Post-Settlement Financial Advice

Our team of personal injury financial planners combine a range of different financial services to produce a complete, cohesive investment strategy after a personal injury award has been settled.

We work closely with claimants, their families and their receivers/deputies/trustees where appropriate, to ensure that any financial advice that we provide is based on the individual needs of the claimant.

How does it work?

We begin by finding out as much about the claimant as possible to generate an in-depth report. This is based upon a complete picture of each claimant's needs, wishes, preferences and desires, rather than just their immediate financial and investment needs.

This means we can:

• Develop a financial management plan that balances the need to generate a lifetime income with the need for long-term capital to combat the effects of inflation
• Decide how much to keep in cash reserves and how much to invest
• Select the most tax-efficient solution
• Select the most appropriate level of capital protection for the award
• Consider investment options and strategies together, in a way the claimant will understand

Investment of the personal injury award

We have an in-house specialist team of investment managers who can select the most appropriate investment strategies to make the most of the personal injury award. Their proven skills and experience deliver solutions to produce an income, whilst growing the investment and will on behalf of the claimant determine when and when not to invest.

Firstly, our advisers consider the level of investment risk that is appropriate to the claimant's needs. In producing a financial management plan, we take account of the claimant's attitude to risk and their requirements to meet income and spending needs.

We then decide how to spread the award across a mixture of short-term and long-term investment categories including:

• Court of Protection Special Account (where applicable)
• Bank deposits
• National Savings including premium bonds
• Government and corporate bonds
• Property
• Equities, or shares (UK & International)
• Commodities, such as oil and gold

We will use a range of products (such as collective investment schemes ISA's, offshore life insurance bonds) in order to manage and, where possible, reduce tax. These will be examined and explained to all parties by one of our experienced Financial Planners.

What we do differently?

• Review the investment strategy on a regular basis to see if market trends indicate that the client should increase or decrease the amount invested in each asset. If markets are very uncertain, we will hold a larger proportion of the portfolio in lower risk investments such as cash and government bonds, but if markets become confident, we can move the money into investments that can offer advantages and have the potential to produce higher returns
• Many advisers will only review annually before deciding if such changes should be made, potentially missing out on significant opportunities

Our approach

We use a discretionary investment management approach. This means that once the client’s investment profile and portfolio/asset mix is agreed, our Investment Management team will make investment decisions for each client for each individual transaction. Acting within the agreed parameters, this allows us to manage the portfolio on a daily basis, making instant decisions and taking advantage of opportunities as they arise.

Once an agreed financial strategy is in place, IM Asset Management continually monitor the arrangements, so clients can be safe in the knowledge that their investments will always reflect not just today’s needs, but also the changing and varying needs of their future.