Article by Christina
It seems very strange to us, but recent research from Schroders (FT Adviser 21/12/21) claims that only 7% of advisers had a plan in place to deal with wealth transfer to a spouse in the event of their client’s death. In the majority of cases the spouse being the wife of the client.
That suggests that only 1 in every 14 clients is being dealt with on a joint basis. That seems shocking to us. Here at Christina Clegg Financial Planning Services, we believe that our figure for dealing with clients on a joint basis is nearly 100%. If a client is married (or in a civil partnership) we insist on providing advice to both parties as a joint entity. There have been lots of cases where we have declined to offer advice if one spouse doesn’t want advice. In fact in some cases we’ve even suggested clients who aren’t married actually get married t help their financial situaton!
It seems that we are out of step with the market here, or are we?
The research was part of a recent conference by Fund Forum (November 21) where advisers were being encouraged to think more about their clients’ spouses’ position. Especially women.
By 2025 it is estimated that 60% of all the wealth will be “in the hands of women”. That’s an amazing fact. It’s not really why we almost always advise on joint basis, but the fact that we do means that we already “capture” a spouses wealth.
Perhaps it’s because we are female financial advisers that it’s always been second nature to us?
Let’s see if these figures change over the next few years. It seems antiquated to think that a spouse wouldn’t be part of or at least interested in the family finances. Especially as HMRC have just announce that Inheritance Tax receipts have increased by 17% in the last quarter of 2021, highlighting the need for good early inheritance tax advice to legitimately mitigate liabilities.
