Age: 44
Spouse’s/Partner's age: 45
Annual gross income from employment or profession: €30,000. I am an employee of my own company. My wife and I are also Directors of the company. My wife does not take a salary from the company. Annual Turnover of the company is circa €120,000.
Annual gross income of spouse: €50,000 private sector.
Monthly take-home pay: €2,245 + €2,605 + €420 child benefit. Total is €5,270. I also claim a travel and subsistence, which works out at circa €2k/month as I travel quite alot.
Type of employment: e.g. Civil Servant, self-employed: Both in private sector.
In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn, or
(b) saving? We save circa €1k a month from our PAYE salaries and there is circa €5k a month left in company account after all taxes are paid.
Rough estimate of value of home: €400,000
Amount outstanding on your mortgage: €150,000
What interest rate are you paying? 2.75% variable.
Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc: None.
Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? Yes.
If not, what is the balance on your credit card?
Savings and investments: €123k in shares, €35k in cash, €70k in cash reserves in company.
Do you have a pension scheme? Yes, €240,000 in various Buy Out bonds. My wife has company pension where she is contributing 5% and company contribute 5%.
Do you own any investment or other property? No, but I own agricultural land valued at €130,000.
Ages of children: 13, 11, 9
Life insurance: Yes.
What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
I have €240,000 in various pension buy out bonds and I want to consolidate them. I also set up an executive pension through a financial advisor last year with Aviva. So far I have contributed €10k. The maximum funding position I have through the company this year is €19,000 based on salary of €30,000. A regular contribution type of funding could commence next year this would be approximately €2,000 per month beginning in 2021.
I have asked two financial advisors for advice on the best way to make my current pension and future pension contributions to work for me returning a yield of circa 4-6%. Also, I want to make the built up reserves work for me in the most tax efficient manner. I have read about passive investing and low cost index funds but my understanding is ETF's can be complicated in Ireland. Based on this, both advisors came back to me with the following:
Financial Advisor 1:
"Existing private pension benefits would be transferred to the Consensus Fund with Irish Life. This is a slightly less volatile fund than the Zurich funds but I feel it will stand you in good stead given your target growth rate of 4-5% per annum. This will allow for the management of these benefits and as discussed we could aim for a staggered drawdown of pension benefits in order to maximize the tax efficiency around your pension income.
Your existing Executive Pension with Aviva would be transferred to the Zurich Life Balanced Fund"
Total fees on the above are 1.35% for Zurich and 1.10% for Irish Life.
Financial Advisor 2:
"80/20 is the agreed long term equity allocation.
Irish Life - Indexed 80/20 portfolio. - Executive Pension
Davyselect - Vanguard Indexed portfolio 80/20 and Foundation portfolio 80/20
All existing pension monies to be migrated over to the Davyselect portfolio.
No upfront commissions just ongoing charges of circa 1.18 (Vanguard) 1.48% The higher charge reflects greater diversification and oversight.
This includes an ongoing .50% deduction to Financial Advisor to cover the work and advice each year."
I am happy to pay a financial advisor for advice but it seems that the majority of financial advisors in Ireland offer clients funds from Zurich, Irish life, Aviva etc. Any thoughts on the above advice and which one I should go with or should I go in a different direction?
Spouse’s/Partner's age: 45
Annual gross income from employment or profession: €30,000. I am an employee of my own company. My wife and I are also Directors of the company. My wife does not take a salary from the company. Annual Turnover of the company is circa €120,000.
Annual gross income of spouse: €50,000 private sector.
Monthly take-home pay: €2,245 + €2,605 + €420 child benefit. Total is €5,270. I also claim a travel and subsistence, which works out at circa €2k/month as I travel quite alot.
Type of employment: e.g. Civil Servant, self-employed: Both in private sector.
In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn, or
(b) saving? We save circa €1k a month from our PAYE salaries and there is circa €5k a month left in company account after all taxes are paid.
Rough estimate of value of home: €400,000
Amount outstanding on your mortgage: €150,000
What interest rate are you paying? 2.75% variable.
Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc: None.
Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? Yes.
If not, what is the balance on your credit card?
Savings and investments: €123k in shares, €35k in cash, €70k in cash reserves in company.
Do you have a pension scheme? Yes, €240,000 in various Buy Out bonds. My wife has company pension where she is contributing 5% and company contribute 5%.
Do you own any investment or other property? No, but I own agricultural land valued at €130,000.
Ages of children: 13, 11, 9
Life insurance: Yes.
What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?
I have €240,000 in various pension buy out bonds and I want to consolidate them. I also set up an executive pension through a financial advisor last year with Aviva. So far I have contributed €10k. The maximum funding position I have through the company this year is €19,000 based on salary of €30,000. A regular contribution type of funding could commence next year this would be approximately €2,000 per month beginning in 2021.
I have asked two financial advisors for advice on the best way to make my current pension and future pension contributions to work for me returning a yield of circa 4-6%. Also, I want to make the built up reserves work for me in the most tax efficient manner. I have read about passive investing and low cost index funds but my understanding is ETF's can be complicated in Ireland. Based on this, both advisors came back to me with the following:
Financial Advisor 1:
"Existing private pension benefits would be transferred to the Consensus Fund with Irish Life. This is a slightly less volatile fund than the Zurich funds but I feel it will stand you in good stead given your target growth rate of 4-5% per annum. This will allow for the management of these benefits and as discussed we could aim for a staggered drawdown of pension benefits in order to maximize the tax efficiency around your pension income.
Your existing Executive Pension with Aviva would be transferred to the Zurich Life Balanced Fund"
Total fees on the above are 1.35% for Zurich and 1.10% for Irish Life.
Financial Advisor 2:
"80/20 is the agreed long term equity allocation.
Irish Life - Indexed 80/20 portfolio. - Executive Pension
Davyselect - Vanguard Indexed portfolio 80/20 and Foundation portfolio 80/20
All existing pension monies to be migrated over to the Davyselect portfolio.
No upfront commissions just ongoing charges of circa 1.18 (Vanguard) 1.48% The higher charge reflects greater diversification and oversight.
This includes an ongoing .50% deduction to Financial Advisor to cover the work and advice each year."
I am happy to pay a financial advisor for advice but it seems that the majority of financial advisors in Ireland offer clients funds from Zurich, Irish life, Aviva etc. Any thoughts on the above advice and which one I should go with or should I go in a different direction?