What We Do
Mortgage
Different types of mortgages include:
Repayment mortgage
Over the term of your mortgage, every month, you steadily pay back the money you’ve borrowed, along with interest on however much capital you have left. At the end of the mortgage term, you’ll have paid off the entire loan. The amount of money you have left to pay is also called ‘the capital’, which is why repayment mortgages are also called capital and interest mortgages.
Interest-only mortgage
Over the term of your loan, you don’t actually pay off any of the mortgage – just the interest on it. Your monthly payments will be lower, but won’t make a dent in the loan itself. At the end of your term, you have to pay the total amount in full. Usually, people with an interest only mortgage will have some sort of investment, which they’ll then use to pay the mortgage off at the end of the term.
Fixed rate mortgage
‘Rate’ refers to your interest rate. With a fixed rate mortgage, your lender guarantees your interest rate will stay the same for a set amount of time (the ‘initial period’ of your loan), which is typically anything between 1–10 years. When this initial period ends, you’ll be switched to the lender’s default rate (or standard variable rate)
Standard variable rate (SVR) mortgage
SVR is a lender’s default, bog-standard interest rate – no deals, bells or whistles attached. Each lender is free to set their own SVR, and adjust it how and when they like. Technically, there isn’t a mortgage called an ‘SVR mortgage’ – it’s just what you could call a mortgage out of a deal period. After their deal expires, a lot of people find themselves on an SVR mortgage by default, which might not be the best rate for them.
Discounted rate mortgage
Over a set period of time, you get a discount on the lender’s SVR. This is a type of variable rate, so the amount you pay each month can change if the lender changes their SVR, which they’re free to do as they like.
Tracker mortgage
Tracker rates are a type of variable rate, which means you could pay a different amount to your lender each month. Tracker rates work by following a particular interest rate to determine what you pay each month (for example, the Bank of England base rate), then adding a fixed amount on top. If the base rate goes up or down, so does your interest rate.
Capped rate mortgage
These are variable mortgages, but with a cap on how high the interest rate can rise. Usually, the interest rate is higher than a tracker mortgage – so you might end up paying extra for that peace of mind. (These aren’t common these days.)
Cashback mortgage
When you sign up to your mortgage, the lender pays you a lump sum of cash (usually, a percentage of your loan). This can be around £500–£1,000. You might find that these mortgages don’t come with any other incentives, like free valuations or free legal’s etc.
Flexible mortgage
These usually have terms that let you overpay and underpay (pay more or less than the monthly amount you agreed with your lender) and even take a payment holiday (miss a few monthly payments) if you need to. The price for this flexibility is usually a higher interest rate. There are different types of flexible mortgage – an offset mortgage is one.
Protection
Life Cover
Life Cover gives your family financial protection if you die. Most people who buy life cover buy just enough to pay off their mortgage if they die. But is this really enough? For most of us, our mortgage is only one of the many financial commitments we have. Credit cards, personal loans, council tax, childcare costs, food and utility bills are just some of the other regular payments that we have to make. And most of these commitments wouldn’t go away if one of the breadwinners died.
This is where protection insurance can help. You can buy life cover that pays out as a lump sum or a monthly income to cover the bills if you have to make a claim during the term of your plan. You can even combine both types of payment in one plan to give your family protection that covers the mortgage and provides the income they would need to live in the family home without you.
Critical Illness Cover
Critical Illness Cover provides financial protection for you and your family if you become ill with one of a list of defined critical illnesses. If you were to become seriously ill tomorrow, what impact do you think this would have on you and your family? And what would your priorities be? For most of us our biggest concern would be surviving the illness and recovering from it. But it can be difficult to focus 100% on getting better if you’re worried about the next big bill that’s going to come through the door. Sadly this is a reality for many families whose lives have been turned upside down by illness.
Income Protection
Income Protection can provide a monthly income if you become ill with an illness that may not be critical, but is severe enough to stop you from going to work for a long time. The working world has changed dramatically in recent years. One thing remains constant however, and that’s the fact that most of us need to work to pay the bills and to enjoy all the good things in life like holidays, cars and meals out. But bills don’t stop arriving – even if we are very sick. If you fall ill or have an accident and are unable to work, the sudden loss of income could be devastating.
That’s where income protection comes in. It pays out an income if you’re unable to work because of illness or injury.
Pension And Investments Advisor
Pensions & Investments
As an Independent Adviser after a full assessment I provide advice tailored to your needs. This advice is provided from the whole of the market and incorporates tax efficient investments and pensions.
Investments & Savings
Get help generating a better return on your savings, with a full range of investment options which could include equities, corporate bonds and alternative investments.
Pensions
Get help on making a plan for a comfortable retirement, whether it's starting a pension or understanding how much you should be contributing to one.
Retirement Income
Get help understanding and evaluating Annuities vs Drawdown, or discussing the other available retirement income options for you.
Inheritance Planning
Get help with planning your inheritance and understanding the tax implications of an inheritance you leave, or accessing an inheritance you have received.
The value of investments, and any income from them can go down as well as up. You may not get back as much as you put in.
Equity Release
Equity release is a way for older homeowners to access some of the money (the equity) that is within the value of their home.
If you are over the age of 55 and a homeowner, you are probably eligible to take out an equity release plan. The money you release is yours to spend on whatever you want. Popular choices are home improvements, repaying debts, helping children on to the property ladder or simply enjoying later life.
The loan is repaid in full, along with the interest from the sale of the property when the last borrower dies or moves into long-term care.
Equity release is not suitable for everyone and as part of our advice process we would explore other options which maybe more suitable to individual cirumstances.
Equity release may not be available for your property type. Equity release could have an impact on your eligibility to means-tested state benefits and could affect your tax position.
Equity release will reduce the amount of inheritance that can be left especially if the interest is rolled up.
Wills / Power Of Attorney
Will
A will is a legal document by which a person, the testator, expresses their wishes as to how their property is to be distributed at death, and names one or more persons, the executor, to manage the estate until its final distribution.
Lasting Power of Attorney
A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) allows your loved ones to take care of you and your finances if you become unable to do so yourself.
There are two types of LPA:
A "Property and Financial Affairs" LPA allows your loved ones to deal with paying your bills, buying and selling your property and managing your bank accounts and investments.
A "Health and Welfare" LPA covers decisions about health and care and even deciding where you are to live. This can only be used if someone is incapable of dealing with such matters themselves.
Protective Property Trust
A Property Protection Trust is simply a Trust where the asset is a property (or a share of a property) and the Trust is established usually for the purpose of allowing a current occupant to continue living in the property, whilst protecting the capital value for the benefit for others.
Probate
Probate is the entire process of administering a dead person’s estate. This involves organising their money, assets and possessions and distributing them as inheritance – after paying any taxes and debts.