Stage I - Optimising Your Portfolio & Pensions

Upgrade your money away from retail products

We have three courses, and this is the first. All our briefings may be read: taken remotely with individual tuition; or coached over a long residential weekend in Cornwall for you and your partner at a four star hotel.

This course is intended to remove initial and up-front commissions as regards new investments entirely, for a lifetime. Often these are 3% to 8% of one's capital, and often paid on each new investment especially into retail packaged financial products. The course is also intended to halve one's annual financial service fees from now on. Finally the course will explain how world investment markets have changed and where to invest for the growth that is still available.

It is worth undertaking this course if you have assets invested in 'packaged' investments such as personal pensions, unit trusts, structured funds, hedge funds etc. of £100,000 [$150,000 / EUR 120,000] and more.

Long weekend in Cornwall

The latest attendees said that they most valued our straight talking, and being listened to. 'Straight' talking meant our world view, how that integrated with their personal plans for the future, and how that would impact on their lives. 'Being listened to' meant that we took time with them, being open and honest, and how we grew to understand their values.

Attendees are given the tools to upgrade their money from packaged financial products and bank deposits. They are shown how to ask the right questions to get consistently better results, become confident, and end up with simpler financial arrangements. We use the third day to implement solutions (and we don't by that mean that we sell financial products, but we help attendees implement solutions for themselves).

The features of the course can be changed for each couple, but have in the past included:-

• three days at a four star hotel to suit you - choosing between four of the very best hotels in Cornwall depending upon what you want on your doorstep - walks, beach and surfing, golf, riding, general aviation private flying, galleries, music shows and events or deep peace with only choughs and seagulls for company.
• the course book 'Best Money Decisions I - Optimising the Portfolio & Pensions': telling you everything you need to know, and providing the course material
• your advisory team making sure you have the right balance of study, introspection, discussion and relaxation
• a skilled course leader taking you through the decisions you need to make at your speed and always relating back the course material to your life and how you want it to turn out
• An optional fourth day during the summer is used to fly to Jersey, go shopping, and interview three private banks to see which one you'd like best. If the phrase 'private bank' means 'expensive' to you, you'll learn on the course how surprisingly inexpensive they are.

This book accompanies the Stage I course, and is provided for our remote learning plus meetings option, and on the residential weekend course

Another option is to 'home study' - buy the book for £17.50, take the quiz, and execute your own improvements

We provide a Guarantee of Satisfaction. If you genuinely are not getting value from our meetings, we will stop work and make no charge. We charge a fee of £2,400 / Eur 2,700 + VAT (if EU resident), including accommodation, for the full set of four meetings. If there is no need to discuss pensions in detail, we reduce the fee to £1,800 + VAT.

The advice

Individual advice is given by Independence if you undertake this course by remote learning, or in the long weekend residential course, in four meetings as follows:-

• Portfolio Strategies - the asset allocation that achieves most return for the optimum risk you have chosen, and our select choice of wrap accounts with stockbrokers and private banks that provide the on-going service that you need at a reasonable and efficient cost. Custody and balance sheet risk considerations for your chosen bank.
• Portfolio Tactics - when to buy and when to sell, applied to your own existing portfolio to test the rules in practice and to implement. Best buys research and a discussion of current buy opportunities resulting in an agreed discipline for deciding engagement, dealing rules, timing rules and reporting requirements.
• Doing it in practice - a hands-on session turning know-how into experience.
• Pensions Strategies - picking through your existing pensions to remove as many annual charges as we can, bringing them together into one account and deciding the optimum asset allocation for this portfolio. Maximising the State Pensions, including a consideration of cross border Social Security agreements if required.

To book your place

Please 'join' us using the link at the top left of this page and we'll contact you to ask whether you want to read the book, take the course remotely, or set up an bespoke three day luxury weekend.