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Jeremy and Holly were expecting their first child when they approached us for advice. They wanted to have their affairs fully in place before the arrival of their child and all the demands that accompany this major event. As a conscientious couple they wanted to make sure that provision was in place.
Jeremy is a self-employed IT contractor working in the City. Holly is employed as a Marketing Manager and they were unsure about whether she would return to work after her maternity leave. She enjoyed a generous employment benefit package including pension contributions, life assurance, private healthcare and childcare vouchers. As Jeremy is self-employed he enjoyed no such benefits and was unaware that he may make similar provision through the limited company that he controls.
After engaging us it was proposed that some of Holly’s employment benefits would be extended to Jeremy. However, there was still a shortfall in Jeremy’s life assurance needs and as such it was agreed that his limited company would provide these benefits. This has significant tax benefits, which allowed him to be able to afford to also increase his monthly pension contributions after it was established that they were currently insufficient to provide the level of retirement income they were looking for.
At the time that the first meeting took place the clients had no will in place. A referral was made to our legal partner who quickly and efficiently drafted professional wills to ensure that in the event of their untimely demise that their wishes would be followed, especially in respect of the upbringing and education of their children.
As part of the advice process we presented financial modeling to Jeremy and Holly about the consequences of Holly not returning to work and the impact that a second child would have on their longer-term goals. At subsequent review meetings they fed back that this was of particular value in fully understanding their options over the next few years,whilst their children were young.
We worked closely alongside Jeremy’s Chartered Accountant over subsequent years, and after Holly decided against returning to work in her previous role, it was agreed to award share capital to Holly in respect of her administrative work. She also now benefits from similar employee benefits through the firm that Jeremy enjoys alongside the tax efficient stream of income that she is entitled to.
Jeremy and Holly remain clients to this day and late last year it was our pleasure to set up a Junior ISA on the arrival of their second child.
The contents of this case study is for information purposes and does not constitute individual advice.