Inheritance Tax (IHT) Savings
Introduction
The first thing to say is that any investment product sold mainly for its tax efficiency should come with a health warning. Tax efficient products have a history of being lousy investments. This is for two reasons:
- Too many of the purveyors of tax efficient products have next to no knowledge of the product’s underlying investments.
- Unjustifiably high charges.
The Hamilton Financial Smaller Companies Team
Hamilton Financial employs the “smaller companies” investment expertise of Martin Haslam. Martin is a Chartered Accountant and qualified investment expert. Click here to see the full team.
Smaller Companies
Arguably, a well diversified portfolio of smaller companies quoted on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) is likely to grow in value rather faster than a portfolio of funds investing in more established companies. Hamilton Financial, working with an expert in the smaller UK company investment market, can help you assemble a portfolio of such stocks. To quote our expert, “whilst I accept that investing in the Alternative Investment Market is considered more risky than investing in companies listed on the main market, there are some very well run small companies which have consistently performed well and have stronger balance sheets than many listed companies.” Nevertheless, we only recommend smaller companies to individuals who are comfortable with this higher risk. There are Inheritance Tax (IHT) advantages of investing directly in smaller companies and, with Martin Haslam’s help, we can assemble a suitable investment portfolio which, in accordance with current legislation, will qualify for IHT relief after 2 years.
Caveats
Hamilton Financial advises clients against investing in AIM listed companies simply to secure IHT relief. (Tax relief should always be a secondary reason for choosing AIM stocks, the primary reason being that it is a sensible investment strategy with which the client feels comfortable.) AIM stocks should ideally form only part of a client’s investment portfolio. Whilst a portfolio of properly assessed and selected smaller companies will usually grow faster than a conventional portfolio, smaller companies are nevertheless generally considered to be higher risk and are sometimes difficult to trade because of lack of liquidity (i.e. fewer shares mean wider bid/offer spreads.)
Conclusion
With the mix of tax and smaller company expertise, Hamilton Financial is unusually well qualified to assist clients who want to invest some of their savings in an IHT exempt savings portfolio.