Having previously worked in various roles in large corporations our client has recently secured a senior position in a large well-known company. She is young and recently married but her long-term life plan is inevitably hazy – who knows in their late twenties what they want to be doing in their late seventies? Her new job means she is now able to save some surplus income every month. A house purchase is on the cards, perhaps they will start a family, an inheritance might be on the horizon. The options are wide, and flexibility will be the keyword for her. But throughout, she will be turning to us for guidance, not just purely financial, but in many aspects of her life.

Our client was fortunate in that the international firm of which he is a senior partner has put in place a valuable retirement package which he’ll access in a few years’ time. Meanwhile he is building up significant wealth in investments and property that he is keen to protect for his children and grandchildren. His estate is facing a large Inheritance Tax bill and we have been building a plan that will make use of gifting strategies, life insurance, trusts and business property relief. He is able to keep control, either directly or as a trustee and is happy in the knowledge that his family will benefit both in his lifetime and after his death.

Having built up a successful business our client wanted to expand his operations but needed to acquire larger premises to do so. On his own it would not have been possible, but by working closely with him and his fellow directors we structured a plan for them all to use their individual pensions to purchase new premises. The pensions benefitted from a valuable asset with a guaranteed income stream, the business was able to expand safe in the knowledge that the premises were secure, and the cost savings meant that the company was able to employ the best talent to drive the expansion.

Division of assets in a divorce can be difficult, especially when pensions are involved, and it is often forgotten that both parties need to think about their own post-divorce futures. Our client held various pensions from different employments each of which had certain specific benefits, rules and restrictions. We identified that a simple split of all policies would have resulted in an unfair division and they both would have been disadvantaged. We worked with the client and his solicitor to devise a way in which the assets could be equitably split and were able to demonstrate to him how he could rebuild his pension funds to safeguard his retirement.

Unlike his predecessors the twenty-first century retiree does not suddenly stop work the Friday afternoon before his 65th birthday. The retirement path is now a gradual transfer from working-life to golf course-life, and the modern pension freedoms make this transition easier to achieve but at the same time very much harder to plan. With a portfolio of investments using different tax wrappers and pension funds, we structured a gradual retirement plan that meant our client suffered no loss in income but paid a lot less tax and gained the time to enjoy the golf course.

Significant wealth brings significant difficulties and complications. Our clients are a tight-knit family that together have benefitted from the father’s very successful business ventures. This means there are numerous investment structures, trusts, legal affairs and a charitable foundation that must be managed. We bring together the professionals from each sphere of expertise – legal, accounting, investment management and charity – and work with them and the family across the generations. We provide reassurance to the parents, guidance to the children and grandchildren and act as a central point of information for all.