Case Study: How I built a financial plan for a 40-year-old lawyer earning £500k

At a glance

If you’re earning well, it’s crucial you get your money working hard for you. It’s not easy to find the time to figure it all out and that’s where your financial plan comes in.

Here, I’m diving into how I built a plan to make the most of my lawyer client’s £500k salary and the same plan can work for you too.

Introduction

High earners are doing well financially, but many have problems to solve.

Perhaps you’re frustrated at the amount of tax you’re paying and need a more efficient approach. Maybe your family is highly reliant on your income, and you’re worried what might happen to them if circumstances suddenly change. 

The Challenge

Let’s talk about my client John*, whose name is changed for confidentiality. For John, the problem was scattered finances. He had lost track of what was where, was overpaying tax, and had no strategy to reach his financial goals.

He was unsure about working with a financial adviser but, after seeing the method I outlined, he was ready to give it a go.

We used my Lawyers’ Financial Blueprint to turn John’s finances around. Here’s how…

Our approach: The Lawyers’ Financial Blueprint

For this financial plan to be as effective as possible, you do have to be:

• Earning at least £250k pa

• Have at least £200k worth of investable assets across pensions, ISAs or cash in the bank

The plan is composed of 3 parts:

1. Plan

2. Protect

3. Prosper

Step 1: Plan

This is the first step. We structure and organise your finances.

As lawyers often do, John had multiple pension schemes, ISAs and cash in the bank but no clear strategy to link them all together.

We consolidated John’s pensions into a single, low cost scheme and aligned his investment strategy with his risk profile, giving him the option to retire at age 55.

Step 2: Protect

The second step of the blueprint is to protect wealth, reduce risks and save tax.

High earning lawyers like John often face significant tax liabilities and have families who can be exposed if the unexpected happens.

In this phase, we put the right structures in place. For John, this meant tax wrappers and insurances to make sure more of his wealth is in his hands, and his family shielded from risk.

Step 3: Prosper

In the Prosper phase, we concentrated on investing John’s surplus cash wisely. His money should work as hard as he does, so we built a suitable investment strategy:

• Making sure we use all of John’s tax allowances

• Aligning his investments with his own risk profile and future goals

• Creating a lasting legacy for John’s family

The results

This blueprint has brought structure to John’s finances, where before there was confusion. He now has peace of mind knowing he has a coordinated strategy in place and is not overpaying in tax or missing out on opportunities and unused allowances.

This gives John the headspace to focus on his work and frees up his time to spend with friends and family.

What this means for you

So now you know about my Lawyers’ Financial Blueprint and how it helped John, a high-earning lawyer, secure his finances for the future.

If you would like to see how My Lawyers’ Financial Blueprint might work for you, please book your free, no obligation chat today.

Schedule your call here.

• This blog is for information purposes and does not constitute financial advice, which should be based on your individual circumstances.

• The taxation of the investment is dependent on the individual circumstance of each investor, and may be subject to change in the future.

• The value of investments and any income from them can fall as well as rise. You may not get back the full amount invested.