Independent Financial Advice

We provide independent specialist advice to recommend the most suitable and tax efficient investments for your income or capital needs.

Our advice extends to a wide range of investments such as; onshore and offshore investment bonds, general investment accounts, ISAs, discretionary management, and estate planning.

We have an excellent track record in portfolio management and currently advise on client assets of over £185 million, as at July 2023.

We work closely with market leading fund managers to develop long standing partnerships, helping our clients to build, assess and adjust their wealth as newer products are introduced and their own circumstances change over time.

With a committed support team, we are able to deliver in-depth research to develop dynamic, bespoke and diverse portfolios aimed exclusively to suit our client’s specific investment desires and attitudes.

Given the fast pace of change in today’s financial marketplace, our investment management service is designed to ensure your portfolio’s strategy is monitored and in the best financial position to maximise returns across your portfolio, whatever the market conditions, and maintain this by making any adjustments accordingly and effectively at each review period.

Your capital is at risk. Investments can fluctuate in value, and you may not get back the amount you invest. Past performance is not a guide to future performance. Tax rules can change at any time.

It is important to start planning for your retirement early. We can provide advice on a range of tax efficient retirement planning products, such as:

• Personal pensions
• Group and Occupational pension schemes
• Self-invested personal pensions
• Small, self-administered schemes
• Company auto-enrolment scheme

From reviewing your existing pension arrangements, ensuring that they are on track to meet your income requirements in retirement; or helping you when you decide to take your retirement benefits, we can help find the most suitable retirement option to meet your personal circumstances.

We offer a combined unique service of both independent financial advice and employment law advice that can help you as employers clarify your position within the new legislation. If you require any advice regarding auto enrolment, please contact our employment team.

An important part of financial planning is to arrange your financial affairs to minimise your liability to tax and maximise the estate you can pass onto your family. We can help you make full use of tax efficient vehicles or strategies, to mitigate the impact of income tax and/or inheritance tax, and/or capital gains tax.

Our relationship with a specialist tax solicitor within Hugh James means we are able to provide advice on a number of tax issues including:

• UK and international personal tax planning
• Trusts and tax advice (including UK and offshore trusts)
• Inheritance tax planning (including lifetime and on death)
• Advising individuals and trustees on the taxation of investments as well as aspects of personal taxation

We have extensive knowledge and experience in all matters relating to trusts, and can assist you in the creation and management of any of the following trusts:

• Bare trusts
• Personal injury trusts
• Interest in possession trusts
• Discretionary trusts
• Charitable trusts
• Property trusts

We can also offer a trust administration service to trustees to ensure the many administrative requirements of acting as a trustee are fulfilled, such as holding an annual meeting to discuss investments and filing tax returns.

We offer advice on a wide range of personal and business protection cover designed to cover you and your family for a variety of reasons.

This can include:

• Term assurance payable in the event of death or critical illness
• Mortgage protection
• Income protection cover to provide you with an ongoing replacement income in the event of you being unable to work due to sickness, accident or redundancy
• Whole of life cover
• Private medical insurance

Given the complex variety and fast pace of change in today’s financial marketplace, it is more important than ever that you have access to independent financial advisers who can provide a service designed with both you and your clients in mind.

Hugh James Independent Financial Advisers has built a solid reputation for providing professional and bespoke advice to deputies and trustees. We have over fifteen years’ experience working with individuals who have received personal injury settlements assisting them in planning the best strategy to achieve their financial goals.

We provide wholly impartial and competitive solutions; we are not tied to any financial institution which allows us to select products that are uniquely suited to your clients’ specific needs and financial objectives.

We understand that personal relationships are the foundation of your role so we tailor our approach and collaborate with you so we provide a service that will give your clients and their families peace of mind now and in the future. That’s why our clients trust us with more than £185 million worth of their assets.

We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Our dual regulation ensures any advice given is backed by two professional bodies, giving you and your client peace of mind that their savings are protected.

As independent financial advisers, we are able to provide independent financial advice to clients and recommend suitable financial products from the whole of the market. We are not tied or multi-tied to a product in the way that banks and building societies are. This means we can look at products available from the whole market as opposed to just a selection of insurance providers.

There are four stages to the financial planning process we apply.

1. Initial consultation – Our initial free discussion is aimed to gauge an indication of your financial aims and objectives and for us to introduce ourselves and explain the levels of services we offer.
2. Recommendation – Our second appointment allows us to thoroughly explain our recommendation(s) to meet your needs.
3. Policy arrangement and implementation – Should you instruct us to proceed with any of our recommendations we will act for you in the following ways:
   • handle all policy administration on your behalf
   • provide regular updates to keep you informed at stage of the process
   • ensure all your documents are issued in line with your expectations
4. Review – At our initial consultation we will discuss the full range of our on-going levels of support depending on your needs. These services include, but are not limited to, providing you with:
   • structured reviews to give you peace of mind
   • assessment of your circumstances and any changes to your plans that are needed
   • regular updates and information regarding your holdings and their performance
   • regular updates regarding changes in legislation
   • ongoing support with correspondence and administration

We recognise that not all clients have the same service requirements. We therefore provide a variety of services that allow you to choose the service that best suits your needs. At your free initial consultation, we will discuss the anticipated costs in clear detail so that you are confident at each stage of the process.

Following your initial meeting, there is no obligation to proceed.