Case Studies

Client Profile: Nicholas Carter – Business Owner

• Nicholas owns a successful business. He is used to a very comfortable lifestyle and enjoys all the benefits, which come with being in charge of a successful firm.
• He is busy running the business and over the years he has accumulated some cash savings, various stock market ISAs and three individual personal pension accounts with different companies. He felt he had no clear direction or strategy with his various investments and like many people they hadn't been reviewed for a number of years.
• At 47 Nicholas thinks it is time to focus on his future but he wasn't sure of how to start the process.
• He never seemed to be able to find the time to stop and assess clearly what was important to him now and in the future.
• The amount of paperwork he received was draining and he never really read the information provided because deep down he felt he didn't understand it.
• Nicholas had a vague idea that his financial affairs could do better and that he needed financial planning advice but didn't know what that looked like or how it might work.

The Challenges

• Clearly understand Nicholas' current position and understand how he wants his future to look.
• Determine Nicholas' feelings on investment risk and help him understand investments in relation to his unique situation.
• Develop a specific investment strategy for his investments, linked to his beliefs.
• Consider ways in which his business profits could tax efficiently assist his future investment strategy.
• Understand how much money he would need to achieve for the future lifestyle he wants.

What we did together

• Imagine Financial Planning met a number of times with Nicholas and spent time listening and understanding Nicholas' goals and aspirations for the future and to clarify his future priorities.
• Nicholas completed a risk-profiling questionnaire, which we then analysed in order to understand his feelings towards investment risk. Following further discussions, it transpired that he was comfortable with quite a high level of investment risk.
• We collated all Nicholas' relevant personal and financial information to determine his current position and clearly understand what actions were needed.
• We prepared a financial plan for Nicholas, which showed that with the correct ongoing financial, investment and tax planning, he could comfortably achieve his desired lifestyle.
• We put together a lifetime cash flow projection that showed Nicholas exactly what he needed to earn, save, invest and spend over his lifetime in order to achieve and maintain his future plan.

The results in Nicholas' life

• Nicholas now has clarity, confidence and direction for his future.
• His pension investments are structured in a much more appropriate and diversified way.
• Consolidation of his investments to one platform for easier administration and management to help with this future plan.
• Increasing his regular payments and a single lump sum payment to his SIPP provided an annual tax saving of £18,000.
• Nicholas now has the option to retire 5 years early.

* These case studies are theoretical and based on a number of clients scenarios to illustrate our advice process *