Financial Advisors.
We understand the importance of comprehensive estate planning. We work closely with financial advisors to ensure our recommended plans align with client needs and preferences.
We will consult with the client's preferred Financial Advisor (FA), introduce them to one if they don't have one, and seek advice for complex cases. We will conduct our due diligence to ensure that the FA's service, pricing transparency, and business ethics are as excellent as ours.
Benefit to client: Having financial planning and estate planning professionals working together is best for client. One joined-up plan. No conflicting advise. Saves hours and the uncertainty of shopping around.
Benefit to the Financial advisor:
As part of your everyday financial planning advice, you advise clients of the need to make a Will. In reality how many actually take your advice? Or, if they have done so and sought the services of a solicitor, has your client been given contradictory advice? Many a good financial planning project and relationship that has taken many years to establish has been lost to ‘external reference’; so understandably, it is not always in your best interest for your clients to seek the advice of another ‘professional’.
By tracking the source of all referrals and their referrals and so on to three levels deep, you may gain business from Executors, witnesses, guardians and attorneys.
You may not have the time or the inclination to spend hours sitting in front of a computer screen drafting Wills, and besides, your time is spent doing what you do best.
Introduce clients to Fern Wills & LPAs for guaranteed quality of service.
If you don’t offer the service to your clients—someone else will!
To strengthen the FA's client relationships, we offer guidance and support on engaging clients and prospects in estate planning discussions. FAs quickly realise that estate planning is instrumental for client retention and acquiring new clients.
We welcome calls from clients or Financial Advisors who want to discuss how we can work together to provide excellent service and a holistic outcome.
Case examples.
🌿Power Of Attorney and Pension Plan.
A client was concerned that her Property & Finance (P&F) Lasting Power Of Attorney (LPA) allowed for Discretionary Investment Management (DIM). To put her mind at rest, we called her Financial Advisor (FA), who confirmed that she had a DIM for years and that this power would help him to continue making the best decisions for her pension provision.
🌿Establishing the Value of an Estate
A client had several investment accounts but could not remember if they were in a trust, the exact value, or the number of accounts. I knew the client's FA and asked them to provide details. This ensured the correct advice regarding distribution through Wills and trusts to maximise the Inheritance tax allowances.
🌿FA annual review:
FAs conduct a review annually or more often if there is a significant change. It is not possible to effectively review a client's future needs without considering the need for Wills, Trusts, and Powers Of Attorney, which leaves the FA with several options:
a) Draft the Wills, Trusts and powers of attorney themselves. This may be OK with a specialist department, but one person seldom has the current expertise and experience to excel at financial and legal disciplines. Equally, cross-department referrals are not always in the department or clients' best interest, especially if the client's net worth or requirements are below those preferred by some in-house teams.
b) Advise clients to search for their Wills, Trusts, and Powers Of Attorney provider. This does not fulfil their consumer duty as the client is at the mercy of over, under, and confusing pricing and service levels. Often, the client gives up and puts it off until it is too late.
c) They can conduct due diligence and interview Fern Wills and LPAs. Having assured themselves that the client's best interests will be served, they can offer the client our contact details and then allow the client to decide for themselves.
🌿Vulnerable/ Disabled Persons Trust (VPT:
A client had invested a significant amount of money through her IFA to provide for the care of her vulnerable adult son after she passed away. The IFA identified the risk of losing future means-tested benefits and the dilemma of leaving large amounts to an adult who could not effectively manage money or live independently. The IFA called us to draft a VPT to ensure that someone with compassion and specialist knowledge would have the authority and resources to help the vulnerable person for the rest of their life without reducing essential benefits.
🌿Living Trust vs a Will trust.
A client asked the financial advisor about transferring the family home into a trust while still being able to live in it rent-free. The goal was to reduce inheritance tax, give control over finances, and ensure that the adult children would be taken care of in the future. A solicitor had quoted £4300 for setting up the trust.
Although this can sometimes work, the clients did not fully understand the consequences of the plan. The IFA contacted us for a second opinion.
The clients would have to pay market-rate rent for the rest of their lives or record each time they visited the property and the reasons why, as well as consider entrance, exit and anniversary charges for the trust. The solution was to work with the client and the FA to set up a Life Interest Trust that achieved all the client's aims without unintended consequences, all for less than £1000 (less than 1% of the value covered). The IFA then continued to review the estate's value annually and advised on Potentially Exempt Transfers and an enhanced pension provision to manually reduce the Inheritance Tax Liability while maximising control and flexibility for the client.
