Tax advisor or Financial adviser or combined?

[SoTiredNeedHoliday]

Hi
I think that we need a tax advisor, not a financial advisor, as we can invest online and are pretty financially literate. However where we need information is ensuring that we use the most tax options available to us as well.

Who should I use and how do you find them?!

I have spoken to financial advisors but i do't need to pay the 1%+ fee on investing the funds and the product charge on top etc for basic investments.

It is the tax efficient elements and the IHT planning that we want help on.

Sounds like you are looking for an ongoing advice service then which will be responsive to your changing needs over time as well as changes to financial legislation. The problem with taking advice in isolation is that it's just one snapshot in time..... by developing a longer term relationship with whichever type of adviser you choose they can be proactive when changes are anticipated and ensure that you use the right assets in the right order to best meet your objectives. It's about the tax wrappers much more than about the underlying funds.

Thanks Sunseed, I agree we definitely will need ongoing advice as you say the rules change and our position may change.

Can you explain what you mean by a tax wrapper?

What type of adviser do you think then? Are there tax advisers that are also financial advisors (rather than a big company that has a tax department and separate financial advisors - that seems to be where it gets really expensive)

Tax wrappers are the different products/structures like ISA, pension, investment bond which all have different tax treatment, even if the monies held within them are invested in exactly the same underlying funds.

I'm obviously biased, and don't know your circumstances, but I would say that a good financial adviser should meet your needs in the first instance as they'd consider your general overall lifestyle financial planning and the impact of the different personal taxes that would apply. I tend to think of tax advisers as being more specialist and I would call one in if I had a client with particularly complex financial affairs, such as numerous business interests and international investments, for example, as my scope only extends to the UK tax regime.