Wealth Management for Accountants
We are proud to have relationships with partners from leading accountancy firms and understand firm specific compliance requirements and compensation regulations. We are aware of the regularity of profit distributions and historical defined benefit pension arrangements and scheme rules.
We can help ensure that your personal wealth is managed tax efficiently, leaving you time to consider options such as inheritance, family planning and retirement.
Case study
I want to retire and maintain my current lifestyle
Background
Our client is a partner at a ‘big four’ accounting firm, aged 54. He is married, with two children, both at university. He is looking to retire in the next two to three years to spend more time with family and to travel.
Key objectives
To help our client understand if he can maintain his lifestyle during retirement, whilst helping his children onto the property ladder. He wishes to do this while ensuring tax efficiency and adhering to restrictions he is subject to as a partner at a big four firm.
How we helped
Our client had never reviewed his expenditure and was uncertain as to what he would need in retirement. As such, we carried out an in-depth cashflow planning exercise and investment modelling forecast. We were able to help by reviewing bank account and card spend, as well explaining what similar clients spend at different points during their retirement.
We discussed our client’s objectives and increased risk within his pension and investment bonds, as the ultimate goal was to pass these on his children. We did this whilst lowering risk across his general investment account and ISAs.
As a partner at big four accounting firm, we recorded and managed the investments in accordance with his internal compliance restrictions. Points we are familiar with given the clients we advise.
In the first few years of retirement his expenditure was likely to fluctuate. To mitigate this we allocated cash to high yielding gilts, with varied maturities aligned to these early years, to provide for certainty of liquidity, should it be needed.
We were able to offer our client a tax-efficient means of growing his investments and drawing income during retirement, as we are able to deduct management fees from the gross dividend yield of our investments, thereby reducing annual dividend tax. Clients are also able to draw a set percentage from their investments each year, 4% in this case, as either a dividend or capital return.
We worked with our client’s accountant to ensure he had the right amounts in each ‘taxable pot’, to maximise the longevity of his wealth which resulted in a projected blended tax rate in retirement of 12%, with no need to draw from the investments for over five years from the outset.
We also provided guidance and forecasting around whether to defer drawing his partner annuity and when best to take this in relation to his wider circumstances.