Wealth Management for Personal Injury and Clinical Negligence clients

Our Investment Philosophy

At the core of investing damages is the underlying principle that recipients of awards from personal injury or clinical negligence cases are not "ordinary" investors. This is a view endorsed in the landmark House of Lords decision, Wells -v- Wells [1999] 1AC 345. The opinion stated was that such investors should not have the same exposure to risk as an ordinary individual on the street.

Awards of damages are expected to provide for claimants both now and in the future. In order to achieve this, a balance has to be found between creating an income and producing capital growth. All too often we see existing portfolios where the balance is skewed toward capital growth and thus exposes the claimant to excessive risk.

Safety and the security of capital is the single most important theme that runs through every case we deal with.

Our philosophy is to provide investment portfolios that meet the needs of our clients, whilst taking the least amount of risk possible.

We believe that our clients require an ongoing relationship, where they can benefit from our advice on a continual basis. This way we can plan for changes in their circumstances and react to changes in the investment environment.

Our advice is completely independent. It is aimed at providing the long term security our clients need. The plans we put in place often take many years to develop and because we expect to be involved with out clients for many years, we have structured our charges to reflect this long term approach. Most of what we charge is by way of an annual fee, this way our clients can be assured that it is in our interest to build a lasting relationship with them and to ensure that they continue to receive the ongoing advice their circumstances demand.

Structuring an award of damages

Doing this well can significantly enhance the value of an award. For example, simply reducing the effect of taxation means that investments do not have to work as hard. Anything that reduces how hard the investments must work, reduces the risk that needs to be taken to reach the same objective.

Ideally, we begin talking to the client, their family, trustees or deputy about this long before the case settles.