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Bespoke, highly personalised and fully integrated wealth management
Our highly personalised, integrated wealth management service is designed to handle all investment, pension, tax mitigation, estate and financial planning matters.
We provide you with an holistic integrated approach to managing your wealth, backed by a longer-term strategy tailored to your personal lifestyle objectives.
Click the items below to see in-depth how we help your wealth management.
A comprehensive and well considered wealth plan is the key to taking care of your wealth for the long-term and for current and future generations. Our wealth planning service can help you whether you need a thorough review of your finances, or need specific advice on a particular aspect of your wealth planning needs.
At the beginning of our relationship with you, we want to make sure that we fully understand your circumstances, priorities and both your short and long-term goals. We will continue to discuss your needs as you reach key moments in your life from marriage to education planning to inheritance and succession planning. Whatever your situation, we are committed to offering you independent and objective advice.
Private Office Asset Management has expertise in wealth planning and fiduciary (Trust) services and with our sister company Simmonds (International) Financial Associates Limited based in Hong Kong, we are able to offer global wealth planning solutions for our UK and international clients. We possess a truly international reach, enabling us to deliver exceptional levels of in-house expertise in both international and domestic wealth planning. Our wealth planning teams conduct numerous wealth studies each year, aiding clients to find the most appropriate solution.
Your personal wealth planner is a highly qualified adviser who will analyse your personal and professional assets, and suggest a flexible ongoing wealth strategy according to your current and future needs. Your wealth plan can be adapted to take account of any changes in the fiscal or legal environment, as well as changes in your own circumstances or those of your family. As changes occur your wealth planner will always be available to discuss your options with you.
Implementing your wealth strategy will invariably require a wide-ranging and comprehensive wealth planning service. Working with and assisting your other advisers we will assist in the design and implementation of your plan utilising a range of services from trust and fiduciary to life assurance and financial planning.
From the administration of a simple family trust to family office work for private clients, we offer comprehensive private client services to ensure your affairs are dealt with comprehensively and kept fully up to date and relevant.
Your Wealth Manager at Private Office Asset Management can work closely with your tax advisers where appropriate to understand your particular situation so that you receive bespoke advice and solutions tailored to your circumstances.
Whether you are an entrepreneur selling your business, a non-UK domiciled individual living in the UK or you are simply looking to structure your affairs more tax-efficiently, we can assist.
We can assist with dealing with your UK tax returns on an annual basis, identifying legitimate tax planning opportunities, ensuring deadlines are met and we can assist in calculating any tax payments.
We can also provide bespoke tax advice if, for example, you are buying or selling an asset, considering letting out a property or moving to the UK.
With almost constant speculation about housing booms or market crashes, property as an asset class is one that is likely to impact all of us at one point or another. Whether you own a UK rental property, but have not yet fully considered the deductibility of certain expenses, or you are not UK resident but are considering acquiring a property in the UK, there are many tax aspects that you will need to consider such as:
UK buy-to-let properties will normally form part of an individual’s estate for inheritance tax (IHT) purposes, although any associated debt would often be deductible for IHT purposes.
However, in certain circumstances it is important to review the asset against which the debt is secured to avoid valuable IHT reliefs from being potentially under-utilised or lost entirely.
From 6 April 2015, the Capital Gains Tax (CGT) rules have been extended so that non-UK resident individuals will be subject to UK CGT on any gain on the disposal of a UK residential property that accrues from this date.
ISAs give you generous tax relief on your investments.
What sets ISAs apart from other savings and investment accounts is that any interest on cash savings or gains from investments are tax free. Higher-rate taxpayers don’t have to pay any further tax on dividends from investments either and you don’t have to declare ISAs on your tax return. Income received from ISA investments are therefore tax free.
Because of their tax benefits, ISAs can help your savings and investments grow faster over time. Investing your ISA in stocks and shares has the added advantage of helping safeguard you from a potential Capital Gains Tax (CGT) bill in the future. CGT is a tax on the gain you make when you sell or dispose of assets such as investments. It is currently charged at 28% for higher-rate taxpayers on gains made that exceed the yearly tax-free allowance. Currently, the CGT allowance is £11,100.
Using your ISA allowance each year enables you to build a substantial tax efficient portfolio.
OPEN an ISA today
‘New’ ISAs
From 6 April 2015 the annual ISA limit is £15,240.
Rules on ISA death benefits, introduced in April 2015, allow for the transfer of an extra ISA allowance to the deceased’s spouse if they passed away on or after 3 December 2014.
Your Private Office Asset Management Wealth Manager will assist you in using an additional allowance on your husband, wife or civil partner’s death. This is equal to the value of their ISA savings and is known as the additional permitted subscription (APS). We understand that these circumstances are difficult and we will assist you at every stage of the process.
Currently, UK-resident individuals who are not domiciled in the UK can claim to be taxed on the “Remittance Basis”. This means they can claim not to pay UK tax on their non-UK gains and income unless they remit those gains and/or income to the UK.
Non-UK domiciliaries who have been UK resident for 7 out of the last 9 tax years must pay an annual levy of £30,000 (known as the Remittance Basis Charge (RBC)) if they wish to be taxed in this way. For non-UK domiciled individuals who have been UK resident for 12 out of the last 14 tax years the RBC increases from £50,000 to £60,000 from 6 April 2015. In addition, a higher RBC is introduced from 6 April 2015 for longer term UK-residents (those who have been UK resident for at least 17 out of the past 20 tax years) which will be £90,000.
Your Private Office Asset management Wealth Manager can offer bespoke advice on succession and inheritance tax issues. Preparing a suitable and tax efficient will is often the first step in an overall estate planning review. Wills are important not only to ensure that your assets will be passed on to your intended beneficiaries, but also, where appropriate, for using opportunities to legitimately mitigate inheritance tax and provide protection for young and vulnerable beneficiaries.
We have been dealing with estates, and the issues that arise in relation to them, for many years. We are able to act as an executor of your will, bringing professional expertise to the administration of your estate and, with a detailed understanding of your personal circumstances, helping to protect assets for future generations.
In addition to will planning, we will also advise you in connection with the structure of your estate including discussing the issues arising from jointly held assets, as well as providing you with an overall understanding of relevant inheritance tax planning options ranging from outright gifts to setting up trusts.
Without the right advice and careful financial planning, HM Revenue & Customs can become the single largest beneficiary of your estate following your death.
At present, the first £325,000 (2015/2016) of an individual’s estate is not liable to Inheritance Tax. For married couples and registered civil partners it is currently £650,000, if the full allowance is passed to the surviving spouse. Anything in excess of this amount is taxed at 40% on death.
There are some options available that you can consider to help mitigate Inheritance Tax:
Under current IHT legislation, pensions can play a considerable role in estate planning.
In all cases, we will provide a service tailored to your particular needs.
There are plenty of circumstances which call for adequate insurance to be in place, for example going on holiday or insuring your home against damage or theft.
Deciding what type and level of insurance to take can be a challenge, especially without the right advice.
Providing protection cover in all forms of life, critical illness and disability insurance is at the heart of Private Office Asset Management. Working independently with access to all of the top and most competitive insurance providers, we offer an extensive range of insurance cover, including:
Your Wealth Manager at Private Office Asset Management can provide a full review of your insurance and protection arrangements and advise on any shortfalls and construct and implement an appropriate plan, tailored to your personal, family and business needs.
With our potent combination of industry expertise and experience, Private Office Asset Management conducts both primary and secondary research.
Primary research involves first-hand information gathered directly by us from the target investment universe that we want to analyse, whilst secondary research involves the use of second-hand information which comes in the form of published articles from the selected research already carried out by top investment management institutions, newspapers, news reports, recorded interviews, and other printed or recorded resources.
Primary research can be conducted through the form of proprietary in-depth data analysis of stocks, bonds, funds or alternative asset classes, interviews or surveys from the target investment universe.
Primary research entails more work to do than secondary research because we have to gather the data ourselves. After gathering all the data, we then analyse it to be able to decide on our position on the individual line of stock/holding.
In contrast, secondary research already presents us with analysed data which has been carried out by other investment analysts, and we might undertake secondary research on the same line of stock/holding carried out by a number of financial institutions before applying our knowledge and experience before deciding whether the stock/holding is one that we favour or otherwise.
Primary research naturally involves more time while secondary research requires significantly less.
Both primary research and secondary research fundamentally follow the same steps, but they do of course come from different sources.
In the end, careful analysis is needed when conducting research be it primary or secondary.
Private Office Asset Management licences a market leading investment research tool to assist us in our primary and secondary research of a range of asset classes, and we attend numerous presentations by economists and other fund managers, as well as conducting further independent secondary research from leading global investment institutions.
Private Office Asset Management utilises an investment process that starts with understanding the effects of macroeconomic changes on multi-asset investment strategies.
Informed by our primary and secondary research, our Investment Director sets the top-down investment strategy on an ongoing basis for each risk profile of our private clients. Our clients’ asset allocation review documents are updated and proposal portfolios are then discussed with each individual client with a view to re-allocation to capture market opportunities and avoid emerging risks. As a result of this strategic turnover, Private Office Asset Management has been able to consistently outperform the relevant benchmark indices net of fees.
We believe that our active and highly personalised constant review and re-allocation when and where necessary of our client’s portfolios is a primary source of our consistent returns and we believe this gives us a competitive advantage over our peers.
We manage our client’s portfolios dynamically as required, reallocating towards investment strategies which we believe are positioned to perform well in the current macro environment and away from those strategies which are not expected to perform well.
The investment strategy or strategies that are believed to offer the most attractive opportunities (on a risk-adjusted basis) will be offered the largest allocations, within pre-defined strategy diversification limits. It is possible that one or more underlying investment strategies will be totally excluded from the portfolio at any given time if it is believed that it does not lend itself to adequate returns or has become, or is likely to become, asymmetrically biased to the downside.
The portfolio construction process is designed to ensure that the allocations to investment strategies and managers are consistent with each client’s portfolio’s risk and return objectives.
The objective of this process is to construct a well-diversified portfolio that minimises common exposures between asset classes and underlying investments and takes into account the potential effects of an unfavourable or changing market environment. Special consideration is given to understanding the aggregate risk exposures in the portfolio, to ensure that portfolio positioning is consistent with the defined top-down view.
Private Office Asset Management does not pursue a model portfolio approach but instead seeks to construct each client’s portfolio within our investment guidelines and consistent with our current top-down views. In order to achieve this we typically make small reallocations as and when required with agreement from our clients at each stage, which translates to strategy reallocation of approximately 30% throughout the year. We do not have minimum target weights to any strategy, however, we use maximum weights to ensure diversification.
We believe that this dynamic reallocation process represents a competitive advantage as it allows our portfolios to be significantly more flexible than our competitors. All final investment decisions within our bespoke and highly personalised managed advisory service are made with the ultimate agreement from each individual client.
We also research and carry out due diligence on top third party discretionary investment managers who apply various investment disciplines to cater for any client’s requirements and we act as gatekeeper in finding the most suitable discretionary manager for each individual client and carry out reviews of out-sourced portfolios with our clients on an ongoing basis. We are totally independent and can appoint any discretionary portfolio manager to our preferred panel subject to satisfactory due diligence.
In order to establish sound market risk management principles for our private client investors, we rely on three pillars: risk measurement, monitoring and management (or RAIM – Risk-Adjusted Investment Management).
Pillar 1: Risk Measurement refers to the tools institutional investors use to measure risk.
Pillar 2: Risk Monitoring focuses on the process of evaluating changes in portfolio risk over time.
Pillar 3: Risk Adjusted Investment Management refers to how we at Private Office Asset Management ultimately strive to produce the highest possible returns for the minimum amount of risk and how, therefore, investors may adjust their portfolios in response to expected changes in risk.
For risk measurement, we measure aggregate portfolio risk with volatility or tracking error, which rely on individual volatilities and correlations of asset classes and managers. However, while volatility, tracking error and correlations capture the overall risk of the portfolio, they do not distinguish between the sources of risk, which may include market risk, sector risk, credit risk and interest rate risk, to name a few. For instance, energy stocks are likely to be sensitive to oil prices and BBB corporate bonds are likely to be sensitive to credit spreads.
Risk monitoring enables us to monitor changes in the sources of risk on a regular and timely basis. Here, the sources of risk are stressed to assess the impact on the portfolio. Stress testing is flexible in enabling us to gauge the impact of an event on the portfolio. Stress tests are used typically to assess the impact of large and rare events. Whereas stress tests do not address the likelihood of extreme shocks occurring, other methods for analysing tail risk do.
The third pillar in the risk management framework is risk-adjusted investment management (RAIM), which puts risk measurement and monitoring outputs into action. RAIM aligns the investment decision making process with the risk management function. For instance, RAIM might be used to make portfolio adjustments as either the correlations between assets rise or the probability of certain tail risk or disaster scenarios increases.
Robust Risk Management integrates all three areas.
On a practical level, the diagram below demonstrates the relationship between a typical client’s objectives, titled here as the Family Goal Structure (client objectives in ascending order from base to peak) on the left, and the inherent risks in Asset Allocation on the right.
In broad terms, when chasing the aggressive growth there is clearly a higher chance of loss when seeking the higher returns with aggressive growth assets. This has an inverse relationship with the family goals, where the pain of that loss is most keenly felt at the base if needs and obligations cannot be met.
The risk management process necessarily involves utilising the three pillars for risk management above, and then applying that to what matters, – the financial objectives of the client, and the risk that they are prepared to take in achieving their goals. We undertake a thorough risk profile questionnaire which is integrated into qualitative discussions settle and agree on the right balance for the individual client.
Successful investing takes dedication. Dedication takes time.
We understand that looking after your financial future can be time consuming. As your trusted partner, we take the time to get to know you and your personal objectives. Even with a significant amount of knowledge and experience, managing financial affairs can be a complicated, lengthy and laborious process. We work with you and any existing advisers you may have, aiming to meet your specific objectives.
You will be looked after by a dedicated Wealth Manager whose role is to understand your personal circumstances and to ensure that your assets are suitably structured and invested in accordance with your specific objectives and risk tolerance.
Our attitude to managing wealth is measured and intelligent, with a consistent focus on preserving capital and delivering strong risk-adjusted returns. Our investment philosophy is totally independent and therefore unburdened by strict models, so we are open to pursue the best opportunities for you across global investment markets.
We ensure we have an agreed strategic asset allocation strategy with the most efficient level of exposure to the various asset classes. This strategy will take into account factors such as your investment horizon, your risk tolerance, income objectives, liabilities and the other assets you hold outside of your portfolio. We will then actively monitor and rebalance the asset allocation to reflect our views on short-term opportunities in financial markets.
The asset classes that Private Office Asset Management concentrate on include the following:
Periodically and as regularly as required we produce an individualised Full Asset Allocation Review and Proposal Document which details the following:
Each Asset Allocation Review and Proposal Document, once agreed with each client, is then accompanied by a full recommendation document detailing the recommended underlying investments, – including sales, buys, profit taking, reductions, increases that we propose to make on our clients’ behalf. Each of the investment recommendations are taken from our extensive buy list as detailed within the asset allocation report.
We meet with our clients face to face once every quarter (or six monthly minimum as preferred by each client) for performance review meetings.
Our investment process is an ongoing cycle which includes:
The diagram below shows the Private Office Asset Management Investment Process as a necessarily ongoing process which is constantly reviewed.
Private Office Asset Management Limited offers ‘Independent’ advice
Private Office Asset Management Limited is a financial services and wealth management business that provides independent investment and financial advice to individuals/private clients, businesses and trustees.
We work alongside other professional advisers including solicitors, accountants and investment managers, and we remain firmly within the ‘Independent’ category and as such we work in our client’s best interests by having the ability to consider investments across the whole investment universe.
We specialise in investments and in providing financial solutions by tailoring our financial advice to your personal, professional and business circumstances.
Our objective is to help you increase and protect your wealth and future financial security and we will act in your best interests and treat you fairly at all times.
Our Client Agreement and Ongoing Service Agreement are available upon request.
These clearly define the services that we provide and the fees that we charge for providing the defined initial and ongoing services agreed with each client.
The tax treatment of all investments depends upon your individual circumstances and may be subject to change.
Investors should discuss their financial arrangements with their own tax adviser as the value of any tax reliefs available is subject to individual circumstances levels and bases of taxation may change.