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Wealth Management

Business Protection

When you are responsible for the future success of a business either solely, or as part of a management group, there are many circumstances that can have damaging and lasting consequences for your business.

Have you considered the following:-

  • How would your business survive the death of one of your fellow directors or partners?
  • What would happen to their share of the business?
  • Would control of your business fall into other hands?
  • If you die what will happen to your share of the business?
  • How will your family survive financially?
  • Can the business survive the death or serious illness of key employees?
  • What would be the cost of replacing one of your key people? 

Whether you are a shareholder/director in a private company, partner in a professional practice or a sole practitioner, the consequences of the above can have far reaching implications.

Adequate business protection cover is the only way to ensure funds will be available to alleviate these difficulties and ensure the continuity control and survival of the business while also providing financial security for your family.

For further information or advice on business protection, contact a member of our wealth management team.

Life and Health Cover

Securing life cover is a simple and effective way to financially provide for your dependents on your death.

By paying a premium to an insurance company, each month, over a specified term, you can ensure that your dependents receive a lump sum benefit should you die during the term of the policy. This is important considering that the state contributory pension for widows under 66 and for each dependent child is €209.80 and €26 per week respectively.

We have a dedicated team who can provide you with advice on and arrange a life policy that suits your individual needs and circumstances:

  • We have agencies with all insurance companies and can shop around for the most cost efficient and most suitable quote for you.
  • We offer one-to-one meetings in our city centre offices or at a location most convenient for you.
  • More importantly, we do not charge you fees for our services.

Our range of life policies include:

  • Mortgage protection
  • Level term assurance
  • Convertible term assurance
  • Whole of life
  • Personal pension term assurance (particularly beneficial for self-employed individuals where tax relief is available on premiums paid)
  • Serious illness cover
  • Group death in service benefit
  • Group permanent health insurance (PHI) benefit

 

For further information on Income Protection/ Disability Cover and/or to receive a quote specific to your individual needs, please contact a member of our wealth management team.

Income Protection

Have you ever considered how you would pay your bills or loan repayments if you became seriously ill and were not earning income?

Disability cover, also known as Income Protection or Permanent Health Insurance (PHI), provides a regular ongoing income, after a deferred period, in the event of mental or physical disability/illness which prevents you from working. The benefit is paid until the ceasing age or the insured person returns to work.

Given that the current state disability benefit is €204.30 per week, securing appropriate income protection is important.

Our specialised team can help you secure the protection cover you need:

  • We have agencies with all insurance companies and can shop around for the most cost efficient and most suitable quote for you.
  • We offer one-to-one meetings in our city centre offices or at a location most convenient for you.
  • More importantly, we do not charge you fees for our services.

The benefits of Income Protection include:

  • Less worry if you are unable to work due to illness or disability
  • Benefit continues to be paid until you return to work or reach retirement age
  • Tax relief on premiums
  • Proportionate benefit if returning to work on a lower salary
  • The premium is waived while you are receiving benefit


For further information on Income Protection/Disability Cover and/or to receive a quote specific to your individual needs, please contact a member of our wealth management team.

Investment Portfolio Services

When it comes to investing for your future, you want to be sure of all your options.

Our dedicated investment team can help you find the right investment portfolio to meet your particular objectives, your appetite for investment risk and your desired investment term.

In recommending a portfolio to meet your needs, we will:

  • Adopt a strong focus on Asset Allocation
  • Conduct rigorous research of the investment market before appointing Specialist Managers to perform stock selection
  • Construct Balanced and Diversified Investment Portfolios
  • Deliver efficient Risk Adjusted Investment Returns
  • Keep investors updated in respect of investment matters

For further information or to discuss your options, contact a member of the Private Wealth Management team.

Corporate Pensions

Managing your pension scheme properly can result in two major cost saving initiatives. Firstly, the actual cost of administering the pension scheme can be greatly reduced in almost every case and secondly, improved investment performance can reduce funding costs significantly over the years.

Our dedicated team can help you control costs by negotiating competitive cost charging structures with providers. Recent experience has resulted in savings of up to 40% for some clients.

Our team of Investment Specialists can also assist Trustees formulate an appropriate investment strategy and with our range of investment strategies on offer, including alternative investment products, Trustees can further diversify and manage investment risk.

Full details on each of our services:

Plan Design
Ensuring your employee benefit package is compliant with current legislation is essential. We will advise you with all the necessary requirements along with market place comparisons to ensure that your plan meets the needs of your employees.

Important factors to consider which affect the scheme design include:

  • Eligibility rules
  • Contribution rates
  • Retirement ages
  • Investment style & approach
  • Trusteeship
  • Life Assurance & Disability Benefit

Defined benefit
Guidance through the difficult areas associated with Defined Benefit is crucial to Trustees and Employers. We have an extensive knowledge in the area of Defined Benefit Pension Scheme. A review of such arrangements is commonplace, but seldom does such a review take into consideration all of the aspects which are affected.

Our dedicated team of advisers can provide a review service for defined benefit arrangements for MBOs, acquisitions, succession agreements and cost-cutting exercises.

Defined contribution
Our team can provide advice to employers wishing to introduce a defined contribution scheme to employees. We also provide efficient, cost-effective administration of such schemes.

Actuarial
We provide external independent actuarial services for the following requirements:-

  • Triennial actuarial reviews
  • Funding reviews
  • FRS 17 requirements
  • Third party funding & scheme analysis
  • Pensions due diligence for mergers/acquisitions 

Legal services
We will ensure that the Trustees and Employer are compliant with all of the legal requirements, both at the initial design stage and continuously throughout the schemes lifetime. This will include the drafting of Trust Deed and Rules along with Scheme Booklets and all member communications.

Individual retirement planning
We understand that the needs and aspirations of each member are different. Each and every member will have the opportunity to carefully plan his or her future retirement and will be supplied with the right information and advice necessary to do so.

Members will be provided with actuarial calculations of the expected retirement income, the impact of additional funding through AVCs along with the funding cost of early retirement if required.

Administration
We will provide complete administration services to all types of pension arrangements including defined benefit, defined contribution, hybrid schemes and executive retirement plans.

Most aspects of a company’s business are regularly audited and potential risks and liabilities identified. A company’s pension scheme is rarely subjected to such scrutiny.

Scheme Analysis
We have developed a pension audit service which reviews in detail all of the related aspects and reports back to the Trustees / Employer with the results and recommendations.

Service level agreements
We have Service Level Agreements with a number of insurance companies which is monitored by our clients and ourselves. If the service to our clients is not as agreed in the Service level Agreement a penalty will be applied to the supplier. Fixed turnaround times are agreed for standard administration procedures etc. Further details will be made available at a later date.

Trustee training
Trustee Training courses are held periodically during the year and invitations in this regard will be issued. The Trustee Training courses are designed to make new or existing Trustees aware of their obligations in line with current legislation.

To find out how you can make significant cost savings and broaden your investment portfolio, contact a member of our wealth management team.

Wealth Management - Self Administered Pension Schemes

Controlling your investments in a tax-free environment.

What is a Self Administered Pension Fund?

Personal Wealth Management

When much of your time is spent developing your businesses and/or careers, you don’t always have the time or expertise to grow and manage your personal wealth to its maximum potential.

Similarly you may have adopted an ad-hoc approach to financial planning seeking advice from different sources and at different points in time. Whilst this advice may have been appropriate at that time, a financial makeover may now be needed to reflect any changes in your personal circumstances.

Our team can help you determine what type of financial makeover you may need.

We provide a service designed to assist you maximise your personal wealth and achieve your personal financial objectives. In essence, our aim is to assist individuals with achieving a level of personal wealth in the future so that work becomes an option, not a necessity.

We begin by examining your personal objectives and family situation. We can then help you devise a customised personal financial plan to be implemented over time. This plan is designed to be a blueprint that covers your entire future financial planning.

For impartial and independent advice to plan for your future, contact a member of our Private Wealth Management team.

Michelle O'Keefe

Contact details

Office: 
Dublin
Telephone: 
+353 1 470 0542
Fax: 
+353 1 477 0542
Email: 
mokeefe@bdo.ie
Web site: 
http://www.bdo.ie
Address: 
Beaux Lane House, Mercer Street Lower, Dublin 2 (map)

Biography

Biography: 
Managing Director.

Services & Specialism

Services & Specialism: 
Wealth Management.

Alan Flynn

Contact details

Office: 
Dublin
Telephone: 
+353 1 470 0250
Fax: 
+353 1 477 0250
Email: 
aflynn@bdo.ie
Web site: 
http://www.bdo.ie
Address: 
Beaux Lane House, Mercer Street Lower, Dublin 2 (map)

Biography

Biography: 
Alan is a Director and Head of Pensions in BDO Simpson Xavier Private Wealth Management Ltd.

Services & Specialism

Services & Specialism: 
Alan was responsible for the set up of BDO Simpson Xavier Private Wealth Management Ltd. In 1995 Alan was appointed Managing Director in 1998 and subsequently appointed Partner in BDO Simpson Xavier in 2000. Alan is a Qualified Financial Adviser (QFA) and has been appointed by the revenue as a Pensioner Trustee. Alan specialises in advising clients in all areas of Occupational and Self-Administered Pensions, Group Employee Benefits, and Business Protection Assurance. Alan was a council member of the Irish Brokers Association from 2003 to 2006 and served as President 2006-2007.

Private Wealth Management

Our Wealth Management and Pension services are offered by BDO Private Wealth Management Limited which is authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland under the European Communities (M

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