on the way to having the financial strategy he should have had and, more importantly, to completely understanding how he’s going to maintain the lifestyle he desires.

"...he has been astonished by the service..."

Walter says he has been astonished by the service and pro-activity we bring to bear which, of course we are delighted to hear.

Protecting my family if I'm not around

Hugh, 58, Entrepreneur, married, 2 children, £12m in assets

Years of being a client ensured that a large and complex portfolio was well ordered, tax efficient and secured a lasting legacy for his family when the client died.

Hugh had been a huge success in his life. A founder of one of the most successful outsourcing businesses in the UK, he had generated enough wealth to become an angel investor for start ups. Because he was invested in so many businesses, his affairs were complex and, being an entrepreneur at heart, we frequently had to talk him out of the more outrageous and esoteric schemes that came across his path. There was no tax planning scheme or intriguing idea that Hugh would not at least consider; fortunately he learned pretty quickly to bring them to us first for review.

Before he experienced the joy of grandchildren, Hugh contracted cancer and sadly passed away shortly afterwards leaving a complicated estate and distraught widow and family.

Fortunately, it was not complicated to us. We knew what he had and where. Because we did his annual tax return, we were completely up to date on all his investments and income. We knew the contents of his will and what his intentions had been.

For the last two years we have attended meetings to assist in the settlement of his estate, taking the burden from his widow and family. The tax planning we carried out in working with Hugh over his life meant that more of his accumulated wealth ended up in the hands of his family and future generations, than in the hands of the taxman.

We’ve also helped his 24 year old son start to take over the management of his late father’s assets and family trust, coaching and mentoring him to feel confident to step into his father’s shoes and care for his mother and siblings and to continue husbanding his late father’s estate as he would have wished.

Coping with tragedy

Robert, 42, Corporate Managing Director, married, 1 child, £4m in assets

Good planning meant that when tragedy struck, all was not lost and further advice and planning secured a family’s future in a tax efficient manner.

Anne and Robert were in the early days of a wonderful marriage. Having taken time to have fun, travel and be commitment free, they now had a baby and Robert had just been appointed MD of the company he worked for. They were fairly new clients and were just starting out on their journey of accumulating assets and looked forward to the years ahead.

The most unexpected of events derailed their future.

In a private hospital for a small ear operation, Robert suffered a catastrophic brain injury due to the negligence of the anaesthetist and was left paraplegic. His company immediately withdrew support and Robert and Anne, with their new baby, were left with all the usual family commitments and next to no income. Fortunately, part of our planning process had been to put in place a Critical Illness policy to cover them for just this sort of event. The policy paid out and, during the years of battling the hospital for compensation, it sustained them and kept their home safe.

It took four years to get the multi-million pound compensation and, when it came through, Robert and Anne were all too aware that this sum, although large, would have to sustain them through life. With medical bills, a home that had to be adapted, cars that needed to accommodate a wheelchair and specialist care for Robert, this was not an inexpensive exercise over and above the normal cost of living and educating their son. For the first time, they were faced with considerable wealth and limited experience of investment.

Minimising tax and ensuring that future income could be drawn as tax efficiently as possible was key. Robert and Anne still wanted to live as full and normal a life as possible and they wanted to know that their portfolio would be able to meet additional expenditure as and when it arose.

We worked together to set out a strategy that would deliver regular income and made sure that we built enough flexibility in to the plan so that any unexpected expenses could be comfortably accommodated.

"We worked together to set out a strategy that would delivery regular income..."

The tax planning was extensive and at Robert and Anne’s request we set up trusts for their son so that he would be protected no matter what. Every quarter we met to make sure that Robert and Anne were comfortable with performance and with the day to day administration of their now more complex affairs. Having our team handling all payments, paperwork and reporting back regularly meant that they could concentrate on their own time together.

Sadly, Robert died 6 years later and Anne now has to carry on alone. But she has the comfort of knowing that her income is secure, that we know how to help her understand her finances and free her up to build a new life, look after her son and plan for the future. What might have been an awful mess of probate and having to find all the relevant information was handled by us - we had all the details to hand and walked her through the process, dealing with much of it ourselves.

We know that for Anne, it is not just the money, it’s having people she can trust who care about her and want to make her feel safe and in control that matters.

Family upheaval

Terry and Sue, 50's, 3 children, £2m in assets

Managing a divorce to provide for both parties and maximise income and capital for both through tax and investment strategies.

Terry and Sue had been with us for many years and, when they finally chose to divorce, we already had a full view of their affairs and their planned joint future. This future and the portfolio now had to be split to provide fairly for both parties.

After consultation, we provided each with his/her own adviser and carefully separated the portfolio in the most effective way to create tax efficient capital and income for their individual needs.

Throughout, we liaised with their lawyers and provided valuations and suggestions as to possible splits to reduce negative impact on the portfolio, which would have cost them money.

The entire process was successful and each is now an individual client.

Minimising my taxes

Alistair, 45, CEO, married, 2 children, £4m in assets

Being posted to the UK was used as an opportunity to create tax efficient income and capital for the present and for an eventual return overseas.

Alistair is Australian and owns two houses there. His employers transferred him to the UK and Alistair and his wife have decided they would like to stay for ten years, educate their children and then return to Australia.

Our planning has taken into account his tax status as a Non-Domicile and has prepared a detailed strategy for his eventual return to his homeland in the future.

By channelling a percentage of his salary into a pension and forward planning to move that offshore, he will be able to take his entire fund tax free when he leaves the country. That will create the portfolio he will need to retire when he goes back to Australia - or to take whatever career decisions he wants knowing his financial future will be assured.

Educating my children

Tom and Kate, early 60's, married, 2 daughters, £3m in assets

Tax planning enabled a hoped- for early retirement which had previously seemed unachievable due to existing family commitments - and how it created an unexpectedly tax efficient income.

Having set up and run a successful business, Tom and Kate were ready to retire. Tom had suffered a heart attack two years before they came to us and, although recovered, it was clear that it was time to slow down and enjoy the fruits of decades of work.

They had become used to an expensive lifestyle and still had two daughters to put through university. They were at the stage where they felt that they simply would have to carry on with the business when, frankly, they wanted time to enjoy each other’s company, to travel and take up the hobbies and interests they had not had time to pursue. Although they were far from old they felt that carrying on well into their 60s was not what they wanted, especially given Tom’s health. They also worried that they needed to build the business to a higher value so that the exit value would be sufficient to maintain their lifestyles in the future. That would mean even more effort and risk.

We were asked to comment and advise on the sale of their business and look into how a portfolio could be constructed to work for them for the rest of their lives. Once we showed them how good planning could create their desired income from the proceeds of the sale, they were reassured that they could sell the business now. With enough to put their daughters through university and the income they want, they are now coming to the end of the earn-out period and about to launch into their new lives.

By careful structuring and forward planning of their portfolio, the £150,000 income they want for life will only attract 7% tax.

Supporting other family members

Paul, 58, Lawyer, married, 3 children, £2m in assets

How the complications of family property and investments, combined with the decline of a parent, were resolved to look after all family members and minimise the burden on our busy and successful client.

Paul is a senior partner in a law firm. He had saved a significant sum but had no overall financial strategy.

He came to us because life had just thrown him a challenge and he was not sure how to deal with it. His mother had been diagnosed with dementia and was in rapid decline. The family home in which his mother lived was special to the family. It had been designed by a famous architect and Paul’s late father had very much wanted it to stay in the family.

Paul was very conflicted about what to do. His sister was not as financially well off as him and he wanted to buy the family home.

His concern was how to ensure that his mother was well cared for and to balance that with Inheritance Tax planning whilst being fair to his sister: an increasingly common situation, as our parents live longer and need more care.

We worked with him to sell his own house and buy the family home but by careful tax planning we saved him and his sister £600,000 in Inheritance Tax. Their mother is now cared for properly in a specialised care home, the family home is preserved and his sister has received her proportion of their parents’ estate.

The icing on the cake for Paul was that the process of designing his Personal Wealth Strategy and resolving the issue over his mother meant that he realised he no longer needed to work at the level he had been. Within three months, he had left his previous position and is now working at a rate that he wants.

Accumulating wealth

Simon, 49, Managing Director, married, 2 children, £2m in assets

A highly successful and busy corporate executive was helped to build a significant portfolio from income, despite previously being told he could not.

Simon was referred to us by a client when he joined his new company.

Simon was property heavy with three lovely homes and only his final salary pension scheme. Having funded it heavily over the years, he now couldn’t put any more in and it was clear that we had to work out how to accumulate more investments tax efficiently.

As with many of our clients, Simon is outstanding at managing a multi-million pound P&L but less skilled at managing his own finances. It’s usually a combination of lack of time, lack of confidence in advice and lack of awareness of what can be done.

Working with his firm’s remuneration committee we structured a plan that allows him to tax efficiently accumulate an additional portfolio and to manage his significant options which are due to vest. The tax savings will amount to many hundreds of thousands of pounds. This despite the fact that his firm is advised centrally by a major investment bank, who had failed to take any pre-emptive action on this.

"...we structured a plan that allows him to tax efficiently accumulate an additional portfolio..."

All of which means that his property portfolio can continue to be his family’s home and holiday homes and do not have to be sold to support their lifestyle in the future.

Working when I want

Gillian, 43, Management Consultant, married, 1 daughter, £7m in assets

The planning process demonstrated that a change of lifestyle was possible.

Gillian and her husband are both highly paid and very successful. They are Scottish but live and work in London. To date, their lives had been work hard / play hard and with two large incomes they had built significant assets in property and cash. They had expected to carry on the way they were, earning well and spending well.

With a two year old daughter however, their view of life changed and they had started to long to return to Scotland and live a less harried life. Gillian had stopped enjoying her work and wanted to be able to make the choice of whether or not she worked or spent more time with her daughter. When they came to see us, they felt that the loss of Gillian’s income would be far too damaging and that a move to Scotland would permanently impact negatively on their standard of living.

We worked with them to produce their Personal Wealth Strategy, taking into account their lifestyle and income wishes and particularly their fears that such a big decision would probably be irreversible. This was not something to be taken lightly or without very careful planning and strong confidence in the decision.

Fortunately, it was clear that with some re-thinking, their portfolio could support the decision. We worked on how to utilise their London property portfolio to enable a purchase in Scotland and within three months Gillian had resigned her position. They are now house-hunting in Edinburgh and know that they have good forward vision into how their financial affairs will work through this period and into their future.

Doing what I've always wanted

Matt, 43, Entrepreneur, married, 3 children, £20m in assets

More often than not it’s time, rather than money that is the issue. The analysis of a complex and ill-managed portfolio led to a new and visible strategy which allowed the client to get on with enjoying the fruits of his business success knowing his affairs were well planned. This included significant tax restructuring and planning, in both his business and personal affairs.

Matt already had advisers to whom he had been introduced by the broker he used when he was buying his yacht. He came to us through his mother who had sought advice from us and asked her son for his view. What he saw intrigued him enough for him to want to see us for himself as he felt what we had given his mother looked very comprehensive and clear.

"The analysis of a complex and ill- managed portfolio led to a new and visible strategy..."

He had sold his previous company for many millions and was already well on the way to repeating the exercise with his new company.

When we first met, it was clear that over the years he had been sold a number of products which were not only unsuitable but also were set up incorrectly. High exit penalties and internal charges meant that it was not a simple or quick job to extricate him and so we planned the movement of his portfolio to time with exit penalties falling away.

That said, even some products which were themselves suitable had not been written properly and we had to do some work to make sure his offshore bonds were written in trust as no IHT planning had been done on them and his early death would have given rise to huge tax penalties.

Despite the fact that he owned a substantial business, no corporate planning was taking place at all and so we blended that into what we were doing. Matt now has a very clear idea of what each ‘container’ for his money is for and what he should expect of it. He has a clear view about his future tax liabilities, which have, of course, been minimised.

"He has a clear view about his future tax liabilities, which have, of course, been minimised."

Now he has time to do that sailing and to spend time with his wife and 3 young children without giving any thought at all to what his personal finances are doing. Our quarterly reports and even more frequent meetings mean that now his personal financial affairs run as well as his business; that can only be a good thing.

Matt then introduced his business partner to us who now has all his financial ducks in a row too.

Building a portfolio

Stephen, 42, Partner in a Law firm, married, 2 children, £3.5m in assets

A successful professional took control of his various accumulated investments and learned the value of a strategy and how to build a significant, tax-efficient portfolio.

Stephen came to us by referral from one of his colleagues. At first, he didn’t think there was anything he needed or wanted to do about his finances. This is a very typical situation and his initial reluctance was based simply on not knowing what factors would affect his long term well-being.

Over the years, he had acquired a substantial family home and was focussing very strongly on building a property portfolio, having lost faith in the investment markets. His healthy income was likely to continue for several years and he was relaxed that, over time, he would ‘be all right’. He had bought various pension products over the years and had a small speculative stock portfolio and a number of ISAs.

When we talked with Stephen (and when he later discussed the issues which arose with his wife) it became clear that, whilst he was extraordinarily effective in his professional life, designing and implementing strategies for clients and utilising his deep legal knowledge and expertise, he simply had neither the time nor the wider knowledge to apply the same diligence to his own affairs.

Indeed, it took some time to get all his financial information together before we could pull it into one plan and take an overview.

"He used our online planning tool to allow him and his wife to play with all the ‘what ifs’."

The first response from Stephen was how relieved he was to not only have his total financial holdings visible in one document but also to see what his financial future would look like over the years ahead, particularly if one of many variable factors changed. He used our online planning tool to allow him and his wife to play with all the ‘what ifs’.

What if I get ill? What if the children want to continue even further with education? What if my parents need care? What if we simply want to retire a bit earlier? What if I want to take that consultancy role? What if tax rates rise?

Once Stephen realised what level of control he could have over certain factors affecting his future, how tax planning and having a strategy reduced risk, he committed to the plan we had suggested.

"His portfolioand wealth are growing year on year..."

Now with a diversified portfolio - all completely visible to him and reported quarterly - with tax strategies in place early enough for him to benefit in the years ahead and with a much better understanding of the questions to ask of us, he is a committed and informed investor.

His portfolio and wealth are growing year on year and the previous uncertainty has been replaced with a sure sense of control and future visibility.

From saver to investor

Andrew, 46, Partner in a Law firm, single, £1m in assets

Guiding a senior partner in a Magic Circle firm to make sense of multiple investment and pension assets and turning a saver into a successful and savvy investor.

We met Andrew when we were pro-actively seeking individuals who we knew tended to fit our profile. Like many clients introduced this way, he was initially reluctant to even talk with us, far less meet. He felt that he had acquired enough pension policies, ISAs, investments and insurances over the years and, frankly, he was not that impressed with either the performance or the advisers he had previously dealt with. Actually, he didn’t know off the top of his head who his investments were with or how they had been set up.

He was, as are so many new clients, peripherally aware that he might have missed opportunities in the past but was more concerned about taking a wrong decision than sorting it out and getting to grips with what he had. This is very common. Highly successful professionals are used to being in charge and they are also typically highly cynical about financial and investment advice, expecting to be ‘sold’ products rather than advised.

Fortunately Andrew approved of the three key points we made.

Firstly, he liked that, similar to his business, we are fee-based and therefore have no vested interest in selling products. He felt that this would mean we sit on his side of the table, which we do.

"He felt that this would mean we sit on his side of the table, which we do."

Secondly, the fact that we always start with a trial relationship where no assets are transferred or decisions taken until and unless our prospective new clients are 100% happy with the strategy we jointly devise.

This meant that he could, if he wished, simply take our plan at the end of the process and he would have sight of all the details of all his assets in one place (for the first time), a complete understanding of their performance and asset allocation plus all tax implications and an agreed strategy and implementation plan designed with him.

Lastly, for the first time, Andrew felt that our philosophy and process naturally led to a long term relationship.

The outcome was that we started our process and, several meetings and discussions later, plus a lot of information gathering on our part, Andrew was thrilled at the strategy and implementation plan. From being a neglected part of his otherwise orderly life, his finances were now under control.

So pleased is he that he is a regular referrer of new clients and a staunch advocate of what we achieve for our clients.

A pensions conundrum

Henry, 52, Partner in a Law firm, divorced, £2.5m in assets

How a senior lawyer dealt with the thorny issue of the lifetime allowance for his pension and developed a tax efficient strategy to continue to both accumulate, and benefit from, his pensions assets.

Henry’s primary concern was a simple one. He had significantly funded his pensions and was now totally at a loss as to how to deal with all the various new rules and limits. Despite the fact that technically this was in the hands of his law firm, the advice had been limited and he was not convinced he was doing all he could.

In fact, Henry became one of many clients from his, and other, Magic Circle Law firms who found their way to us over what looked like one single issue - what to do if you are at or near your lifetime limit?

There are, of course, no right answers in this situation. If there were it would be simple.

In reality we have to work out with the clients all the various factors which influence the right course of action. That includes how tax is applied (and the fact that we take over tax returns and reporting if the client wishes) along with tax planning; retirement timing issues; attitude to risk; investment performance; personal objectives and family commitments - the list is long and can be complex.

The result, however, is to ensure that maximum benefits accrue to our clients in the most tax efficient way. Managing those assets on-going to an agreed strategy, means that what could be a murky and disappointing financial outcome for years of work and investment, delivers what it was supposed to for Henry and his family.

How planning changed my life

Kevin, 45, Consultant, married, 4 children, £4m in assets

Planning caused a major and welcome change in life-style for a client who simply did not understand that his portfolio, restructured, would allow him to make the life changes he had longed for.

Kevin came to us when he had already left a very highly paid position at a major consulting company. Having been out of work for some months he was now worrying that he had made the wrong decision and would have to return to it or something similar. That would mean all the travelling and stress that he had left to get away from.

A strong family man, Kevin has young children and wanted very much to be able to be around for them as they grew up. He wanted to go to the football matches and concerts at their schools and be at home in the evenings and at weekends, not either away or too tired or stressed to enjoy his family life.

The Personal Wealth Strategy showed Kevin that he did in fact have enough already to secure his children’s education through to university (even with increased fees) and also to have a comfortable standard of living for the years ahead. In other words, he was free to choose how and when to work.

Our tax department set up a corporate structure to manage Kevin’s new consultancy income and he now works on the projects he wants to, when he wants to and draws a highly tax efficient income from the work he loves. And because he now only works 2-3 days a week, he has the balance he wanted between personal work satisfaction, family time and income enhancement.

"It changed my life."

When asked how working with us has affected him, Kevin simply says ‘It changed my life’.

Planning for life after sport

David, 34, Professional Sportsman, married, no children, £5m in assets

A sportsman planned for the end of his career and ensured that his financial future was secure.

David’s earnings have shot up from almost zero to a very significant sum in a mere three years. He is young and surrounded by many advisers and agents. Quite frankly, until he met us he neither knew nor cared particularly about his financial future - he is focussed on his sport and he expected that with such a large income, he would be secure for life. In addition, he has a host of advisers already.

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, David’s career will be short but glittering. We can already predict at what point his ability to secure a new contract will end. At that point his earnings will stop dead in their tracks, at least at the level he is at now. He hasn’t worked out what he might do post-retirement but it is safe to say that his earnings will drop like a stone, leaving him with potentially 50 years ahead of him and significant expectations of luxury behind him.

Luckily for David, he realised that a little bit of time and attention now would pay huge dividends in the future. Far from looking to divorce him from his existing advisers and agent, we worked with him and them to build a comprehensive strategy. We integrated his desire for property (the first port of call it seems for most sports people and artists) with a wider strategy to spread his risk.

We determined how to allow him to live overseas whilst he tried new work avenues after retirement and built tax structures to make that possible and effective. We built in protection for him should he be injured and designed a portfolio he could understand and review with confidence.

Importantly, we were lucky that David transferred his mindset for his sport to his financial life. Being used to coaches and experts on every element of his sporting life, he immediately ‘got’ what financial coaching was about. He knows that our job is to help him take control of something he had left to others and his confidence in his ability to engage in his own portfolio and financial plan is growing.

He has learnt that we’ll be there when he makes the transition into whatever life holds for him after competition."

His objective is to leave his sporting career well set up for life and with a strong understanding of what is and what is not good advice. He has learnt that we’ll be there when he makes the transition into whatever life holds for him after competition.

Turning around a potential loss

Mark, 48, Corporative Executive, married, 3 children, £3m in assets

Comprehensive investment advice and good tax planning turned a potential loss into a significant locked-in gain creating long term financial stability and new opportunities.

Mark worked in technology and when he came to us he had a large number of options in the company he worked for. At the time, technology stocks were rising and the prevailing sentiment was that this would continue on an upward trend. Everyone was holding on and, in theory at least, becoming wealthier by the day.

Our view was (and remains) that having all one’s assets in one asset class (or even worse, one stock as Mark had) was dangerous. That view was compounded by the fact that we felt very strongly that the sector was overpriced and likely to stall dramatically.

Knowing that Mark was at heart an entrepreneur (albeit one currently inside a big business) we persuaded him that he should sell the bulk of his stock. He agreed with our view on the potential dangers involved in holding on and we duly tax planned his stock disposal and generated a large lump sum, with the bulk of the arising tax mitigated.

Mark bought the big house he and his family had longed for mortgage-free, and used some of his new portfolio of well diversified assets to secure his future and some to start a new business.

Because he no longer needed the income, he did not need to take one from his new venture and the increased cash flow, in addition to the great idea and execution, enabled Mark to build a new business of his own which he duly sold and cashed out for several million more.

He is currently in the process of working out what to build next, knowing that he only has to do what he likes now that his and his family’s financial future is secure.

Exiting a business and planning for the future

Jim, 63, Business Owner, married, 2 children, £4m in assets

The difficult exit of a business was managed and a portfolio and tax planning strategy created to deal with early retirement and legacies for the family.

Jim is a successful entrepreneur, having built a medical supplies company with unique and valuable technology. When he came to us, he was mainly concerned with his own financial affairs as, like so many business people, he simply did not have time or sufficient knowledge to deal with them himself.

What we discovered however was that Jim owned 50% of his company and relations with his co-director were not the best. On getting to know him better, Jim made it clear that the stress of running the business with a partner with whom he did not get on was reducing his enjoyment of his business. He was uncomfortable and could not see a way ahead as they could not come to an agreement over how to manage the company and Jim did not think he could afford to exit: stalemate and an unhappy one at that.

Realising how much it would mean to Jim to be able to exit the business and still maintain the lifestyle he wanted, we worked to structure a plan to make this happen.

Our tax department was very much the key to the solution.

His pension was in a SSAS, and as it included the commercial property that housed the business he was severely restricted in what he could do.

"...the process meant that each got what they wanted."

We split the SSAS into individual schemes and by use of good tax planning strategies, using his new pension structure, we showed him how he could move money out of the company tax efficiently and build a portfolio that would sustain him to the level he wanted. Obviously we ensured that all our actions were fair to his business partner and the process meant that each got what they wanted.

Capital Gains Tax planning meant that more of the proceeds of his exit stayed in his hands, than would otherwise have been the case.

Jim had set a target retirement income of £150,000 a year for the rest of his life (inflation proofed, of course) and once he was confident that the plan would deliver that, he was able to exit gracefully and to the satisfaction of his partner.

In the process of sorting out his affairs, Jim brought a trust to us which had been set up for his daughter years earlier but had been badly managed and had lost significant value. In the time since it came under our management, we’ve turned around its performance.

An unexpected inheritance

Beatrice, 67, Widow, 2 children, 2 grandchildren, £1m+ in assets

How an unexpected inheritance created a whole new lease of life for an older client and how we managed to both give her the benefits now and provide for her children and grandchildren.

Beatrice was introduced to us by her son, one of our clients. Her son is a senior partner in a magic circle law firm and had found what he did for him so surprisingly broad ranged and effective that he thought his mother would be comfortable with us. Beatrice had raised her son as a single mother and had never had much money at all. On the death of her own mother she was mildly surprised to find she had inherited well over a million pounds.

This completely changed her financial future and she was keen to use it well and enjoy the new found fortune.

Edward wanted to ensure that his mother made the choice for herself so we were one of three firms put forward to offer his mother some choice. As it happened, when our research revealed the extent of some of the previously unknown assets, our competitors were out of their depth and continued to offer a standard discretionary management model.

Whilst doing our research, which involved looking into the probate for her mother’s will, we had discovered that there were pre-war assets in Switzerland and Israel, of which Beatrice and her son were completely unaware.

Given that Beatrice herself had suddenly acquired unexpected wealth, we structured a plan to skip the generation and pass it on tax effectively to later generations.

The combined financial and tax planning and bespoke income stream planning meant that Beatrice got a complete view of her new future and was able to know exactly where everything was and what it was for.

Asset rich, cash poor

Richard, 56, Businessman, married, 3 children, £2m in assets

A typical ‘asset rich - cash poor’ client situation was managed by working on business and personal assets jointly from a tax and investment perspective, leading to new opportunities and freedom.

Richard was referred by an existing client. As ‘old money’ he was asset rich and cash poor. His future was dependent upon inheritances and he had no financial structure. He had however, built a modest but successful business and wanted to take control of his own affairs properly.

We worked with his lawyers to structure the ideal sale strategy for his business - something he had avoided as he felt that the tax man would take so much he would simply have to keep it and carry on running it. That also would have meant he had to stay in London when he really wanted to return to Yorkshire where his family homes were and where he wanted to raise his children.

"...he is happily resettled in Yorkshire with a clear income stream ahead of him..."

The re-organising of his current finances, mitigation of the tax on the sale of his business and the new control Richard had, allowed him to take considered decisions. Now he is happily resettled in Yorkshire with a clear income stream ahead of him for his and his family’s future.

A burnt investor

Phil, 45, Sales Executive, single, £1.2m in assets

A previously speculative investor learned what a well constructed plan looks like and how to use that to drive his future.

Phil was referred to us by an existing client as they worked at the same company.

Having been burnt by the market, Phil was very cautious and had sat in cash for several years, missing several market cycles.

The underlying problem was that Phil did not have a long term plan and short term fluctuations had scared him. Like so many clients, our job was as much coaching and mentoring as technical.

It takes time to be confident that a strategy will work and we are happy to engage as much as necessary until new clients are truly comfortable.

If anything, Phil has ‘got it’ rather too well as we now have to slow him down from wanting to over commit to investing when we have a more measured approach and a very clear plan. The beauty is that Phil now has a very clear view on what building a portfolio really is about and how the different elements, especially tax, are so vital.

Coping when an illness derails your life

Ronan, 47, Corporate Executive, married, one child, £2m in assets

How an illness had potentially derailed a client and how he was helped to secure income now and reduce financial stress in the future.

Ronan was referred to us by a friend who had been a client for some years. Ronan had had a rather bad time. Severe work stress had made him very ill and his employers had not dealt with the problem that had led to the illness, to the point of him having to leave. The firm paid Ronan compensation, but they also applied a gagging order.

He was left in the difficult position that his compensation was good but not enough to keep him forever and his Income Protection policy was now refusing to pay out as he could not reveal the details of his condition and its origins, due to the gagging order.

By the time Ronan came to see us he was desperate. He had used three different organisations to challenge the refusal of the PHI insurers to pay out, to no avail. Already ill and stressed, he was now at the end of his tether.

We tackled the issue on two fronts: we carefully set up Ronan’s current financial affairs so that they would work for him tax efficiently and effectively, so that he could see what he needed to earn and how long he could afford to be off work. This bought him time to start to recover. At the same time, we negotiated with the insurer and managed to overturn their decision with the result that Ronan’s payout of £4,000 per month will now continue to the age of 65.

What we do is not just about making more money. That’s just the process. Usually, it’s about helping you get a better life.