So how are your pensions and investments really invested?

It’s a reasonable question but more often than not one that many of us never get around to answering.

Many of us have Pensions and ISA’s but these are not actually investments they are ‘tax wrappers’ in other words they determine how you are being taxed on the capital you have invested.

So, you really need to start considering how and where your own money is being invested and by whom and how much are they charging you for the privilege.  Are they investing your capital into the Stock market, Bonds or Property or a combination of each? Are your holdings cautious or balanced or adventurous and how do you feel about the risks that you are taking? What do your advisors advise in order to help minimise risk and most importantly do you understand that you are taking risk?

All of which are reasonable questions, ones which I asked a client to consider this week as we discussed what they described as being their ‘small pension holdings’. Through discussion it became clear that there was no plan, no strategy for investing, no consideration of how their money had been invested and the risks that they faced should things go well or perhaps start to go wrong. The client was greatly surprised to find that the ‘small holdings’ we were reviewing actually totalled over £80,000.

There really is nothing unusual about this particular situation, most of our clients are often surprised by the extent of their holdings and so we would ask you to take a moment, pause for thought and consider your own planning. If you can really answer all of the above questions then we wish you well (odds are you still should have a chat with us!) but if you cannot then perhaps now is the time to arrange a meeting with us as we are certain we will be able to help!