Case studies

Dr and Mrs K. from the West Country had recently retired and had built up their investment portfolio for nearly 20 years. They had around 45 holdings from various PEP and ISA providers and the paperwork now filled a filing cabinet. Dr K approached us because he wanted to decide whether he should pass over the running of the investments to someone else or buy another cabinet. Upon investigation, our investment specialist discovered that the K's portfolio had a much higher exposure to overseas markets and higher risk smaller companies than they had realised. This was because they had held some investments for so long that the portfolio was completely out of balance. One stock accounted for 30% of their holdings. In addition, many of their holdings had been good some years ago but the fund managers had long since changed and the performance was now poor.

Dr and Mrs K have now been in our Portfolio Management Service for 3 years. They invested £234,000. Our charge was just over 2.2% to cover the cost of the advice and setting up of portfolio.

Dr K was delighted with the service:

"Everything is so much easier now and I don't have to worry about my investments, Hargreaves Lansdown look after these for me"

Mr and Mrs D from Oxfordshire wanted a review of their financial affairs. They had lots of different policies and investments and felt that every time they saw a financial adviser they ended up with another policy and often didn't understand why.

The D's wanted a review without feeling that they were being sold a policy so we agreed to review their finances for a fixed fee of £495 plus VAT.

Our review highlighted the following:

• They were paying too much for their life assurance and pensions plans and we could save them money
• The D's were not saving enough for retirement and would not be able to retire at 50 as they planned
• The D's needed to sort out their Wills which was particularly important as they had an extended family. The advice on the Will alone would save them over £100,000 in inheritance tax.

"This was a very useful exercise and well worth the fee."

Mr M had a complicated pension problem. He was approaching age 75 fast and needed to convert his three existing pensions into a new type of product known as an Alternatively Secured Pension. This was not an easy process and the Hargreaves Lansdown pension specialist had to spend some considerable time negotiating with the pension companies to change some of their processes.

Mr M wrote to us:

"Throughout the period, [the Hargreaves Lansdown adviser] dealt with the whole matter courteously, expeditiously and I feel with considerable skill"

Hargreaves Lansdown's commission for this work was 1.4%.

Mrs M. Shobrook from Somerset was concerned about Inheritance Tax and sought our advice. She wanted to minimise her IHT problem immediately and set some money aside for grandchildren to use in the future, but have some extra income rather than access to her capital through her retirement too.

HL Financial Practitioners made this possible by advising Mrs Shobrook to invest £220,000 in a Discounted Gift Scheme;

"The immediate tax saving in my case was £90,800 and the remainder will also be IHT free in 7 years. I was attracted to this scheme as there is an immediate saving but at the same time I get an income."

Mr and Mrs MacDonald had built up substantial numbers of holdings of PEPs, ISAs and other investments over the years. Mr MacDonald has now been retired for several years and reached the point where he was not looking forward to managing these anymore. He also wanted to ensure that the portfolio was looked after should anything happen to him.

"The Portfolio Management Service means that we don't have to worry about our investments, Hargreaves Lansdown are looking after those for us. We don't need to think about whether to buy or sell - all that is done for us. We just don't have to worry about it anymore. We get regular statements and online access to check the value if we want to."