We want a loan for 85% of property so if we did go ahead with the purchase at £365k, we've have to stump up an extra £15k on top of our deposit and everything else we need to pay for, which isn't really feasible anytime soon.
If you can't afford it then go back to the agent and state mortgage company have valued it at x and therefore you can't proceed at the agreed price. They can only say no to a reduction........ they may meet you half way, don't ask don't get!
Or as Golfie says you could try a different lender but the rate may be higher so you will be paying more anyway.
It probably comes down to how much you want it and what you can afford, certainly I'd go back to the agent/vendor initially whilst you explore your options with other lenders either 90% LTV or a better valuation (although I think that unlikely).
Thanks for the advice both, appreciate it.
The problem is that the vendors have had a house accepted and have said they can't go any lower than £365k. However, I do think that if we get another lender to say again it's only worth £350k or whatever then they might be able to go "okay well we will have to find another place then"
Will discuss options about going for 90% LTV, but it's just so frustrating!
Just an update on this - HSBC accepted our application at a £15k higher house valuation than Halifax which is surprising but definitely a weight off my back.
Could one of you clever people answer a quite straight forward question for me? I must add that I have absolutely no idea regarding investments apart from the basics.
If I invested 300k over four to five years, what sort of growth could I expect? Would 12k per year be achievable or is that figure way off the mark?
The money would have to go somewhere safe or very low risk as I would need the initial 300k back intact. This is not spare money that I can afford to lose.
Cheers
It really depends on your attitude to risk - a highly speculative portfolio could give 10%+ pa or a very cautious one 4%.
If its money you can't afford to lose then investing is not for you. No one can guarantee not to lose your initial capital, although with a 4-5 year time horizon I would say its a decent bet you'd get your money back (and some).
There are a couple of "products" that could give you some degree of certainty - with-profit Bonds being one and deposit based Structured Products another. But both would really require the services of a Financial Advisor and would probably cost you at least £2k in fees. Clients of mine in said "products" have been getting back c5% over the past 5 years, although past performance is no guide to the future.
Edit. Thinking about it, the fees are likely to be much higher than that. I usually charge 3% of the investment amount, although for sizable sums then this can be negotiated down. For fellow Lifers there is a special rate, but saying that I don't think I would do a £300k investment for less than £3k with £5k being the norm.
We want a loan for 85% of property so if we did go ahead with the purchase at £365k, we've have to stump up an extra £15k on top of our deposit and everything else we need to pay for, which isn't really feasible anytime soon.
If you can't afford it then go back to the agent and state mortgage company have valued it at x and therefore you can't proceed at the agreed price. They can only say no to a reduction........ they may meet you half way, don't ask don't get!
Or as Golfie says you could try a different lender but the rate may be higher so you will be paying more anyway.
It probably comes down to how much you want it and what you can afford, certainly I'd go back to the agent/vendor initially whilst you explore your options with other lenders either 90% LTV or a better valuation (although I think that unlikely).
Thanks for the advice both, appreciate it.
The problem is that the vendors have had a house accepted and have said they can't go any lower than £365k. However, I do think that if we get another lender to say again it's only worth £350k or whatever then they might be able to go "okay well we will have to find another place then"
Will discuss options about going for 90% LTV, but it's just so frustrating!
Just an update on this - HSBC accepted our application at a £15k higher house valuation than Halifax which is surprising but definitely a weight off my back.
well done & glad to hear that a different lender/valuer took a different view.
Could one of you clever people answer a quite straight forward question for me? I must add that I have absolutely no idea regarding investments apart from the basics.
If I invested 300k over four to five years, what sort of growth could I expect? Would 12k per year be achievable or is that figure way off the mark?
The money would have to go somewhere safe or very low risk as I would need the initial 300k back intact. This is not spare money that I can afford to lose.
Cheers
It really depends on your attitude to risk - a highly speculative portfolio could give 10%+ pa or a very cautious one 4%.
If its money you can't afford to lose then investing is not for you. No one can guarantee not to lose your initial capital, although with a 4-5 year time horizon I would say its a decent bet you'd get your money back (and some).
There are a couple of "products" that could give you some degree of certainty - with-profit Bonds being one and deposit based Structured Products another. But both would really require the services of a Financial Advisor and would probably cost you at least £2k in fees. Clients of mine in said "products" have been getting back c5% over the past 5 years, although past performance is no guide to the future.
Edit. Thinking about it, the fees are likely to be much higher than that. I usually charge 3% of the investment amount, although for sizable sums then this can be negotiated down. For fellow Lifers there is a special rate, but saying that I don't think I would do a £300k investment for less than £3k with £5k being the norm.
Thank you Golfie for taking the time to reply with some very useful info.
Could one of you clever people answer a quite straight forward question for me? I must add that I have absolutely no idea regarding investments apart from the basics.
If I invested 300k over four to five years, what sort of growth could I expect? Would 12k per year be achievable or is that figure way off the mark?
The money would have to go somewhere safe or very low risk as I would need the initial 300k back intact. This is not spare money that I can afford to lose.
Cheers
It really depends on your attitude to risk - a highly speculative portfolio could give 10%+ pa or a very cautious one 4%.
If its money you can't afford to lose then investing is not for you. No one can guarantee not to lose your initial capital, although with a 4-5 year time horizon I would say its a decent bet you'd get your money back (and some).
There are a couple of "products" that could give you some degree of certainty - with-profit Bonds being one and deposit based Structured Products another. But both would really require the services of a Financial Advisor and would probably cost you at least £2k in fees. Clients of mine in said "products" have been getting back c5% over the past 5 years, although past performance is no guide to the future.
Edit. Thinking about it, the fees are likely to be much higher than that. I usually charge 3% of the investment amount, although for sizable sums then this can be negotiated down. For fellow Lifers there is a special rate, but saying that I don't think I would do a £300k investment for less than £3k with £5k being the norm.
The thing about structured products is that the capital is only really guaranteed if you leave the money to the full term of the product (e.g. 4 or 5 years). That's because the 'guarantee' comes from an underlying bond, which is only guaranteed to be worth the same as you pay for it when it matures.
So, if there's any reason why you might want to access it before that, it's not a good idea, IMO, particularly with expected inflation, which is very bad for bonds. Of course, you can chop it up and lock up some proportion and/or for shorter term periods.
Could one of you clever people answer a quite straight forward question for me? I must add that I have absolutely no idea regarding investments apart from the basics.
If I invested 300k over four to five years, what sort of growth could I expect? Would 12k per year be achievable or is that figure way off the mark?
The money would have to go somewhere safe or very low risk as I would need the initial 300k back intact. This is not spare money that I can afford to lose.
Cheers
It really depends on your attitude to risk - a highly speculative portfolio could give 10%+ pa or a very cautious one 4%.
If its money you can't afford to lose then investing is not for you. No one can guarantee not to lose your initial capital, although with a 4-5 year time horizon I would say its a decent bet you'd get your money back (and some).
There are a couple of "products" that could give you some degree of certainty - with-profit Bonds being one and deposit based Structured Products another. But both would really require the services of a Financial Advisor and would probably cost you at least £2k in fees. Clients of mine in said "products" have been getting back c5% over the past 5 years, although past performance is no guide to the future.
Edit. Thinking about it, the fees are likely to be much higher than that. I usually charge 3% of the investment amount, although for sizable sums then this can be negotiated down. For fellow Lifers there is a special rate, but saying that I don't think I would do a £300k investment for less than £3k with £5k being the norm.
The thing about structured products is that the capital is only really guaranteed if you leave the money to the full term of the product (e.g. 4 or 5 years). That's because the 'guarantee' comes from an underlying bond, which is only guaranteed to be worth the same as you pay for it when it matures.
So, if there's any reason why you might want to access it before that, it's not a good idea, IMO, particularly with expected inflation, which is very bad for bonds. Of course, you can chop it up and lock up some proportion and/or for shorter term periods.
Quite - but I wasn't giving personalised advice merely stating that there are products/ investments that can have a capital guarantee. If a client came to me saying that they wanted x,y or z then I would tailor my advice accordingly.
Could one of you clever people answer a quite straight forward question for me? I must add that I have absolutely no idea regarding investments apart from the basics.
If I invested 300k over four to five years, what sort of growth could I expect? Would 12k per year be achievable or is that figure way off the mark?
The money would have to go somewhere safe or very low risk as I would need the initial 300k back intact. This is not spare money that I can afford to lose.
Cheers
It really depends on your attitude to risk - a highly speculative portfolio could give 10%+ pa or a very cautious one 4%.
If its money you can't afford to lose then investing is not for you. No one can guarantee not to lose your initial capital, although with a 4-5 year time horizon I would say its a decent bet you'd get your money back (and some).
There are a couple of "products" that could give you some degree of certainty - with-profit Bonds being one and deposit based Structured Products another. But both would really require the services of a Financial Advisor and would probably cost you at least £2k in fees. Clients of mine in said "products" have been getting back c5% over the past 5 years, although past performance is no guide to the future.
Edit. Thinking about it, the fees are likely to be much higher than that. I usually charge 3% of the investment amount, although for sizable sums then this can be negotiated down. For fellow Lifers there is a special rate, but saying that I don't think I would do a £300k investment for less than £3k with £5k being the norm.
The thing about structured products is that the capital is only really guaranteed if you leave the money to the full term of the product (e.g. 4 or 5 years). That's because the 'guarantee' comes from an underlying bond, which is only guaranteed to be worth the same as you pay for it when it matures.
So, if there's any reason why you might want to access it before that, it's not a good idea, IMO, particularly with expected inflation, which is very bad for bonds. Of course, you can chop it up and lock up some proportion and/or for shorter term periods.
Quite - but I wasn't giving personalised advice merely stating that there are products/ investments that can have a capital guarantee. If a client came to me saying that they wanted x,y or z then I would tailor my advice accordingly.
and I'm very much looking forward to my Structured product kicking out in June fingers crossed!
Could one of you clever people answer a quite straight forward question for me? I must add that I have absolutely no idea regarding investments apart from the basics.
If I invested 300k over four to five years, what sort of growth could I expect? Would 12k per year be achievable or is that figure way off the mark?
The money would have to go somewhere safe or very low risk as I would need the initial 300k back intact. This is not spare money that I can afford to lose.
Could one of you clever people answer a quite straight forward question for me? I must add that I have absolutely no idea regarding investments apart from the basics.
If I invested 300k over four to five years, what sort of growth could I expect? Would 12k per year be achievable or is that figure way off the mark?
The money would have to go somewhere safe or very low risk as I would need the initial 300k back intact. This is not spare money that I can afford to lose.
Could one of you clever people answer a quite straight forward question for me? I must add that I have absolutely no idea regarding investments apart from the basics.
If I invested 300k over four to five years, what sort of growth could I expect? Would 12k per year be achievable or is that figure way off the mark?
The money would have to go somewhere safe or very low risk as I would need the initial 300k back intact. This is not spare money that I can afford to lose.
Could one of you clever people answer a quite straight forward question for me? I must add that I have absolutely no idea regarding investments apart from the basics.
If I invested 300k over four to five years, what sort of growth could I expect? Would 12k per year be achievable or is that figure way off the mark?
The money would have to go somewhere safe or very low risk as I would need the initial 300k back intact. This is not spare money that I can afford to lose.
Cheers
It really depends on your attitude to risk - a highly speculative portfolio could give 10%+ pa or a very cautious one 4%.
If its money you can't afford to lose then investing is not for you. No one can guarantee not to lose your initial capital, although with a 4-5 year time horizon I would say its a decent bet you'd get your money back (and some).
There are a couple of "products" that could give you some degree of certainty - with-profit Bonds being one and deposit based Structured Products another. But both would really require the services of a Financial Advisor and would probably cost you at least £2k in fees. Clients of mine in said "products" have been getting back c5% over the past 5 years, although past performance is no guide to the future.
Edit. Thinking about it, the fees are likely to be much higher than that. I usually charge 3% of the investment amount, although for sizable sums then this can be negotiated down. For fellow Lifers there is a special rate, but saying that I don't think I would do a £300k investment for less than £3k with £5k being the norm.
The thing about structured products is that the capital is only really guaranteed if you leave the money to the full term of the product (e.g. 4 or 5 years). That's because the 'guarantee' comes from an underlying bond, which is only guaranteed to be worth the same as you pay for it when it matures.
So, if there's any reason why you might want to access it before that, it's not a good idea, IMO, particularly with expected inflation, which is very bad for bonds. Of course, you can chop it up and lock up some proportion and/or for shorter term periods.
Quite - but I wasn't giving personalised advice merely stating that there are products/ investments that can have a capital guarantee. If a client came to me saying that they wanted x,y or z then I would tailor my advice accordingly.
The only structured product I ever invested in, which was supposed to have intial capital guaranteed, ended up losing me a lot of money. I don't know if they all are, but this one included a derivative (which effectively underwrote the guarantee). However linked within the derivative structure was Leman's. Need I say more! So beware and only invest in a structured product if you FULLY understand the mechanics and the risks YOURSELF.
Could one of you clever people answer a quite straight forward question for me? I must add that I have absolutely no idea regarding investments apart from the basics.
If I invested 300k over four to five years, what sort of growth could I expect? Would 12k per year be achievable or is that figure way off the mark?
The money would have to go somewhere safe or very low risk as I would need the initial 300k back intact. This is not spare money that I can afford to lose.
Cheers
It really depends on your attitude to risk - a highly speculative portfolio could give 10%+ pa or a very cautious one 4%.
If its money you can't afford to lose then investing is not for you. No one can guarantee not to lose your initial capital, although with a 4-5 year time horizon I would say its a decent bet you'd get your money back (and some).
There are a couple of "products" that could give you some degree of certainty - with-profit Bonds being one and deposit based Structured Products another. But both would really require the services of a Financial Advisor and would probably cost you at least £2k in fees. Clients of mine in said "products" have been getting back c5% over the past 5 years, although past performance is no guide to the future.
Edit. Thinking about it, the fees are likely to be much higher than that. I usually charge 3% of the investment amount, although for sizable sums then this can be negotiated down. For fellow Lifers there is a special rate, but saying that I don't think I would do a £300k investment for less than £3k with £5k being the norm.
The thing about structured products is that the capital is only really guaranteed if you leave the money to the full term of the product (e.g. 4 or 5 years). That's because the 'guarantee' comes from an underlying bond, which is only guaranteed to be worth the same as you pay for it when it matures.
So, if there's any reason why you might want to access it before that, it's not a good idea, IMO, particularly with expected inflation, which is very bad for bonds. Of course, you can chop it up and lock up some proportion and/or for shorter term periods.
Quite - but I wasn't giving personalised advice merely stating that there are products/ investments that can have a capital guarantee. If a client came to me saying that they wanted x,y or z then I would tailor my advice accordingly.
The only structured product I ever invested in, which was supposed to have intial capital guaranteed, ended up losing me a lot of money. I don't know if they all are, but this one included a derivative (which effectively underwrote the guarantee). However linked within the derivative structure was Leman's. Need I say more! So beware and only invest in a structured product if you FULLY understand the mechanics and the risks YOURSELF.
There are Deposit based Structured Products that guarantee your initial capital and are FSCS protected up to £85k.
You just need to take advice from a Financial Adviser
I own1/3rd of a successful company for around 20 years, but if I took the true value of my share holding out of the company in one hit, it could damage its long term future. I was wondering if say I took 10% of the agreed value of the share every year for 10 years, could I claim entrepreneurs tax relief every year until I reached my personnel limit?
I know there’s an obvious risk with doing it this way, as the company could fold, the tax could be withdrawn or the limit reduced, no doubt there’s plenty of other risks as well, but it would also allow me to continue to draw dividends (admittedly dwindling as time progress).
Could one of you clever people answer a quite straight forward question for me? I must add that I have absolutely no idea regarding investments apart from the basics.
If I invested 300k over four to five years, what sort of growth could I expect? Would 12k per year be achievable or is that figure way off the mark?
The money would have to go somewhere safe or very low risk as I would need the initial 300k back intact. This is not spare money that I can afford to lose.
Cheers
It really depends on your attitude to risk - a highly speculative portfolio could give 10%+ pa or a very cautious one 4%.
If its money you can't afford to lose then investing is not for you. No one can guarantee not to lose your initial capital, although with a 4-5 year time horizon I would say its a decent bet you'd get your money back (and some).
There are a couple of "products" that could give you some degree of certainty - with-profit Bonds being one and deposit based Structured Products another. But both would really require the services of a Financial Advisor and would probably cost you at least £2k in fees. Clients of mine in said "products" have been getting back c5% over the past 5 years, although past performance is no guide to the future.
Edit. Thinking about it, the fees are likely to be much higher than that. I usually charge 3% of the investment amount, although for sizable sums then this can be negotiated down. For fellow Lifers there is a special rate, but saying that I don't think I would do a £300k investment for less than £3k with £5k being the norm.
The thing about structured products is that the capital is only really guaranteed if you leave the money to the full term of the product (e.g. 4 or 5 years). That's because the 'guarantee' comes from an underlying bond, which is only guaranteed to be worth the same as you pay for it when it matures.
So, if there's any reason why you might want to access it before that, it's not a good idea, IMO, particularly with expected inflation, which is very bad for bonds. Of course, you can chop it up and lock up some proportion and/or for shorter term periods.
Quite - but I wasn't giving personalised advice merely stating that there are products/ investments that can have a capital guarantee. If a client came to me saying that they wanted x,y or z then I would tailor my advice accordingly.
The only structured product I ever invested in, which was supposed to have intial capital guaranteed, ended up losing me a lot of money. I don't know if they all are, but this one included a derivative (which effectively underwrote the guarantee). However linked within the derivative structure was Leman's. Need I say more! So beware and only invest in a structured product if you FULLY understand the mechanics and the risks YOURSELF.
There are Deposit based Structured Products that guarantee your initial capital and are FSCS protected up to £85k.
You just need to take advice from a Financial Adviser
Pleased to hear. I didn't say don't do it. just make sure as an investor you understand yourself. I'm sure as a good IFA you make sure your clients understand what their investing in. Also agree most people should use an IFA.
I own1/3rd of a successful company for around 20 years, but if I took the true value of my share holding out of the company in one hit, it could damage its long term future. I was wondering if say I took 10% of the agreed value of the share every year for 10 years, could I claim entrepreneurs tax relief every year until I reached my personnel limit?
I know there’s an obvious risk with doing it this way, as the company could fold, the tax could be withdrawn or the limit reduced, no doubt there’s plenty of other risks as well, but it would also allow me to continue to draw dividends (admittedly dwindling as time progress).
I have taken entrepreneurs relief. My advice is speak to an accountant who is used to dealing with the relief. Not all of them are. When I took it my company was being closed down entirely. The Inland Revenue can investigate and challenge matters as they did with me (unsuccessfully). It was the case that any claim over £25K had to also involve an Insolvency Practitioner as well as your accountant so more unnecessary fees as I did most of the work for them!! I have not heard about taking relief spread over a number of years but I am not a tax expert and legislation may have changed. Good luck!
I agree that it's worth seeking proper advice. An alternative to selling the shares in tranches might be to sell all of them immediately but take a proportion of the consideration in loan notes so that the business can manage its cash flow over an agreed timeframe.
Agreed totally re the professional advice, and we would use our company accountant, but I was just trying to find out if it was allowed prior to discussing it with my partner, before seeking professional advice, like the idea of selling in one lump rather than tranches, so it then eases the cash flow, which is my biggest worry. Some of our employees have worked for me for over 20 years and I know there families and kids etc., last thing I want to do is but there livelihood at risk. Thank you for your advice.
Just in case this is of interest to anyone in my position.
Had a word with my accountant yesterday with reference my question on entrepreneurs tax. He stated that you can sell your shares in lump and accept payment over a number of years, but the big disadvantage is that you have to agree the total sum for your shares (no problem), and pay the full amount of entrepreneurs tax (10% at present but could increase / decrease or benefit withdrawn although not being discussed at present) when it becomes due, you have around one tax year before you need to pay, so in my case he said the sales date should be the beginning of the tax year in 6th April 2024 and payment date would be 30th January 2026. He also said get a solicitor involved as I / my wife could die during this period and a legal document would pass the outstanding debt onto my beneficiaries so payment would continue.
Anyone taken a punt (shares) on Poly or EVR, both plummeted upon Putins madness and sanctions but both, particularly Poly recovering very well, I didn’t have the bottle to invest.
Interesting. Any need to involve an insolvency practitioner - I assume not as the company will still continue trading.
Was told no as form is a going concern and has been for over 20 years, the reason I want to do it this way is to prevent insolvency / cash flow problems, rather stupidly I look upon the company as my “little baby” which I was involved in conception and have survived the teenage years, and at last is settling into the young grown up, we had planned all those years ago. Much to my regret it’s time that I took some money out and benefit from those many long hours of sleepless nights and torments of the teenage years, it’s been fun, not as rewarding as it should have been, but almost enjoyable.
I liquidated my PSC at the back end of last year, but that was due to packing in as I had no use for it following IR35 and wanted to get the money out tax efficiently. I needed an insolvency practitioner as it was a members' voluntary winding up, but their fees were pretty reasonable and they were very efficient. If the company keeps trading, its really nothing more than a share transaction, so CharltonKerry definitely wont need one - it's really just tax advice that's required in this case.
I dont suppose you'll get it done this tax year anyway given the date, but worth waiting for April 6th or after to defer the payment of the tax by 12 months.
Help, guys, whilst I know a fair bit on pensions, iv not really that much knowledge on transfers.
A mate has a workplace pension through Legal &General with his current employer. This has 5 years of contributions and is highly likely to be his final employer before retirement.
He has a small pension pot worth £1200 with Aviva, into which he has made no contribution since 1991. He took this out through a Financial Consultancy when working with a previous employer.
He is 60 and currently draws a DB pension of about £3000 per annum from service with the old SE Gas board.
Two questions as the £1200 with Aviva is trivial, could he ask for the whole amount in cash. An if can would that be £300 tax free and tax on the other £900.
can he transfer the £1200 from Aviva into his current employers L&G scheme. An what is the process for this would he have to deal with both parties. Or if he asks L&G would they action the transfer on his behalf… ?
Help, guys, whilst I know a fair bit on pensions, iv not really that much knowledge on transfers.
A mate has a workplace pension through Legal &General with his current employer. This has 5 years of contributions and is highly likely to be his final employer before retirement.
He has a small pension pot worth £1200 with Aviva, into which he has made no contribution since 1991. He took this out through a Financial Consultancy when working with a previous employer.
He is 60 and currently draws a DB pension of about £3000 per annum from service with the old SE Gas board.
Two questions as the £1200 with Aviva is trivial, could he ask for the whole amount in cash. An if can would that be £300 tax free and tax on the other £900.
can he transfer the £1200 from Aviva into his current employers L&G scheme. An what is the process for this would he have to deal with both parties. Or if he asks L&G would they action the transfer on his behalf… ?
Yes on both counts.
He can take the Aviva scheme in cash as its comes under the "small pots rule" ( you can take up to 3 pensions in cash as long as they each don't total more than £10k). As per usual pension rules the first 25% is tax free, the remaining 75% is taxable. This is important to note if he is a higher rate tax payer or close to being one as the 75% payment will be seen to be income and he could be taxed at 40% on it.
On the second point re transferring into his current scheme. Best he speaks to both schemes & see what they require. Usually the new scheme can "request" the old schemes fund, but the old scheme will most likely need a signature from your friend authorising this. Aviva are buggers for this & might actually send out a transfer out form for him to sign first.
Thanks @golfaddick, just starting to think about consolidating a few pissant pension pots myself, including Aviva, so this is not just helpful for raplhie's mate.
For anyone thinking about transferring DC pension schemes then the main thing to think about are charges. Compare the plan charge/AMC/platform charge to see which one is the cheapest - dont just think about transferring the smallest pot into the largest one.
Rule of thumb - 1% should be the maximum & most traditional pension providers will reduce this depending on "pot" size - although any discounts dont start until c£25k. Any decent pension shouldn't have an annual charge in excess of 0.75%, and a few can go below 0.5%. If you go down the new "platform" route rather than a simple personal pension then platform charges should be no more than 0.3%. Problem is a platform usually requires you opening a SIPP & then self selecting the funds. The funds then attract their own individual charges which can be in excess of 1% - but many are between 0.5% & 0.75%. Tracker/passive funds should be lower and come in below 0.3%.
Im 55 in 6 months & wondering what to do with an old final salary pension. Transfer out value is £400,000 but all the time it’s sitting where it is it’s increasing roughly 4.8% annually I believe.
Anyone got any idea what I would receive yearly after taking the 25% lump sum? Also does the transfer out value increase each year by the same rate as the pension does or at all.
Probably the biggest investment we make & struggling to understand it!
Comments
If its money you can't afford to lose then investing is not for you. No one can guarantee not to lose your initial capital, although with a 4-5 year time horizon I would say its a decent bet you'd get your money back (and some).
There are a couple of "products" that could give you some degree of certainty - with-profit Bonds being one and deposit based Structured Products another. But both would really require the services of a Financial Advisor and would probably cost you at least £2k in fees. Clients of mine in said "products" have been getting back c5% over the past 5 years, although past performance is no guide to the future.
Edit. Thinking about it, the fees are likely to be much higher than that. I usually charge 3% of the investment amount, although for sizable sums then this can be negotiated down. For fellow Lifers there is a special rate, but saying that I don't think I would do a £300k investment for less than £3k with £5k being the norm.
So, if there's any reason why you might want to access it before that, it's not a good idea, IMO, particularly with expected inflation, which is very bad for bonds. Of course, you can chop it up and lock up some proportion and/or for shorter term periods.
You just need to take advice from a Financial Adviser
It was the case that any claim over £25K had to also involve an Insolvency Practitioner as well as your accountant so more unnecessary fees as I did most of the work for them!!
I have not heard about taking relief spread over a number of years but I am not a tax expert and legislation may have changed.
Good luck!
An alternative to selling the shares in tranches might be to sell all of them immediately but take a proportion of the consideration in loan notes so that the business can manage its cash flow over an agreed timeframe.
Had a word with my accountant yesterday with reference my question on entrepreneurs tax. He stated that you can sell your shares in lump and accept payment over a number of years, but the big disadvantage is that you have to agree the total sum for your shares (no problem), and pay the full amount of entrepreneurs tax (10% at present but could increase / decrease or benefit withdrawn although not being discussed at present) when it becomes due, you have around one tax year before you need to pay, so in my case he said the sales date should be the beginning of the tax year in 6th April 2024 and payment date would be 30th January 2026. He also said get a solicitor involved as I / my wife could die during this period and a legal document would pass the outstanding debt onto my beneficiaries so payment would continue.
Two questions as the £1200 with Aviva is trivial, could he ask for the whole amount in cash. An if can would that be £300 tax free and tax on the other £900.
can he transfer the £1200 from Aviva into his current employers L&G scheme. An what is the process for this would he have to deal with both parties. Or if he asks L&G would they action the transfer on his behalf… ?
He can take the Aviva scheme in cash as its comes under the "small pots rule" ( you can take up to 3 pensions in cash as long as they each don't total more than £10k). As per usual pension rules the first 25% is tax free, the remaining 75% is taxable. This is important to note if he is a higher rate tax payer or close to being one as the 75% payment will be seen to be income and he could be taxed at 40% on it.
On the second point re transferring into his current scheme. Best he speaks to both schemes & see what they require. Usually the new scheme can "request" the old schemes fund, but the old scheme will most likely need a signature from your friend authorising this. Aviva are buggers for this & might actually send out a transfer out form for him to sign first.
Rule of thumb - 1% should be the maximum & most traditional pension providers will reduce this depending on "pot" size - although any discounts dont start until c£25k. Any decent pension shouldn't have an annual charge in excess of 0.75%, and a few can go below 0.5%. If you go down the new "platform" route rather than a simple personal pension then platform charges should be no more than 0.3%. Problem is a platform usually requires you opening a SIPP & then self selecting the funds. The funds then attract their own individual charges which can be in excess of 1% - but many are between 0.5% & 0.75%. Tracker/passive funds should be lower and come in below 0.3%.
Hope this helps.