Investment Ideas

[lukemg]

Good shout that and fairly easy to prove if his expenses are fairly low and got pension to cover them. He needs to think more about where the money is going next than how much is left....

[Lockhouse]

Defo one for a professional this. As mentioned - IHT is the big one, think its 325 or 650k if you have inherited from a spouse.

Lots of ways round it though e.g. transferring to a trust that is still controlled by him but out of IHT.

He can give 3k + multiple £250 gifts, more for weddings.

Anything larger and he has to live 7 years (although it does reduce on sliding scale).

Realistically, return is of minimal importance at his age it should ALL be about preserving capital and some return but ZERO risk and I would be worried if any IFA suggested anything else. So we are talking 1, 3 and possibly 5 year bonds (so the money is back available periodically if needed). Spread it round a bit, Post Office, banks etc so not over 85k at any one place.
ANY stock market investment should be considered a 5 yr minimum, even a tracker.
IFA won’t get much commission from recommending these options and might push you at riskier funds.
In short – IHT and zero risk investments are my advice.

Cheers. The other thing he can do is actually give the money away if it doesn't affect his material wealth - Gifts out of income are exempt from IHT. You have to make a note of it for HMRC purposes to show after he's popped his clogs but it's actually free of tax. Not a lot of people are are aware of that.

[lukemg]

Defo one for a professional this. As mentioned - IHT is the big one, think its 325 or 650k if you have inherited from a spouse.

Lots of ways round it though e.g. transferring to a trust that is still controlled by him but out of IHT.

He can give 3k + multiple £250 gifts, more for weddings.

Anything larger and he has to live 7 years (although it does reduce on sliding scale).

Realistically, return is of minimal importance at his age it should ALL be about preserving capital and some return but ZERO risk and I would be worried if any IFA suggested anything else. So we are talking 1, 3 and possibly 5 year bonds (so the money is back available periodically if needed). Spread it round a bit, Post Office, banks etc so not over 85k at any one place.
ANY stock market investment should be considered a 5 yr minimum, even a tracker.
IFA won’t get much commission from recommending these options and might push you at riskier funds.
In short – IHT and zero risk investments are my advice.

[Lockhouse]

If he wants it to be of any use to anyone (seeing as he doesn't need it himself, I assume his concerns about inflation etc stem from being able to pass it on) then I suggest you (both) take some professional advice on IHT, as that will eat into it far more than inflation ever could.

That's one of the reasons we're seeing the IFA, there's a couple of things that I'm aware of that he can do to pass some of the cash on now.

[Freamon]

He is in his eighties - he doesn't need wholly yield, he has a good pension (luckily) and no day-to-day expenses. He really wants it inflation proofed so it doesn't depreciate in real terms.

If he wants it to be of any use to anyone (seeing as he doesn't need it himself, I assume his concerns about inflation etc stem from being able to pass it on) then I suggest you (both) take some professional advice on IHT, as that will eat into it far more than inflation ever could.

[Freamon]

Surely if he doesn't need it for income then he doesn't need it period.

Get him to transfer the money over to you and then you can have a rare auld time!

Or at least avoid some IHT.

[Churchill]

What are you trying to achieve?

If he will rely on it for retirement income, assuming he is fairly old, then you should look at yield rather than capital growth / risk to capital. This means government bonds, savings accounts, in whatever currency the income is required (presumably sterling).

If he doesn't need an income from it then you have a spectrum of risk to choose from. To diversify, you probably need some metals (gold, silver), some natural resources (energy ETFs etc), some equities (local and foreign, although FTSE 100 companies derive a lot of income from abroad these days, so offers some diversification in and of itself), corporate bonds, etc.

If I had 500k to invest I would put at least some of it (5%?) into high risk high return, e.g. bets on european stock market crashes, bets on global water shortages etc.

Surely if he doesn't need it for income then he doesn't need it period.

Get him to transfer the money over to you and then you can have a rare auld time!

[Lockhouse]

What are you trying to achieve?

If he will rely on it for retirement income, assuming he is fairly old, then you should look at yield rather than capital growth / risk to capital. This means government bonds, savings accounts, in whatever currency the income is required (presumably sterling).

If he doesn't need an income from it then you have a spectrum of risk to choose from. To diversify, you probably need some metals (gold, silver), some natural resources (energy ETFs etc), some equities (local and foreign, although FTSE 100 companies derive a lot of income from abroad these days, so offers some diversification in and of itself), corporate bonds, etc.

If I had 500k to invest I would put at least some of it (5%?) into high risk high return, e.g. bets on european stock market crashes, bets on global water shortages etc.

He is in his eighties - he doesn't need wholly yield, he has a good pension (luckily) and no day-to-day expenses. He really wants it inflation proofed so it doesn't depreciate in real terms.

[Freamon]

If you had any spare cash at the moment where would you put it for growth\income where it didn't need to be actively managed? (moving it once every three months is OK, every week is not).

Property is out as it's not my cash and it's too illiquid. I need to help out my Father-in-Law invest the money from the sale of his bungalow, We're off to see the IFA again next week but I'd like to have some suggestions in advance of that. We're talking maybe 500k.

I was thinking of putting some of it into the more profitable bonds he already holds, plus a low cost FTSE tracker, some high yield blue chip shares? I want to diversify so that the risk is minimal. I also want to move some of it out of sterling but not sure how to go about it. Anyone got any ideas?


Cheers

What are you trying to achieve?

If he will rely on it for retirement income, assuming he is fairly old, then you should look at yield rather than capital growth / risk to capital. This means government bonds, savings accounts, in whatever currency the income is required (presumably sterling).

If he doesn't need an income from it then you have a spectrum of risk to choose from. To diversify, you probably need some metals (gold, silver), some natural resources (energy ETFs etc), some equities (local and foreign, although FTSE 100 companies derive a lot of income from abroad these days, so offers some diversification in and of itself), corporate bonds, etc.

If I had 500k to invest I would put at least some of it (5%?) into high risk high return, e.g. bets on european stock market crashes, bets on global water shortages etc.

[Churchill]

If he hasn't got the full allocation (30k I think) of Premium Bonds then I* (Personally) would go for that as part of the portfolio.

*IINAIFA and I'm not qualified to give financial advice.

[Lockhouse]

Monte-Carlo - bet it all on green!

Nooooo! It's on red!

[Churchill]

Monte-Carlo - bet it all on green!

[Lockhouse]

If you had any spare cash at the moment where would you put it for growth\income where it didn't need to be actively managed? (moving it once every three months is OK, every week is not).

Property is out as it's not my cash and it's too illiquid. I need to help out my Father-in-Law invest the money from the sale of his bungalow, We're off to see the IFA again next week but I'd like to have some suggestions in advance of that. We're talking maybe 500k.

I was thinking of putting some of it into the more profitable bonds he already holds, plus a low cost FTSE tracker, some high yield blue chip shares? I want to diversify so that the risk is minimal. I also want to move some of it out of sterling but not sure how to go about it. Anyone got any ideas?


Cheers