Any client entertaining from your wealth manager (£1.4m invested)

[Mumoflovelyboys2]

Hi, I have £1.4m funds invested with a wealth manager that has been taken over and over the last few years the perks have all but disappeared.

I used to get invited to a nice lunch (somewhere of my choosing in central London) to discuss my funds plus other invites such as Christmas afternoon tea, clay pigeon shooting and talks with celebrities plus drinks etc.

All has gone completely and now only get a teams meeting annually - not even allowed into the office for a coffee - I think we’re now below the limit for them to bother. Just wondering if there are any other wealth managers that still perform well but do offer in person meetings and the odd jolly or two?

My DH is a wealth manager. I think your suspicions are correct OP- with 1.4 million you would be a smaller client and he has so many clients now I know the smaller ones don't get masses of attention. I think it's a trade- off though- he had more time for all the wining and dining when he was more junior and had fewer clients, now he's more experienced he does it much less so his clients are getting fewer treats but a more experienced WM which translates to a better service (he is now one of the top performers at his company).

I have simple assets to the OP and have a WM from a small private company. He gives basic tax advice and preps the paperwork on CGT for my accountant each year. No freebies beyond a bottle of wine each Christmas but the fees are low.

found him on the unbiased website

That is tragically funny. No idea how you find a wealth manager - I struggle to trust professionals - been let down too many times that where I can I prefer to make my own mistakes

Interesting. I wonder if their engagement letter with their clients includes separate amounts for tax advice and how that is charged, and I presume it wouldn't include filling in a tax return.

I have no doubt there are some Wealth Managers/IFAs who re very knowledgeable about certain areas of tax. But I think the problem is that unless you actually work for a large firm that gives tax advice, you simply don't have the resources at your fingertips to give good advice in all situations. So you end up giving good advice where the clients circumstances are 'usual' to you, but either disclaiming a lot, or even worse, giving bad advice because you haven't asked the right questions. For example:

What if as a wealth manager you don't manage all the client's wealth - how would you know what gains/losses there are in the client's other portfolio?
What if the client has an American spouse, or an American child or grandchild? IHT planning would look very different to 'normal' UK IHT planning.
Would you give tax advice on non-bankable assets - a holiday home, for example?

Generally IFAs charge as a percentage of assets under management. They generally give 'tax advice' either to show how a particular product might be tax advantageous (eg nil rate band planning with an offshore bond in trust where the trust document is provided by the life company) or fairly generic 'let's see what we should sell this year to utilise your CGT allowance'. But if they don't offer different fees for 'with tax advice' and 'without tax advice' then I would question how much of their tax advice is truly holistic/unbiased and how much is more sales-like.

@DuchessofReality

I don't see how a WM/IFA/CFP can give financial advice without considering the tax aspects. Unless, of course, all the investments being managed are under a tax free ISA wrapper so tax becomes irrelevant.

Advice to sell an investment must include the tax aspect, i.e. the CGT on the sale, whether it's covered by an unused portion of the annual CGT exemption, whether there are any other CGT exemptions available, i.e. hold over relief, etc.

Likewise some investments ARE designed to be tax planning tools such as VCTs, EIS, sEIS, etc., used to reduce income tax or roll over CGT etc. An adviser can't advise on such investments without considering the tax aspects.

Likewise advice on whether to recommend capital accumulation funds or income generating funds, i.e. income funds produce taxable dividends whereas capital acc funds produce capital gains - some investors will want dividends and some will want capital growth, and that will depend on their personal tax position, now and in future years.

I really don't see how any advisor can actively ignore the tax aspects of investments they're managing or advising upon.

Wow what a can of worms. Whilst mine in our annual review does go through financial circumstances and whether there has been any change there is no overlay of tax planning at all.

I'm thinking now it's fruitless to swap WM doing the same thing for prob the same fees & service (or lack of) but to get some tax & financial advice and take it from there.

OMG that’s shocking.

I always say ask around, but people don’t know what they don’t know, so it’s hard. I’d always start with a CFP

You should get it all together really, I’m shocked that your WM doesn’t do it. Although Fischer talk about this and never deliver, so perhaps more common than I think.