Private Client Lawyers

At Albert Goodman we have considerable experience of advising clients in later life and of working jointly with fellow professionals.

We’re fully aware of the many planning issues that older retired clients need to consider and we believe that Financial Planning for clients in later life is a specialist field, which generally requires knowledge across the following areas:

Care Fees Planning: obtaining financial assistance from the State where possible and protecting any entitlement to it, protecting assets against means assessment where possible, arranging assets to meet care fees, use of care fees insurance and immediate care annuities where appropriate and making optimum use of tax allowances.

Estate Planning: arranging a client’s affairs so that their estate passes to their chosen beneficiaries in a tax and cost efficient way, without compromising their own financial security during their lifetime.

Inheritance Tax Mitigation: achieving this objective whilst retaining sufficient assets to ensure clients’ own financial security can be difficult. We utilise a wide range of trust and investment based approaches, which are designed to meet both aims.

Investment: generally investment in later life is geared towards capital preservation rather than capital growth, often there is a need to generate or increase income and optimise tax and cost efficiency.

Equity Release and Home Reversion Plans: are not always appropriate but can often assist in increasing income or raising a capital sum in a relatively tax and cost efficient way, enabling clients to enjoy the later stages of life.

Specialist Qualifications & Authorisations

Within the general scope of advice to clients in later life, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) requires anyone giving comprehensive advice in the areas of Care Fees Planning and Equity Release to hold additional qualifications and authorisations to those held by most Financial Advisers.

Our team of specialists hold all the qualifications required and a number of others which are also relevant. Those which are particularly relevant to this area of advice include:

• Chartered Financial Planner
• Certified Financial Planner
• Chartered Tax Adviser
• Member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners
• Investment Management Certificate
• FSA required additional qualifications in Care Fees Planning, Equity Release and Home Reversion Plans.

Our firm is also authorised by the FSA to provide fully comprehensive services in the areas of Care Fees Planning and Equity Release.

Our Approach

Many of the Private Client lawyers we work with use us a technical resource at the end of the phone. We are also on occasion asked to attend client meetings to explain complex financial planning issues (e.g. equity release) to clients. We are happy to do this and to provide an initial assessment of a client’s position, free of charge.

We also take time to find out how we can help lawyers to address risks to their own businesses (especially litigation) and we aim to ‘educate’ Partners and key client facing employees, to enable more informed discussions with clients about pertinent issues.

Where instructed by lawyers or clients to do so, we provide clients with a detailed financial plan, which deals with the specific areas identified as being of concern, or where opportunities to enhance a client’s position have been identified.

We also look to cross-refer work to lawyers, wherever possible, in particular Partnership agreements, cross-option and shareholder agreements, employment contracts etc.

We are also pleased to involve family members or professional representatives in our discussions, if clients feel it appropriate to do so.

 Further information:

For more details of our specialist technical and training support services for Private Client lawyers please contact one of our Directors, as follows:

Dave Robinson
Telephone: 01934 642222
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Andrew Brown
Telephone: 01823 286096
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Albert Goodman Chartered Financial Planners is a trading style of Albert Goodman Financial Planning Ltd which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

Risk Warning: You should think carefully before securing other debt against your home. Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.