High net worth (HNW) individuals have significant assets to protect and their finances are often complex, involving multiple income streams from trusts, business, and global property.
Yet, new research published by Financial Planning Today has revealed that 49% of HNW individuals fail to use a financial planner to help them manage their money.
Many only seek professional financial advice when a significant life event occurs, such as retirement or receiving an unexpected windfall. If your HNW clients adopt this reactive approach, they could potentially jeopardise their financial wellbeing and make it harder to achieve their goals.
In contrast, proactively planning how to manage their wealth – both now and in the future – could offer numerous benefits. Read on to discover four important ways our financial planners can provide invaluable support to your HNW clients.
1. Strategic tax planning
Minimising tax liabilities is likely to be a key concern for affluent individuals. As such, strategic planning is essential for preserving the wealth they’ve worked so hard to accumulate while ensuring compliance with tax regulations.
However, navigating UK tax rules – and keeping up to date with relevant changes – could be complicated, time-consuming, and stressful, especially for clients who have substantial wealth.
A financial planner can provide tailored advice and guidance on tax-optimisation strategies, such as:
- Reducing taxable income – For example, by increasing pension contributions and gifting to charity
- Inheritance Tax (IHT) planning – Using lifetime gifting and trusts to reduce a potential IHT bill
- Managing Capital Gains Tax (CGT) liabilities – By timing the sale of assets carefully and using available allowances and exemptions
- Reducing Business and Corporation Tax – HNW business owners could achieve this by making pension contributions through their company and setting up salary sacrifice schemes
- Making full use of personal tax allowances – To shield as much wealth as possible from tax while ensuring full compliance with regulations.
In contrast, without expert financial advice, your HNW clients – and their beneficiaries – could end up paying unnecessary tax, which could erode their wealth and slow progress towards their goals.
2. Managing complex assets
Your HNW clients may have a wide range of complex assets that require expert management. These could include:
- Assets held in trust
- Highly valuable pension pots
- Entire businesses or shares in businesses
- Luxury and collectable items, such as jewellery and art
- Diverse investment portfolios, including offshore assets
- Commercial and residential properties in both the UK and abroad
- Intellectual property rights, such as business names and trademarks.
A financial planner with experience supporting HNW individuals and a strong professional network can provide the holistic and bespoke support necessary to protect and grow such assets.
3. Understanding how to give back through philanthropy
Philanthropic giving is an important consideration for many HNW individuals, as it can allow them to:
- Make a meaningful impact on causes they care about
- Manage their wealth tax-efficiently
- Leave a lasting legacy.
A financial planner can help your HNW clients understand the tax benefits of donating some of their wealth to a good cause, both during their lifetime and in their will. They can then integrate tailored philanthropic gifting strategies that align with their values and goals into their financial plan.
For example, your HNW clients could mitigate a CGT bill by gifting assets that have risen in value to a worthy cause. Or they could potentially reduce their IHT rate by donating at least 10% of their estate to charity.
Indeed, changes to IHT rules announced in the 2024 Autumn Budget might make philanthropic giving even more attractive as an estate planning tool, especially for those with significant wealth.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves extended the freeze on IHT thresholds until 2030, which could mean that a larger portion of your HNW clients’ estates is taxable when they pass away. She also removed the IHT exemption for pension wealth from April 2027.
According to UKFundraising, 6 in 10 professional advisers (including solicitors, will-writers, and financial planners) expect to see more people leaving charitable legacies as a result of these changes.
4. Planning for generational wealth transfer
Figures published by Vanguard show that worldwide, a projected $18.3 trillion in wealth is expected to be passed down from older to younger generations by 2030.
Planning for this intergenerational wealth transfer is crucial for HNW individuals because it can:
- Ensure a smooth handover of assets and business interests
- Give them control over how assets are passed on
- Secure a meaningful legacy
- Preserve family wealth
- Minimise IHT liabilities.
However, determining when and how to pass on a substantial portfolio of complex assets may not be straightforward. So, your HNW clients may benefit from consulting a financial planner who can:
- Facilitate and mediate discussions across generations
- Develop tax-efficient strategies to maximise wealth passed to heirs
- Provide holistic support by liaising with professional colleagues, such as solicitors
- Build lasting relationships that provide ongoing guidance to younger generations
- Educate the next generation to prepare them for their new financial responsibilities.
Get in touch
If you’d like to find out more about how we can work together to support your HNW clients with their unique financial planning needs, we’d love to hear from you.
To learn more about how we can help, please email hello@sovereign-ifa.co.uk or call us on 01454 416653.
Please note
This article is for general information only and does not constitute advice. The information is aimed at retail clients only.
All information is correct at the time of writing and is subject to change in the future.
Please do not act based on anything you might read in this article. All contents are based on our understanding of HMRC legislation, which is subject to change.
The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate tax planning.
A pension is a long-term investment not normally accessible until 55 (57 from April 2028). The fund value may fluctuate and can go down, which would have an impact on the level of pension benefits available. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.
The tax implications of pension withdrawals will be based on your individual circumstances. Thresholds, percentage rates, and tax legislation may change in subsequent Finance Acts.
The value of your investments (and any income from them) can go down as well as up and you may not get back the full amount you invested. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.
Investments should be considered over the longer term and should fit in with your overall attitude to risk and financial circumstances.
Approved by Best Practice IFA Group Ltd on 23/9/25