Example 4 - Implementing an investment portfolio

Mrs X a 48 -year old lady left a private limited company on severance terms receiving a net termination payment in excess of £250K. As she was taking up an immediate new employment and would be eligible to receive early retirement benefits when she attained 50 on favourable terms she could consider a medium to long-term investment strategy immediately although clearly there was a need to retain some flexibility in terms of accessible cash funds for short term contingencies. Together with existing investments total assets exceeded £500K.

IAS advice

We devised and implemented a strategy for the investment of the new funds taking into account the existing investment assets allocating these between the three main asset classes namely Cash, Fixed Interest and Equity-based assets.

Under the heading of equity based investments, IAS recommended and implemented a portfolio of collective investments taking maximum advantage of tax-free allowances for both spouses and children where appropriate. A total of £100,000 of funds was initially committed to investment markets at this time with on-going provision made on a drip-feed basis into a portfolio which included Unit Trusts, Open Ended Investment Companies and Investment Trusts.

In keeping with our philosophy of minimising charges, we were able to facilitate access to a range of funds on behalf of the client where the average initial cost (including stamp duty, where applicable) was 1% and where the average annual management change was less than 1%.