As the dust settles on Cooper Parry Wealth’s inaugural Wealth. Life. Balance event, it’s time for us to wrap up all the best wealth planning insights from a fantastic evening at London’s X+Why The Orchard.
A stunning venue, full of like minds, lively conversation, delicious eats, and food for thought to match. On the menu: wealth planning tips for investing sensibly, managing risk, minimising tax, realising your ideal lifestyle and creating a meaningful legacy.
We’ve summarised all the key points below, so you can move towards finding a Wealth. Life. Balance that works for you.
HOW TO INVEST SUCCESSFULLY
Ewan Rosie, Chief Investment Officer at Cooper Parry Wealth (CPW) got us out of the blocks, sharing his tips on approaching your investments in a sensible, and ultimately successful way.
- Control your emotions and think long-term: Sky-high inflation and interest rates, lingering effects of the pandemic, global debt, ongoing wars, higher taxes and upcoming elections could prompt you to make short-term, knee-jerk decisions. Don’t let them. The global stock markets have proven time and time again that they’re very resilient to big changes in the world.
- Drown out the media noise: Stock market struggles are front-page news, but nobody wants to report on the rebounds, because negativity sells. And if someone is sharing an ‘amazing’ stock tip on social media to millions of people, what’s the ulterior motive? And are they a reliable source?
- Accept the stock market is tough to beat: Returns historically come in very short bursts of time, and trying to time your entrance and exit could see you miss out. For example, if you invested $1,000 in the S&P 500 between 1990 – 2021, you’d have come out with $26,322. But, if you missed the 25 best-performing days in that period, your returns would fall to $5,632.
- Focus on the future: What do you really value? What are the things you want to achieve? Strong returns are up for grabs for disciplined, patient investors, and taking a long-term view is the building blocks to realising your ideal lifestyle.
HOW TO PAY LESS TAX & LEAVE A MEANINGFUL LEGACY
Next up, the double-act of Darcy Needham-Jones, Relationship Manager at CPW, and Amy Robins, Tax Partner at Cooper Parry.
- Using the right structures is key: When looking to save tax and leave a lasting legacy, it’s important to get advice before you put these structures in place (your ‘why’), during (your ‘what’), and also after (what’s next?).
- Your ‘why’: Work out ‘your number’, i.e., how much money you’ll need for your lifetime, using cashflow modelling to help make financial decisions before you start setting things up. This takes into account where you are now, where you want to be, and any assumptions to give you ‘your number’.
- Your ‘what’: When you invest ‘your number’, what options do you have regarding structures? GIA, ISA, pension, Bonds, Trusts and FICs (Family Investment Companies) are common examples, and it’s about deciding the best fit for your needs.
- Family Investment Companies: FICs are private limited companies with family members holding individual classes of shares. They’ve been a popular choice of late and offer a range of planning options, including the mitigation of Income Tax and Inheritance Tax. Control of the funds can be retained using alphabet share classes, and it can be a holding company of a current trading company to maximise tax planning opportunities. They’re a great way to create the right tax structure for the future wealth of your family, but, depending on your position, FICs can get complex. So, we’d recommend getting in touch if you’d like to find out more.
- Your ‘what next?’: The most value comes from the ongoing review of your structures, ensuring they’re keeping pace with your changing needs and legislation. This includes rediscovering your Bigger Picture (your values, goals and fears), updating your lifetime cashflow model, maximising annual tax and completing annual returns, and portfolio management.
MAKING LIFE COUNT – YOUR FUTURE PLANNED?
Last, but never least, Nick Taylor, Relationship Director at CPW spoke to us about how to plan your future.
- Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast: Life is hectic, and we all need to slow down and pause before starting to plan, because to plan for the future, you may need to rethink how you see your past.
- Focus on the next three years: Often, what you want to do for the rest of your life is too big a question. So, break it down into the next three years. “If we were to meet again in three years’ time,” Nick said, “what would have to have happened, personally and professionally, for you to be totally satisfied with your progress to date?” This was from the Relationship Question, first introduced by Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach.
- Never stop questioning: Nick closed proceedings with a quote from Einstein: “Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.” Your life, your goals and your values will keep changing, and by being aware of that, you can continually adapt your outlook and financial plan to best serve those.
If you have any questions on your wealth planning strategy, let us know. Thank you to everyone who attended, and if you couldn’t make it this time, we’ll see you at the next one.
