St Joseph’s is a small bespoke Legal Consultancy; we offer a tailored advice service to our clients. A service designed to build a shared understanding of your wealth objectives and to translate these ambitions into actions Successful individuals recognise the importance of good advice. This has never been more evident than in today’s complex financial world. With more than 20 years of experience, St Joseph’s understands the dedication and experience required to provide exceptional advice to our clients. Carefully informed insight and structure lie at the heart of our approach to providing wealth advice. We are able to build a financial framework, which extends across both property investment and wealth management; this is the foundation on which a client’s wealth plan is developed. A wealth plan provides invaluable intelligence. By starting with a detailed examination of a client’s profile, including needs, ambitions and views on risk, we then create a personalised assessment of the areas where wealth management advice is most appropriate. The wealth plan provides a tailored set of recommendations, ranging from property investments, through to retirement planning and complex tax structuring. As expected from an institution with global credentials and expertise, the wealth plan contains solutions that connect to innovative ideas and highly respected providers. Our wealth managers, supported by teams of specialist and industry experts, work closely with clients to develop long standing partnerships, helping our clients to build, assess and adjust their wealth as markets, fiscal regimes and their own circumstances develop and change over time. The St Joseph’s experience is not just one of unsurpassed service, but is comprehensive in its commitment to providing exceptional advice. Providing for the future with trusts In our experience many individuals do not consider establishing a trust as part of their tax planning even though it can be an extremely effective tool. This tends to be for one of two reasons: some individuals feel that settling a trust will be too complex when in reality it can be a relatively straightforward process. Alternatively, many have heard that trusts are only appropriate for passing on extreme wealth but in fact many individuals establish trusts at sums at or below the Inheritance Tax (IHT) threshold (currently £325,000). There are many reasons why a trust may be suitable including, for tax-planning purposes, to protect assets, to provide privacy or to ensure the smooth transition of assets to beneficiaries on death and avoid lengthy probate proceedings. Whatever the reason, our trust experts can advise whether a trust is appropriate to meet these objectives and then work closely with your relationship manager to ensure that you achieve your aims. Helping the next generation Trusts are a useful tool in passing wealth on to the next generation. Parents could set aside sums up to their combined nil rate bands to provide a nest egg for their children which could be used, for example, to assist in the purchase of their first property. By transferring this sum into a trust, the parents will start the ‘seven year clock’ for IHT purposes. Likewise, grandparents may want to provide for their grandchildren education by establishing a trust which could release funds to meet these future costs. Such trusts can provide directly for grandchildren whilst starting the ‘seven year clock’. They also ensure that assets are passed to grandchildren without becoming chargeable to IHT in their children’s estate first. Charitable Intentions Trusts are a useful tool in passing wealth on to the next generation. Parents could set aside sums up to their combined nil rate bands to provide a nest egg for their children which could be used, for example, to assist in the purchase of their first property. By transferring this sum into a trust, the parents will start the ‘seven year clock’ for IHT purposes. Likewise, grandparents may want to provide for their grandchildrens education by establishing a trust which could release funds to meet these future costs. Such trusts can provide directly for grandchildren whilst starting the ‘seven year clock’. They also ensure that assets are passed to grandchildren without becoming chargeable to IHT in their children’s estate first. Protecting young and vulnerable beneficiaries A trust can be used to ring-fence sums for individuals who may not be in a position to receive the assets outright perhaps because of their age or personal situation. Flexibility Trusts can also be used in some insurance based arrangements to provide IHT benefits and flexibility for individuals who wish to settle money on trust but retain some access to part of the funds. Services we provide: • Establishing the trust including preparing the deed • Regular meetings with co-trustees to deal with administrative matters and advising on management and investment of the underlying assets • Making distributions to beneficiaries • Monitoring investment reports • Dealing with all administration, accounting and tax reporting Advantage of using St Joseph’s St Joseph’s has over 20 years’ experience of establishing and managing trusts that meet the needs of wealthy individuals and families. Continuity in a trust’s management is important and so St Joseph’s is often appointed as Trustee because of its longevity and experience. In addition, surrounded by a wealth of knowledge within the organisation, you can rely on our experts to provide an extensively researched investment management service that follows a very clear purpose. Wills and Inheritance The estate planning team offers 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 for using opportunities to mitigate inheritance tax and provide, where appropriate, protection for young and vulnerable beneficiaries. St Joseph’s have been dealing with estates, and the issues that arise in relation to them, for over 20 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. In all cases, our estate planning team will provide a service tailored to satisfy your particular needs. Retirement planning services There are three main phases in planning for retirement. At St Joseph’s we will work with you through all phases of your retirement. We can help you plan and review your arrangements whenever your circumstances change, to ensure that you achieve the comfortable retirement that which you deserve. 1. Pre-retirement: ensuring you have sufficient funds for a comfortable retirement in the most tax efficient way. This also involves making your assets grow effectively and this could be by looking at where it is invested, especially if you hold older, smaller pension arrangements. 2. At retirement planning: reviewing the options available to you and help you to plan the most appropriate and tax effective solutions to meet your objectives. 3. Post retirement planning: helping you to plan whether to delay taking pension benefits and optimizing the phasing of the benefits to meet your specific income requirements. St Joseph’s, help our clients address their wealth concerns in a friendly and professional manner. We are focused on providing meaningful value to our clients and delivering results that reduce costs and manage risks. More specifically we provide old fashioned hands on services which our clients appreciate. We are happy to visit all of our clients in the comfort of their own homes. St Joseph’s is uniquely positioned to provide differentiated services to our clients based on our strong heritage, breadth of experience, scale, depth, the vast extent of our network, and our industry alliances. We currently work with several experienced and regulated Financial Advisors and Solicitors. We are small enough to care and big enough to cope with most of our clients wealth needs. For more information about our services please do not hesitate to contact a member of our team, we look forward to helping you in the very near future.