How we've helped our clients

Case study 1 - Planning for the future

John had 10 years until his retirement and inherited a large sum of money following the death of his mother.  He planned to invest these monies and had received a detailed proposition from another financial adviser outlining how best to invest the money, however the proposals neglected the fact that he had an outstanding mortgage and little in the way of retirement planning, as well as being a higher rate tax payer. 

We were approached by John for a second opinion and our solution was to fully repay the outstanding mortgage leaving John with disposable income of over £1000 per month and some surplus funds from the inheritance.  We consolidated his existing pension plans and implemented a regular pension commitment to benefit from the significant tax relief available to him and ensured that John, and his wife, used their ISA allowances for two consecutive tax years, providing them with a tax efficient investment base on which to build.

Case Study 2 - Portfolio management

Margaret was a client of a large city private bank and as such she thought she was receiving a highly personalised service.  Her accountant was not convinced of this and asked us to have a closer look at her portfolio management.

We established that the portfolio was not running as Margaret thought it was. The managers had failed to utilise annual tax and investment allowances and they had taken a fairly aggressive investment approach with her investment funds which had not, despite being invested for a number of years, shown any significant level of gain and was not in line with Margaret's attitude to investment risk.

We proposed a restructuring of the portfolio on a strategic basis and addressed the question of Margaret's investment outlook and circumstances and established with her a suitable investment spread appropriate to her attitude to risk and objectives.  The overall result was to provide Margaret with a more efficient financial portfolio, with much less investment risk and focused on her own particular objectives.

The portfolio has been kept under review on a regular basis and despite the ups and downs of the investment market she is far happier with the position of her investments and knows she can call on us at any time.

Case Study 3 - Managing a company pension scheme

Robert is the director of a medium-sized manufacturing company and offers his employees membership of a Group Personal Pension scheme however to date the take up rate amongst his 60 employees has been mixed.  Robert was frustrated because he knows the importance of ensuring a sound financial future and is more than happy to contribute a significant percentage of an employee's salaries if they join the scheme.

The adviser linked to the scheme has not been seen for some time and the firm receive very little by way of correspondence from them.  We proposed to Robert a pension management contract that is designed to provide his employees with far more information about what the scheme offers, how it works and the undertakings required to be a member of the scheme.

We also offered, as part of the management contract, a series of clinics, allowing his workforce the opportunity to meet briefly with ourselves to clarify any issues that might be important to them.

The management contract has been a huge success and employee membership has increased from 15% to 80% with employees taking a far more active part in the discussions relating to their pension issues.  The management contract was paid for by the employees agreeing to a salary sacrifice arrangement by which the employer saved National Insurance contributions on the level of contributions that employees agreed to make.