All Posts

Most trustees don’t know what wrapper their investments are held in. Here’s why that matters — and how to tell if something’s wrong. A trustee came to me with a straightforward question: “The trust has £500,000 with a wealth manager. They’re doing a decent job on the investments. Should I change anything?” I asked one question she’d never been asked before: “What wrapper are the investments held in?” She didn’t know. Most trustees don’t. The wealth manager had opened a Genera

The whole point of a trust for a vulnerable person is protection. But most families can’t explain why it works — or what to do once the trust is in place. A family came to see me last year with a problem. Their adult son, who has a significant disability, was about to inherit £150,000 from his grandmother’s estate. The money would transform his life. Except it wouldn’t. Because the moment that £150,000 landed in his bank account, his means-tested benefits would stop. Universa

A real case turned a £16,000 gain into a £151,000 tax charge. The mistake was basic. The consequences weren’t. Earlier this year, a journalist at Citywire wrote about her grandparents’ experience with St James’s Place. The details are worth understanding, because this isn’t just an SJP problem. It’s a structural risk that sits inside every investment bond held in trust. The family asked SJP to fully surrender an investment bond. It had been set up with 1,000 segments — standa

If you’re a trustee who’s never had a proper review of the trust’s financial position, here’s what that conversation should look like. Throughout this blog series, we’ve covered a lot of ground. The 45% tax rate that hits discretionary trusts from the first pound above £500. Why the investment wrapper matters as much as the investments themselves. How the 5% withdrawal allowance is a planning tool, not a default income strategy. What happens when segment surrenders go wrong.

Understanding the cliff edge in trust taxation that catches most trustees by surprise A trustee showed me her trust’s tax calculation last week. The accountant had worked out the liability correctly, but she was still confused. “I thought trusts got taxed like individuals,” she said. “Where’s the personal allowance? Where are the tax bands?” This is the conversation I have repeatedly. Trust taxation looks nothing like personal taxation, and the difference costs families thous

A practical guide to keeping trust money properly separated Last month, a trustee asked me what seemed like a straightforward question: "Can I just hold the trust money in my personal savings account for now? I'll keep track of what's what." The honest answer is yes, legally you can. But practically? It can create problems that far outweigh the convenience. I understand the appeal. Opening a trust bank account requires more paperwork than a personal account, banks can be slow

A family came to see me recently. The mother had been worrying. She'd worked hard her whole life, her husband too, and what mattered to her now was simple: she wanted to make sure her children got what she and her husband had built, not the taxman. One of the daughters had been doing some research — watching videos online, reading articles, asking around — and trusts kept coming up as the answer. The family had actually spoken to a solicitor a few years earlier, and the solic

A client recently asked me: "How can I trust a process when I won't know if it worked for another 20 years?" It's a brilliant question. In most areas of life, we build trust through experience. Make bread enough times, and you trust your method. But with retirement planning, we're asked to trust a process we'll only test once, with results that won't arrive for decades. This is the fundamental challenge we've been exploring: you can't practice retirement, and mistakes are in

Trusts have a reputation for being complicated, expensive, and only for the wealthy. But here's something that might surprise you: you could be dealing with a trust right now without even realising it - and it might be much simpler than anyone's told you. Here's What Often Happens When someone passes away and leaves money to their children or other beneficiaries, that money often sits in what's technically a trust. The will creates this arrangement automatically. The survivin

When setting up a trust for someone who needs extra support—whether due to disability or because they're a child who has lost a parent—there's an important tax election that could save thousands of pounds. It's called a vulnerable person election, and whilst it sounds complex, understanding it could make a significant difference to how much tax a trust pays. Who Counts as a Vulnerable Person? A vulnerable person falls into one of two categories: either someone under 18 whose

In 2014, my phone rang. My dad wanted me to join a meeting - something about an investment opportunity someone had brought to them. I was working in London, buried in the day's tasks. "Too busy," I thought. It sounded like just another family update call, the kind where Dad wanted to share what was happening in their world. That decision haunts me. That "opportunity" was a Nigerian black money scam. By the time I learned about it, my parents had lost £150,000. The Moment Ever

My local bookshop has an entire shelf dedicated to sourdough baking. Instagram is full of proud home bakers showing off their perfectly risen loaves with those signature air pockets. Everyone, it seems, has become a sourdough expert during the past few years, including my wife. Here's what's remarkable about learning to make sourdough: you know immediately if you've succeeded or failed. Too dense? You'll know within hours. Didn't rise properly? The feedback is instant and und

When someone becomes a trustee - particularly unexpectedly, through bereavement or family circumstances - they're suddenly responsible for significant legal, tax, and financial decisions. Often whilst grieving. Often with no prior experience. Often feeling overwhelmed by the weight of their responsibilities. They need help. But more specifically, they need coordinated help across three very different professional areas: legal, tax, and financial. The challenge is that these t

A couple came to see me recently, both in their early sixties, reviewing their retirement plans. As we mapped out their financial journey, they wondered aloud about different paths they might have taken - what if they'd stayed in that workplace pension? What if they'd invested differently? The truth I shared with them? They'll never know if those would have been better choices. And more importantly, it doesn't matter. What matters is what we do next. The Myth of the Perfect D

I've been coaching since I was 16. Started with squash - teaching people how to hit a small rubber ball in a white box. Sounds simple enough, doesn't it? Just six shots to master. But what I discovered in those early years wasn't really about the shots at all. It was about trust. My students trusted me to make them better. They'd follow my suggestions, put in the work, and then something magical would happen - their shots would become effortless. They'd beat opponents they'd

As of today, with 19 five-star Google reviews and countless written testimonials, I’ve learned something important: clients don’t...

Last week, I sat across from a 62-year-old client who had just inherited a large sum from his mother’s estate. During our conversation,...

Following my recent blog about the BBC story where a mother went to prison for stealing her daughters' inheritance, I’ve received dozens...

A recent BBC News story stopped me in my tracks. Two sisters, Gemma and Jessica Thomas, watched their mother Katherine Hill receive a...

Last month, I had two very different conversations about market volatility that perfectly illustrate why time horizon changes everything...