Accountants & Solicitors
We work closely with other professional advisers to make sure that their clients receive the best possible financial planning advice and so enhancing their own professional reputation.
IFG - Working with you to provide best advice to your clients
In today's turbulent market conditions, it is more important than ever that your clients receive sound financial planning advice. That being the case, it follows that your practice's professional reputation depends on selecting the right partner to work with you on financial planning issues. Our status as Independent Financial Advisers allows us to work alongside you, and our track record of nearly 40 years puts a wealth of experience at your disposal in delivering the best solutions for your clients.
IFG services for Accountants and Solicitors
We can work with you to identify and solve issues relating to the areas - both business and personal - shown below...
Business Services
Corporate Deposits
With interest rates at an all time low, we can help identify more effective options for corporate monies.
Protection: Shareholder/Partnership Cover
The death of a shareholder or partner can have a significant effect on a business. Shareholder/Partnership Cover provides financial assistance for the shareholders' family and surviving shareholders. It is important that this kind of cover is set up correctly, otherwise additional tax issues may be raised. We provide a review service for this type of cover.
Key Person Cover
The death or disability of a key person (someone with specialist skills, knowledge or contacts) can have equally serious effects on a business. It is possible to put insurance in place to help protect profits or cash flow, in the event of death or serious illness.
Sale of Business
The sale of a business involves many areas of financial advice. For example, how should the proceeds be reinvested? How will future income be secured? Are there any estate planning issues? And how should existing pension plans be treated? We can advise on the alternative courses of action, so, ideally, we should be involved right from the planning stages before any decisions are taken.
Purchase of a Business/Employee Benefits
We can work with you to establish the best ways to remunerate staff and provide employee benefits - considering, for example, whether existing benefits are efficient, cost effective and valued.
Auto-enrolment into company pension schemes commences in 2012. It's essential that you and your clients are prepared for this major change to pensions legislation.
Wealth Extraction
Despite pension simplification in 2006, recent rules will affect high earners and their ability to make significant pension contributions. We will look to maximise existing routes as well as considering other options such as income tax relief on EIS and VCT investments. We will also make sure that existing pension funds remain appropriate in terms of risk profile and charges.
Personal
Protecting the Family
We can help your clients ensure that financial assistance would be available to their family in the event of the client dying prematurely or suffering a debilitating illness.
Saving for the Future
Our advice ranges from providing access to higher deposit rates to ensuring that existing portfolios are cost effective and reflect the clients' current attitudes to investment risk. We can target savings for particular purposes eg education fees planning. Needless to say, we take into account such issues as whether contracts are subject to capital gains or income tax and ensure that clients make use of any available tax allowances.
Retirement Planning
This will take the form of investing for the future via a range of personal or company pension schemes. We are specialists in advising on self-invested pensions such as Self-Invested Personal Pensions (SIPPs) or Small Self-Administered Schemes (SSAS). We also review existing arrangements and identify whether there are more appropriate contracts or funds available. At retirement, planning can be even more important, in order to establish the correct mix of risk versus reward, the correct level of income and how to protect the fund for future generations. A mistake made at this stage may be irreversible. We have a wealth of experience in guiding individuals through this vital stage of their planning.
Estate Planning
This is a complex area where there will be a certain amount of overlap with the advice you provide. There are many areas where our skills and expertise can complement your recommendations - for example, setting up insurance to meet an IHT liability and providing ongoing investment advice for Trusts.
Trustee Responsibilities
If you provide trustee services, you will be aware of the responsibility to provide appropriate investment advice. We can help trustees formulate an investment strategy and, importantly, monitor the performance of the assets and recommend changes as required.