Help a financial dummy out

[Impatient6227]

For years ive been saving via company share schemes, and have ended up with nearly 200k shares. Great news but ive hit the realisation that theres so much risk involved because if the company goes bust ill lose everything.

Do I need proper professional advice? Who does that...a personal accountant? I want to move house but I dont know where to start with selling these shares without getting absolutely hammered by the tax man.

Please go easy on acronyms, im a complete idiot with anything financial.

Not an accountant. If you want financial advice you need an independent financial adviser.

Look for a 'whole of market' adviser, not one tied to a specific financial provider.

If you want to minimise tax on seling the shares, you'll probably need to spread the sale over several years.

You should have transferred them into an ISA or SIPP. If you are still acquiring shares in this way, this is what you should do going forwards. Of course it doesn't deal with diversification, but it does deal with the tax side. https://www.gov.uk/tax-employee-share-schemes/transferring-your-shares-to-an-isa

200,000 shares or £200,000 worth of shares?

You might want to ask at the lemonfool forum - a financial website with lots of experienced investors who believe in steady investing.

£200k worth of shares*

This is an introduction to it-did you get these shares via any of the 4 schemes listed in the first para?
https://www.gov.uk/tax-employee-share-schemes#:~:text=Your%20employer%20may%20offer%20you,Income%20Tax%20or%20National%20Insurance.

Yes, SAYE and SIP. Also have LTI shares, not sure what category they fall into!

At a minimum you should be selling and buying a tracker or other fund. Having your salary and your savings linked to the same company isn’t a great plan.

Is the amount you're talking about the value that's already vested? Are you currently still in plan for any share incentives that are yet to vest?

Approx 140k has vested 60k tied up in various shareplans, LTI'S etc

You have 2 issues:

1 - Capital Gains Tax. This will be payable on profit when you sell. It can be hard to calculate as the original price is not easy to work out, especially if shares were bought at different prices over time. You now only have an allowance of £3,000 per annum so it is easy to end up with a tax liability.
2 - Diversification. This can be an issue if company struggles and price falls sharply. This has happened with companies like Bank of Scotland, Lloyds and Diageo. You should try and sell shares on an annual basis to utilise the allowances and spread the risk.