Services / Wealth management
Wealth management
Planning what you want to do next — over the coming years, and for the time after you stop working — building the cash flow to support it, and working out how to pay for it. Most of the people I work with have spent years building a business; this is the part that plans for the people who own it.
Draft — for Lam Hok Jun to review
A plan, and the means to carry it out
A plan that cannot be paid for is only a wish. So we look at both halves together: what you want, and where the money for it will come from — savings, the business, or borrowing that fits your cash flow.
You make the choices. We give you clear numbers to make them with.
Short-term and long-term planning
Two horizons, each with its own kind of plan: the goals you can already see coming, and the ones that take a working life to build.
- 2–10 yearsShort-term planningThe larger things you can see coming, planned early enough that they do not arrive as a strain on the business or the family — on a base of steady cash flow, a reserve, and no expensive debt.Cash flow and reserves · clearing expensive debt · a home · children's education · expanding the business · a planned purchase · setting aside for tax
- 10+ yearsLong-term planningThe years after work, and what happens to the business and what it has built. Plans that take a long time to build, so they are best started now.Retirement, and what MPF and savings will provide · handing on the business and wealth · income that does not depend on your working hours
Developing your cash flow
Cash flow is what makes every plan possible. It rarely improves by itself, so we build it deliberately — for the business and for the household — and keep it under review.
- 1Map itTwelve months of money in and out, business and personal, so you can see where it actually goes.
- 2Forecast itA rolling monthly forecast — and a thirteen-week view when cash is tight.
- 3Improve itCollect faster, agree sensible terms with suppliers, review pricing and costs, and keep working capital in check.
- 4Build a reserveSeveral months of fixed costs set aside, for the business and for the household.
- 5Turn profit into regular incomeA steady pattern of salary and dividends from your company, planned with the tax in view.
- 6Grow new incomeReinvest in the business, or build income that does not depend on your working hours — decided on the numbers, at your own pace.
What you get
- A one-page picture of your cash flow.
- A twelve-month forecast you can keep up to date.
- A written plan, with targets.
- A review every quarter or every year — whichever suits you.
Financing your plans
Whether a plan is paid for from savings, from company profits or by borrowing changes both its cost and its tax. We work through the routes with you and prepare what each one needs. We do not arrange or sell loans — the decision, and the lender, are yours.
- Cash-flow forecasts that show what you can afford, and when.
- Deciding what to fund from savings, from company profits or by borrowing — and the tax on each route.
- Preparing the accounts, projections and business plan a bank asks for.
- Getting ready for a mortgage as a business owner, with your income shown properly in your accounts and tax returns.
- Applications to bank and government-supported SME financing schemes — we prepare the numbers and the documents.
- A repayment plan that fits the business's cash flow.
What financial planning covers
- A clear picture of where you stand — what you own, what you owe, and the cash coming in and going out, personal and business together.
- Your goals, set down in numbers, each with a date.
- Taking money out of your company — salary, dividends or a director's account — planned with the tax in view.
- A regular review, because plans change when lives do.
How we work
- 1A conversationWhat you have, what you want, and what worries you. No forms first.
- 2The pictureYour position, set out in writing, in plain numbers.
- 3The planClear steps for each horizon, how each will be paid for, and the reasoning behind each.
- 4The reviewOnce a year, or sooner when something changes — a sale, a marriage, a new child, a new venture.
Why start with an accountant
Because the numbers are already here. A plan built on properly prepared accounts and tax returns rests on facts rather than estimates — and the tax consequences of each step are part of the plan from the start, not a surprise afterwards. See also Tax and notes on financial planning.
If you would like to talk through where you stand, what you want to do next and how to pay for it, write to me. The first conversation is simply that — a conversation.