In the event of death, it is always prudent to have a benefit plan which will pay all liabilities and a lump sum to replace lost income for dependents. The amount of recommended cover will depend on the individual’s financial circumstances and dependents.

Specified Illness Cover provides you with a lump sum if you are diagnosed with any of a specific list of illnesses. You can take out Specified Illness Cover on its own or add it to your Life Cover policy. In the event of getting seriously ill, there are obviously financial stresses associated with such an event for the whole family. Serious Illness benefit pays a lump sum to the beneficiary which will help reduce the financial stress of coping. Generally an added benefit under this policy is free cover for specified illness for your children up to a maximum amount specified in terms and conditions.

Your single biggest asset may not be your home unless you are fortunate to have a home with no mortgage. For most, their biggest asset is their future income generating ability. If you could not work due to illness or disability, it is important to have protection against this event. This form of protection is called permanent health insurance (PHI) or income protection. In addition the government have made it attractive to protect your income by offering marginal tax relief on the premiums which reduces the real cost of this protection.Income Protection is designed to provide you with an alternative income if you suffer any illness or injury which prevents you from earning an income of your own. It helps take care of your financial needs at a time when money worries should be the last thing on your mind as you focus on recovery

Business Protection is designed to protect a company against some of the costs associated with the death or serious illness of a key employee, director, or partner, much like business insurance protects against loss of profits resulting from fire or flood. Business protection comes in three different forms:- Key-man Assurance, Partner and Co-Director Insurance. It is prudent and good business practice for self-employed business partners/co directors to have protection in place to cover debt in the event of death or serious illness.

This is risk associated with all investments and refers to the fact that your investment can rise as well as fall, and the volatility and range is a function of the risk level. It is paramount that risks are fully understood.

Your attitude to risk is a very important aspect of our initial fact-finding process. It is important to revisit this year after year to ensure your investments are suitable for your lifestyle. In this regard, portfolio re-balancing is an important concept. This means re-balancing the weightings of your portfolio to properly reflect your attitude to risk as your portfolio values rise or fall. Check out our Risk Philosophy page after you leave this page.

Have you a retirement plan in place to deliver a retirement fund when you retire which will give you a pension to live on until you die? Unless you are in the public sector, chances are, retirement planning is left to your own discretion. There is a risk for most that they will not have a sufficient retirement fund in place to retire on. This highlights the importance of having a plan, starting early, investing well, and benefiting from tax relief on way in, tax free growth, compounding and tax free cash on the way out.

This is the risk that inflation will undermine the performance of your investment. Looking at results without taking into account inflation is the nominal return. The value you should care about is the growth of your purchasing power, referred to as the real return.

Having access to an emergency fund or “rainy day” fund is good practice as it means a reserve is in place for short term unexpected events which is a critical and prudent part of all financial plans. This is a most basic need which helps reduce certain financial risks.

We are not tax experts, however our experience and qualifications gives us the knowledge to advise on a wide area of personal tax matters affecting individuals from ensuring you are claiming all your tax relief entitlements to personal income tax planning. In addition Capital Gains Tax, Capital Acquisitions Taxes (Inheritance and Gifts) and maximizing individual income tax efficiency mechanisms where possible through legitimate use of tax shelter investments and availing of personal tax schemes are areas we advise on