Investments
Capital sums for investing are acquired in many ways. These include inheritance, maturing savings policies, windfalls and proceeds from many years of saving. Investment types & requirements can be divided into short and long term needs.
Short term investment needs:
These include saving for a car or a holiday. The most suitable investment type is usually a deposit account such as a bank or building society account.
Long term investment needs:
These can be saving for retirement, school fees or providing capital for children as they grow up. You may wish to consider savings other than bank deposit accounts for longer term needs. Whatever the investment type, you'll need to consider a number of important factors including ease of access to funds, charges and any tax implications.
The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate National Savings.
The value of your investments can fall as well as rise and you may not get back the original amount invested.
Please contact us so that we may assist you in determining an investment strategy best appropriate for your needs and circumstances.
Platforms.
A Platform, sometimes called a fund supermarket, is generally the route recommended to hold client assets from different fund managers or shares. We regularly research the market to establish the most cost efficient Platform solutions, providing clients secure 24/7 access to valuations and investment information, together with comprehensive end of year statements acceptable to HMRC.
Individual Saving accounts (ISAs).
Saving in a ISA provides you with certain tax benefits, primarily that growth is not subject to Capital Gains Tax and any income or interest earned within the ISA is free from any further income taxation.
The value of investments and income from them may go down. You may not get back the original amount invested.
Tax treatment depends on the individual circumstances of each client and may be subject to change in future.
Unit Trusts.
A unit trust reduces your risk of investing in the stock market by pooling your savings with thousands of others, and then spreading the money across a wide range of shares or other types of investment.
OEICs.
Open ended investment companies were introduced into the UK in 1997, from Europe. Open-ended means shares in the fund will be created as investors invest and cancelled as they cash in.
Investment Trusts.
Investment Trusts are companies that buy and sell shares in other companies. When you invest in an investment trust company, you become a shareholder of that company. Your shares will rise and fall in value according to supply and demand for the shares.
Unlike a Unit Trust and an OEIC, the number of shares within an investment trust is limited (there are only so many that can be bought and sold at any time). This means that as well as being influenced by the value of the assets held by the Investment Trust, their price is determined by investor demand, rising with popularity, and vice versa. This means that a share in an Investment Trust can be more expensive than the total costs of the relative assets in the investment: this is called trading “at a premium”. If the reverse is true, it is said to be trading “at a discount”. This adds another layer of risk for investors in an Investment Trust, but can also creates buying opportunities.