Financial planning for life events


From planned milestones to unexpected events, we work with you to create a financial plan that reflects your priorities and prepares you for what comes next.

Succession planning

Planning ahead can help provide continuity for those closest to you, whether for your family or your business. Taking the time to set out your intentions clearly can help reduce uncertainty and ensure your wishes are carried out.

Turning your intentions into practical next steps requires careful planning. We can help you:

  • Clarify how you would like your assets or your business to be passed on
  • Consider the financial and tax implications of succession
  • Put arrangements in place to support a smooth transition

Selling your business

Exiting a business is often a significant life transition, and taking your foot off the gas may not come naturally. Having a clear plan in place can help reduce uncertainty and provide structure for what comes next.

We’ll help you make the most of your sale proceeds – whether that means investing for the future or leaving a tax-efficient legacy for the next generation.

We can help you:

  • Define your ‘magic number’ – the amount you need from your business sale to support your future plans
  • Determine whether you can step back sooner than expected or whether further preparation is needed to make your business sale-ready
  • Organise your finances before and after the sale
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A guide to selling your business

Find out how to prepare your finances and prepare for what comes next.

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Managing your finances during divorce

Divorce can be emotionally demanding – and may require careful decisions at a time when your focus may be elsewhere.

We model different settlement outcomes and show how they may affect your income and assets. From there, we put a financial plan in place. Involving us early can help you identify risks and avoid unintended consequences.

Divorce and your pension

We can help you:

  • Understand the value of your pensions
  • Consider the most appropriate way to split pensions
  • Set up a new pension arrangement where appropriate
Divorce and your investments

We can help you:

  • Review your existing portfolio
  • Understand the tax implications of selling or transferring assets
  • Develop your investment strategy aligned with your revised circumstances

This does not constitute tax or legal advice. Tax treatment depends on the individual circumstances of each client and may be subject to change in the future. You should always check the tax implications with an accountant or tax specialist.

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A guide to financial planning for divorce

Learn about your options when dividing your assets and how to get back on track.

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The value of investments, and any income from them, can fall and you may get back less than you invested. This does not constitute tax or legal advice. Tax treatment depends on the individual circumstances of each client and may be subject to change in the future. You should always check the tax implications with an accountant or tax specialist. Information is provided only as an example and is not a recommendation to pursue a particular strategy.

Get support for the decisions ahead


Speak with an adviser about planning your next steps.

Common questions about financial planning for life events

The way you invest a lump sum of money will depend on a range of factors, including how long you’re investing for, your goals, your attitude to investment risk, and whether you want to focus on growing your capital or generating a regular income. It’s important not to put all your money in one type of investment.

Building a diversified portfolio that spreads your money across different asset classes, including equities, bonds and cash, helps to minimise the impact of one particular asset class falling in value.

In an ideal world, you’d invest your money just after markets had tumbled and just before they started to bounce back. Unfortunately, it’s pretty much impossible to determine when markets have reached rock bottom or when they’re about to recover.

A better tactic is to focus on your long-term goals and accept the fact your investments will have their ups and downs. After all, the longer you wait to invest, the less time you’ll have to see any returns at all. As the old investment adage goes, it is time in the market, not timing the market that is key to returns.

If you’re feeling anxious about investing, you could drip feed small amounts of money into the market each month rather than investing it all at once. This removes the worry of investing a big lump sum right before a market decline. It can also help to smooth out stock market volatility.

In some months, you’ll invest when markets are down and you’ll get more investments for your money; in other months, you’ll invest when markets are up and you’ll get fewer investments for your money. This essentially averages out the price at which you buy investments, which can help to provide a bit of peace of mind.

There are several ways in which pensions can be divided in a divorce, and the approach that is right for you will depend on many different factors, including your age and the complexity of your situation.

The three main methods of splitting pensions are:

  1. Pension sharing order: this divides up your pensions and provides a clean break. You get a percentage share of your former spouse’s pension or vice versa. This share can be transferred into a new or existing pension.
  2. Pension offsetting: the value of your pensions is offset against your other assets. For example, you could get a bigger share of the family home in return for your ex keeping their pension.
  3. Pension attachment order (or ‘pension earmarking’): when the pension starts to pay out, the ex-spouse receives part or all of the benefits. This method doesn’t provide a clean break.

The way you split your investments in a divorce could have tax implications and there may be charges involved, so it’s important to get financial and tax advice. For example, cashing in investments outside an ISA could land you with a significant capital gains tax (CGT) bill. And if you receive income-generating assets as part of the divorce, this could affect how much income tax you pay.

Transfers of assets between spouses or civil partners don’t give rise to a CGT charge. Transfers are free from CGT, so long as the transfer occurs within three years from the end of the tax year in which you separate or the date on which a court grants a divorce, or a dissolution of the civil partnership, if earlier.

This does not constitute tax or legal advice. Tax treatment depends on the individual circumstances of each client and may be subject to change in the future. You should always check the tax implications with an accountant or tax specialist.

There are several options to consider when deciding how to divide your property in a divorce:

  • You could sell the home, both of you move out, and then use the proceeds towards buying a new home each.
  • One partner could buy out the other partner’s share.
  • You could keep the home and one of you live in it until your children leave school.
  • You could transfer part of the value of your home from one partner to the other, who would retain a stake and receive a percentage of the value when the house is sold.

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