OUR SERVICES

Wealth Management

The Financial Options Group offers a wide range of customised solutions, whether you want to grow, preserve or transfer your wealth to the next generation.

WEALTH MANAGEMENT

Individually tailored solutions designed to preserve and grow wealth

We provide the insight and tools needed to help you increase the value of your funds at the most opportune growth rate possible and ensure their resilience in the face of global uncertainty. Our expert wealth management professionals will work closely with you to build a strategy around your specific needs and circumstances, your risk tolerance, time horizon and return expectations.

Our advisers take care of the legwork and take away the guesswork, employing in-depth market analyses and sophisticated processes to make the recommendations you need to successfully navigate in rapidly changing conditions.

FEE TRANSPARENCY MATTERS

Value and transparency are the pillars of high-quality wealth management

We believe that value and transparency are the pillars of high-quality wealth management and financial advice. That’s why we make our fees and charges clear before clients commit to a fund, advice or wealth management service. We maintain an ongoing commitment to unambiguous communication of costs and timing, and we are registered with the Financial Conduct Authority.

We will never charge for an initial consultation, since it’s in this meeting that we get to know you and your individual needs, and discuss with you how we can help. We will always communicate the cost for each of our services up front so you will never face an unexpected cost.

Our advisers are held to the highest standards for ethical conduct and professionalism. Our recommendations are always provided in the best financial and personal interest of our clients – we will never give advice simply to “sell a product”.

SERVICES & SOLUTIONS

Providing advice on the financial assets of high-net-worth individuals and families

Our focus is to provide advice on the financial assets of high-net-worth individuals and families in order to meet their long-term needs and goals. Our advice encompasses a broad range of services such as in-house customised financial planning and asset allocation advice, investment advice and execution, lending and comprehensive tax reporting. The quality, structure and depth of our advice is our core value proposition to clients. Our team of product specialists work together with our client advisers to tailor product solutions to meet clients’ needs.

Investment Solutions

Investment Products

Fixed income and hybrid investments
Brokerage services
Managed funds
Structured products and derivatives
Enterprise Investment Schemes (EIS) & Seed Enterprise Investment Schemes (SEIS)
ISAs & pensions
Single stock risk management

Wealth Planning & Trusts

The Financial Conduct Authority do not regulate trusts, estate planning or inheritance tax planning.

The value of investments and the income they produce can fall as well as rise. You may get back less than you invested.

Investors do not pay any personal tax on income or gains, but ISAs do pay unrecoverable tax on income from
stocks and shares received by the ISA managers.

Tax treatment varies according to individual circumstances and is subject to change.

Stocks and Shares ISAs invest in Corporate bonds; stocks and shares and other assets that fluctuate in value.

Enterprise Investment Schemes (EIS) & Seed Enterprise Investment Schemes (SEIS) invest in assets that are high risk and
can be difficult to sell such as shares in unlisted companies.

Working With You

Whether you’ve recently experienced a change in circumstances, or you’re looking to make a switch from a financial adviser who hasn’t delivered on your expectations, you can rely on our advisers’ client-centred approach. As a valued client of the Financial Options Group, you’ll receive structured advice backed by world-class investment research, for proactive fund management built around your specific requirements.

Our experienced and highly qualified investment advisers holistically identify and address your needs, not only fully understanding your past and current situation, but also incorporating your visions of the future and providing support in implementing them. We never use a “one size fits all” approach, and provide a choice of investment fund types, from low volatility cash-like funds to multi-asset funds to discretionary fund management.

Your choice of investment fund types

Cash and cash-like funds

These funds provide lower volatility than risk-based funds, such as equities, with returns linked to bank and building society deposit rates. There is no guaranteed capital protection.

Multi-asset Passive Management funds

These funds invest in multi-asset classes and where some, or all, of the fund management is based on tracking a particular market or index. The fund will attempt to mirror the performance of the selected indices. Some, or all, of the investments are essentially run through computer programs and therefore do not include active fund management or processes.

Multi-asset Single Manager funds

These funds invest in multi-asset classes and funds from a single investment fund house. These funds and asset classes may be managed by a different number of specialist managers within that single investment fund house or the individual single manager. The fund may either directly invest across different asset classes or be created through blending single managed funds from within that fund house. In each case the manager blends them to meet a specific risk profile and asset allocation. This manager is responsible for actively managing the asset allocation and achieving the performance expected.

Multi-asset Multi-Manager funds

A multi-manager is a specialist that selects a blend of single managed funds from the whole of the market and blends them to meet a specific risk profile and asset allocation. This multi-manager is responsible for actively managing the asset allocation and achieving the performance expected. This includes the use of other funds and other managers. The multi-manager will switch between funds and sectors in response to market changes, research and analysis. This approach involves making decisions on the inclusion, and exclusion, of funds against risk profiles, with the aim of reducing volatility.

Discretionary Fund Management

Discretionary fund management consists of a portfolio of investment vehicles rather than a fund of funds approach and is often considered more personal to the needs of the individual client. A discretionary fund manager will construct a portfolio of varying assets and investment types based on a client’s attitude to risk and agreed investment strategy. The discretionary fund manager is responsible for switching between funds and sectors in response to market changes, research and analysis. They will rebalance portfolio assets in line with the agreed strategy as and when deemed appropriate. There is normally a minimum overall investment value needed for this service.

FAMILY OFFICE SOLUTIONS

Designed to meet the complex needs of high net worth clients

Family offices are designed to meet the complex needs of ultra-high net worth investors through the provision of diverse financial and investment services – from asset management, cash management and risk management to financial planning, philanthropy and legal support.

Going beyond the offering of traditional wealth management shops, they represent the very highest standard of attentiveness and exclusivity, helping affluent individuals and families to successfully navigate the complex world of wealth management.

We’ve partnered with a select panel of accountants, solicitors and tax specialists, allowing clients to receive high quality advice across disciplines. Our team of experts can assist individuals and families across diverse requirements including budgeting, insurance, charitable giving, family-owned businesses, wealth transfer and tax services.

As part of our Family Office solutions, clients can expect seamless coordination across the team of professionals and advice streams, with comprehensive planning, advice and resources, all delivered with transparency and accessibility.

We commit to delivering for our clients the following mandate:

An initial, no-obligation meeting

A safe environment to discuss your goals

Understand our clients’ needs and objectives

Always put our clients first

Ensure our clients understand fully our fees and charges

Ensure our clients understand our recommendations

FAMILY OFFICE SERVICES

The Family Investment Company (FIC) – a popular estate planning vehicle

As part of our Family Office services, we offer advisement on establishing a Family Investment Company (FIC). This useful vehicle is particularly attractive to high-net-worth individuals because of its many advantages around tax and succession planning.

Now gaining popularity, a FIC has a different structure to that of a Trust. As a private limited company established to hold and build family investments, the purpose of the FIC is not to trade but to invest – usually either in equity portfolios or property. To begin with, funds are transferred into the FIC as cash or assets, usually by way of a loan. Your family members and sometimes your family Trusts are named as shareholders, and different classes of share are issued to enable flexibility in the payment of dividends.

Since profits gained from these investments incur corporation tax rates as opposed to income or capital gains tax, this leads to tax savings where the individuals are paying tax at additional rates.

The FIC also offers Inheritance Tax (IHT) advantages: being subject to the seven-year survivorship rule, if you live for seven years after setting up the company the assets you put in will not be subject to IHT.

Thanks to its bespoke articles of association, which can include pre-emptive clauses such as preventing shares being transferred outside of the family, the FIC provides ample flexibility.

The FIC structure is a particularly good fit for business owners who are familiar with the processes of running a company and is most beneficial for those seeking to transfer more into the FIC than the standard inheritance tax (IHT) allowance of £325,000 per individual, or £650,000 per couple.

Our expert advisers can help you to explore whether an FIC will be a solution for structuring wealth which works to your family’s advantage.

Family Investment Companies and Legal Services are by referral only.

The value of investments and the income they produce can fall as well as rise. You may get back less than you invested.

Trusts, Estate Planning & Inheritance Tax Planning are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.

Wealth Management