Wealth Management and Portfolio Management are becoming more and more important. As insurance companies and banks struggle to produce the kind of investment returns that investors require, they then insist that today’s investment returns are far less than in the past and that investors should moderate their expectations – we don’t agree. We believe that bloated charging structures, administration and red tape are a hindrance to returns, which is in turn leading to investor disappointment.

Fogwill & Jones Asset Management Ltd track all the leading fund managers (very few of which work for a bank or insurance company – they work for the pure investment houses) and know their individual fund objectives and the types of securities they invest into. Due to their superior talents the investment returns these investment managers make tend to be considerably above the poor and average returns most insurance companies and banks normally produce.

Trusts

We also offer advice on trusts. Trusts are the most tax efficient and simplest means of legitimately avoiding tax. Whether they are right for you very much depends on your individual circumstances. Through trusts, a large amount of Income Tax, Capital Gains Tax and particularly Inheritance Tax can be legitimately avoided for relatively little outlay.

Where trusts are in place the assets within the trusts do not normally form part of your testamentary estate. In other words, they are not a part of your will and, therefore, money within them can be used to pay any inheritance tax liability so that e.g. a bank loan is unnecessary.

Don’t forget you cannot inherit an estate before any tax liability has been paid.

Probate Services

Our sister company Fogwill & Jones (Corporate Services) Ltd has a probate administration department that specifically facilitates the transfer of a deceaseds' estate to their beneficiaries without the distress at what is a delicate time for close family.

Probate has become a more complicated system; a few years ago, the system was changed to a ‘Self Assessment’ style system with up to 20 forms depending on the assets you own. There are also several exemptions which can apply and which now have to be claimed e.g. the £3,000 gifts out of capital each year. If they are not claimed on the forms, the estate could pay tax on these gifts.

Not only has this made the whole probate process more complicated, it has led to the Revenue finding several common errors that personal applicants have been making, resulting in numerous and regular updating of the forms as well as more information being required. This is often more than lay applicants can handle. We know how difficult a time it is for personal applicants. As professional administrators, we can quickly and efficiently distribute the estate to beneficiaries. A professional probate administrator can often save you far more inheritance tax than the cost of the administration service!

To get a more complete understanding of our investment process as well as our tax and legal services please go to the ‘About Us’ and ‘Services’ pages. You may wish to visit our website www.probateadmin.co.uk for a more comprehensive explanation of our Probate Services.