Working in the legal profession is a highly-demanding career path that can leave lawyers with little time to dedicate to ensuring their wealth is working as hard as they are.
In the five years since our launch, lawyers have consistently comprised a very significant proportion of the high-earning professionals coming to findaWEALTHMANAGER.com.
So, why is wealth management for lawyers so important, and why are these busy professionals flocking to our service to find them?
Many professionals will find that the intensity of their working lives is incompatible with trying to take care of all their financial planning and investment management needs themselves. Yet lawyers at all stages of their careers are likely have particular need of professional wealth management services – those who are really just starting to build their full earning potential, those at the peak of their earning power, and those approaching retirement alike.
As high-earning professionals, the vast majority of lawyers will be no strangers to investing. However, given the demands of their career many lawyers will find themselves having accumulated scattered investments over the years which are difficult to monitor and manage, and which are seldom precisely aligned with their financial objectives and ideal timeframes for achieving them.
We often speak to lawyers who have been diligently using their ISA allowance in full each year, but who have ended up with a series of largely forgotten accounts and a range of investments which aren’t being managed properly. A good wealth manager will help you get a full overview of your investments and how they are performing and could, for example, consolidate them into one actively-managed multi-asset portfolio which is likely to deliver far superior returns.
Common concerns
This of course means diversifying your investments across a range of asset classes, markets and instruments to help minimise risk and maximise returns; we often hear that lawyers’ investments have become quite worryingly concentrated in property, through both direct and indirect investments, for example. But tax considerations and an uneven earnings pattern are particular concerns for lawyers too – in terms of both their investment portfolios and financial planning needs.
For those earlier on in their career, engaging a wealth manager will be invaluable in setting you on a proactive path to building your wealth which also takes account of lawyers’ remuneration patterns. Your adviser can devise a well-diversified, tax-optimised investment portfolio which can be built regularly with scheduled contributions and boosted by bonus payments. Those that prefer can be as hands-off about their investments as they wish and even those who wish to be more involved will appreciate having the paperwork – and legwork – for their ISAs (theirs and those of their spouse and children), pensions and other investments taken off their hands.
Higher earners have seen the annual pension contribution limit being progressively lowered in recent years to now stand at £1m. But while this should certainly be on the radar of younger lawyers, alternate pension savings routes will be an urgent priority for those who are already close to breaching that limit. With the goalposts on top-earners’ taxes constantly shifting, and many wishing to practice abroad for at least a short period, the need for lawyers to take holistic investment management, pension saving and financial planning advice is clear.
As with many professions, lawyers’ can often find their financial affairs becoming more complex as their career progresses. So while becoming an equity partner is undoubtedly a great achievement, it makes having a tax-optimised investment and pension strategy in place imperative.
That said, there are various tax-efficiencies that lawyers can leverage, along with tried-and-tested wealth-building strategies that suit the typical trajectories of their careers, and so it is unsurprising that lawyers have long been a core client segment for wealth managers. You could even say that several have developed a real specialism in accommodating the needs of legal professionals – and it can often be really productive to work with an institution that really understands where you are coming from.
findaWEALTHMANAGER.com was designed with busy professionahttp://findaWEALTHMANAGER.com/ukls in mind, providing easy access to wealth management for lawyers, and allowing users to circumvent the hours of research that they often have to dedicate to finding the right provider for their profile. As such, it is a fast, free and above all effective route for lawyers to find an easier way to make their wealth work harder – so that they can get back to focusing on their clients and careers.
Are you looking for a wealth manager? You can start the process of finding a professional to manage your wealth by trying our smart online tool. Or, if you would like to discuss your situation further with our straight-talking team, please do get in touch here.
