Client’s Situation:
A local firm of solicitors asked if we could contact their client Mrs E to consider appropriate investment advice for the estate of her late father.
Client’s Objectives and Needs:
The Will of the deceased left a sum of money to be held in Trust for the benefit of the deceased’s spouse and money directly to different family members. We met with Mrs E and the deceased’s widow to consider their current circumstances and financial objectives in detail.
Actions Taken:
A report was prepared and forwarded to Mrs E to discuss with her mother and to the solicitor. The report summarised our understanding of their situation and the suitable options to be considered for those assets to be inherited directly by family members and for suitable investments within the Trust that was created via the Will of the deceased.
Solution:
Our recommendations included a sum of money being passed to Mrs E, which would enable her to fully repay her mortgage, thus improving her quality of life. It was agreed not to make any further investments for the deceased’s widow, as she had no need to take investment risk and she had more income than she required with access to cash to fund larger items of expenditure. Instead a recommendation was made to purely deposit her share of the estate into a number of bank accounts and National Savings & Investment accounts. A recommendation was then made for a suitable investment to be used within the Trust created via the deceased’s Will, which would provide the potential for growth above that available from bank or building society accounts, using an appropriate investment product relative to the levels of taxation that applied to the Trust.
Outcome:
Mrs E, her mother and the solicitor all agreed with the advice, as this improved the quality of life for Mrs E by fully repaying her mortgage, provided further cash to the deceased’s widow to give her the comfort of knowing that she had sufficient income and capital for the rest of her life, whilst also arranging suitable investments within the Trust that would be tax efficient, provide the potential for an appropriate return and would be simple for the Trustees to manage with our ongoing review service, using the Trust fund to provide for different family members in the future as and when required. We provided simple, straightforward solutions to a situation that had initially appeared quite complex to the family.