Assets of £500K to £2 Million

If you have worked hard to build wealth over a period of time you will want to know that this is being well managed and that the government will not take a large percentage away in the form of inheritance tax when you pass away?

When you reach out for an adviser at this level you should be looking for an adviser that is qualified above the minimum level 4 qualification. Level 6 qualifications are only held by a much smaller percentage of Independent Financial Advisers. This higher level of knowledge enables the adviser to understand the deeper complexities that come with advising high net worth individuals. This would be us.

Investment management

Firstly, you will want to know your invested funds are being well managed. There are many “off the shelf” solutions in collective investments that offer great value, but you have reached a scale where you could move towards the aspirational services provided by a discretionary fund manager (DFM). This doesn’t mean our service to you stops as a DFM takes over far from it, it means we out source the investment decisions to a DFM and our role continues in providing the more holistic advice needed around longer term planning, investment products and tax planning.

The DFM just manages the money. They will build a portfolio bespoke to you which will include direct shareholding across many UK listed companies. They will add to this their researched best of bread collectives from across the globe and lower risk collectives to maintain a diverse portfolio to suit your investment objectives. Because the portfolio is built bespoke to you, they can consider your personal investment timeline, your personal taxation situation and even your preferences and dislikes towards certain companies or sectors of industry.

You may be thinking that if a third person is involved this is just another person to pay, how much does all this cost? The service that a DFM offers is more expensive than off the shelve products but not as much as you would think as they achieve economies of scale as they hold and manage billions of pounds of client funds. They keep dealing costs on shares down by trading internally where possible within their client’s portfolios as some clients sell other clients are buying. As they manage billions they can go to market and negotiate institutional discounts when buying into investment funds. These economies of scale are passed onto you. These saving offset some of the fees a DFM would charge hence it is only marginally more expensive than some off the shelve investment strategies.

DFM managers are individuals that have reached the heights of their careers with vast knowledge, experience, and established track records of success. They are acutely aware they need to justify their fees against other off-the-shelf solutions as are we in providing our service.

We work with many DFMs and each of them has an approach, style or level of expertise that differentiates themselves. Our job is to match the DFM service to you our client. This may involve arranging a couple of DFMs meetings so that you can meet the individuals you will be entrusting to look after your wealth. We would attend these meetings with you and pose our own questions to the DFM on how they can most benefit you our client. We will short list DFMs that we trust with have strong track records of success these meetings will enable you to gain a deeper understanding of that DFM’s style and approach. This will enable you to make a final decision on which DFM you’re most comfortable to work with over the coming years.

Managing the investments is one part of your needs as a high net worth individual. How these are set up can have a huge impact on taxation. This is where we offer most benefit. We can work with your accountant and solicitor to build a financial plan to achieve as much efficiency as possible. This may involve the use of trusts, qualifying investments, or a gifting strategy. If you do not have a solicitor currently, we can recommend one of the many solicitors we have strong working relationships with to complete this side of the work. Inheritance tax is currently charged at 40% which is a huge percentage of wealth that could be taken away from your legacy.

To begin this journey, we offer a free initial consultation so you can meet with us and we can tell you more about our service and how we are regulated for your protection. As well as being able to trust your adviser you should like or at least feel comfortable with the adviser you choose. The adviser client relationship is intended to run over many years. There will be at least annually meetings to ensure that the plan set is continuing to meet your objectives. There may well be trips to consult the with the DFM. Your adviser will be contactable through out the year to answer questions and deal with concerns as they arise. We pride ourselves in our approachable style and being able to explain complex financial matters in plain English, all questions are welcomed however trivial you many feel they are.

Our services relate to certain investments whose prices are dependent on fluctuations in the financial markets beyond our control. Investments and the income from them may go down as well as up and you may get back less than the amount invested. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.