Business sale - high 7 figure investable - where do I turn?

dunstonh

I often wonder what an IFA of any sort offers individuals with that sort of sum that is not available to mere low-seven figure, or even six figure, people.  My guess is access to riskier investments?

Nothing to do with investments as such.  The more you have, the more likely you are to use things like VCTs, EIS and trusts.

 You will need to do this alone, probably locally using eg. unbiased or pref word of mouth.

Do not use unbiased.  It is no longer an IFA directory (they have included FAs for some time) and they have just priced out the majority of IFA firms with their new pricing.    The new minimum fee for an entry on unbiased is £302pm and the most expensive package is £3727 a month.        It had long ceased being an IFA directory as it became a lead generation service about a decade ago but this is the final nail in the coffin.  It's now geared as a tool to promote salesforces.

Albermarle

Chickereeeee said:

Bobajobbob said:

Without tempting fate congrats on the business. 

I have used both Brewin Dolphin and Rathbones over the years to manage my investments, planning and advice. The cost/benefit of their services depends on your financial knowledge and appetite to manage your own affairs, taxes and investments. I'm sure that the high net worth services at Citibank, Barclays, HSBC, Coutts etc will all provide similar services and the more money you have to invest the more services/opportunities become available. I have just migrated away to self manage after 15 years just because I now have more time and knowledge to do so myself and with that knowledge prefer a simpler approach. Having said that both companies provided a great service.

I've also taken advice from IM LIFESTYLE | Intelligent Money Ltd who are well regarded on another forum.

If it would help please pm me and I'd be happy to share the names of the individuals in both companies above who have looked after me over the years.

One word of warning re IFAs. The "I" is the most important letter of this acronym. Too many financial advisors are not independent and will push you towards their own structured products and providers. I'd stay well well away from St James place personally. 

I often wonder what an IFA of any sort offers individuals with that sort of sum that is not available to mere low-seven figure, or even six figure, people.  My guess is access to riskier investments?

Alternatively, it could be access to lower-risk products, having 'won the game'?

I would love to know (in general terms, of course).

As you know managing money is not just about investing. An IFA will advise a client on tax efficiency for example.
That is reasonably straightforward up to a point. Such as all the things we regularly discuss on the forum.
Maximise pension tax relief, £20K into an ISA every year, managing LTA ( until recently) IHT minimisation by keeping as much in a pension as possible, utilising tax free money and personal tax allowances, keeping under 40% tax rate, etc etc This should be all bread and butter for a general IFA.
However above a certain level, then other knowledge and experience is needed I assume in more niche areas.

Bobajobbob

Chickereeeee said:

Bobajobbob said:

Without tempting fate congrats on the business. 

I have used both Brewin Dolphin and Rathbones over the years to manage my investments, planning and advice. The cost/benefit of their services depends on your financial knowledge and appetite to manage your own affairs, taxes and investments. I'm sure that the high net worth services at Citibank, Barclays, HSBC, Coutts etc will all provide similar services and the more money you have to invest the more services/opportunities become available. I have just migrated away to self manage after 15 years just because I now have more time and knowledge to do so myself and with that knowledge prefer a simpler approach. Having said that both companies provided a great service.

I've also taken advice from IM LIFESTYLE | Intelligent Money Ltd who are well regarded on another forum.

If it would help please pm me and I'd be happy to share the names of the individuals in both companies above who have looked after me over the years.

One word of warning re IFAs. The "I" is the most important letter of this acronym. Too many financial advisors are not independent and will push you towards their own structured products and providers. I'd stay well well away from St James place personally. 

I often wonder what an IFA of any sort offers individuals with that sort of sum that is not available to mere low-seven figure, or even six figure, people.  My guess is access to riskier investments?

Alternatively, it could be access to lower-risk products, having 'won the game'?

I would love to know (in general terms, of course).

I guess it depends on the IFA and/or wealth manager and their target demographic /client base as to their experience and access to financial, legal, tax and longer term planning services. I can only speak from my own modest perspective where more opportunities became available to me as my wealth increased. Certainly riskier products but with potentially higher rewards (and costs). E.g. access to more wholesale and exclusive investment opportunities (eg hedge funds), tax efficient vehicles and strategies, derivatives etc.

boingy

Before you talk to an adviser you need to decide what you want.
If you are planning to not work again you'll need an income and you'll need to decide how much you need.
If you might start (or invest in) another business you won't want all your money locked away in the long term.
Do you have family/kids? It's never too early to think about inheritance tax and estate planning when you have a large pot of dosh.

I doubt many folks on here have experience of the amount of money you are expecting but my instinct would be to use more than one advisor or institution to spread the risk a little and definitely speak to a tax specialist. 

peaksandvalleys

Thanks folks.  I am indeed casting the net around a bit to try and get a sense of what others have done in this situation.  Whilst I appreciate I may be one of the lucky subset who manage to start a business and get it to this point, there are plenty of people out there who have found themselves in similar positions.  I will continue to work for a while for various reasons, so at this point I'm not looking to generate disposable income from the investments but rather to try and grow the pot (or at least preserve relative to inflation in the current environment).  Thanks for the offers of introductions @Bobajobbob, I may follow up with pm.  I'll have a dig around the reddit thread too (not my post!).  

I know that I'll get pitched to (probably quite hard) by most these entities once I start to talk to them, so I'm trying to get a sense of what I'm benchmarking against, where value lies in these services, and what they can add beyond what I can do myself with standard consumer offerings.

Bobajobbob

For what it is worth I also find quite a lot of useful info on Reddit in the various Fire groups. You have to dig around a bit but I do find some of the sharing of personal experience and anecdotes helpful.

r/fatfireuk
r/fatfire
r/ukpersonalfinance
r/fire
r/fireuk

coastline

35 yo or not I wouldn't work again. I'd take the income needed from the investments and tell myself I'm one of the luckiest people alive. Good luck and enjoy the rest of your life.

GeoffTF

I would be looking for a fixed price for the work done, not a percentage of my assets. You are in a position to negotiate the price.

peaksandvalleys

coastline said:

35 yo or not I wouldn't work again. I'd take the income needed from the investments and tell myself I'm one of the luckiest people alive. Good luck and enjoy the rest of your life.

Ha, well there's more left on the table in the deal structure over the next few years and, more importantly, I want to support my team into the next stage of the business as much as I'm able to.  It'll be nice to work for a while in a derisked environment.

LunaLater

I can’t offer financial advice, because of my job, but will say that there is a non-zero risk of you being fleeced, or the bank that you deposit it with going bust, so please be exceptionally careful regarding receiving the money into the correct account, and then transferring it into where you want it to sit while you are considering your options.

UK short-dated government bonds would be a normal thing to invest in for absolute safety (in terms of not losing your money.)

Please don’t go to someone like St James’ place, who’ll simply fleece you.