Wealth Managers in Southampton

What is wealth management?

In the Northern and Midlands around Southampton wealth is more often held in property and defined benefit pensions than in liquid investments, which means the £250,000 investable threshold is a higher bar than it is in London. A 50-year-old teacher in Southampton may have a £220,000 house, a defined benefit pension paying £18,000 a year from age 67 (equivalent to roughly £450,000 in defined contribution terms), and a £60,000 SIPP. The investable assets are £60,000, well below the threshold. The wealth manager case is not made by the defined benefit, which the wealth manager cannot manage, and the SIPP is below the threshold for attention.

How much does wealth management cost in Southampton?

For savers in the North and Midlands the fee is harder to justify than in London. On £300,000 in investable assets, 1% is £3,000 a year. On a balanced index portfolio there is little a wealth manager can add through investment selection alone, because the portfolio already tracks the market cheaply. The wealth manager case has to come from somewhere else: tax advice, estate and inheritance tax work, drawdown sequencing. If none of those apply to your situation, the fee does not earn its keep.

Who actually needs a wealth manager in Southampton?

For Northern and Midlands readers the wealth manager case usually rests on the defined benefit interaction with the defined contribution. A defined benefit paying £18,000 a year from age 67 plus a £200,000 SIPP plus the State Pension gives you a multi-source income in retirement that needs sequencing, not a single pot to draw down. A wealth manager can model the income sequencing and the tax bands. Outside that, the fee structure does not match the value delivered. If you have a defined benefit and want to know whether to top up the SIPP, that is a financial planning question, not a wealth manager question.

How Delphina fits in

Delphina gives Northern and Midlands readers the tools to model the defined benefit in today's money, see what the SIPP actually has to do, and pressure-test whether a wealth manager fee is the right answer. 1-1 coaching from £99 a session over video, with a free 15 minute call to start. The coaching helps you decide between consolidating pensions, increasing the SIPP contribution, or leaving things alone. When a decision genuinely warrants regulated advice, we will say so.

Delphina provides guidance, not regulated financial advice. If you are considering a regulated recommendation, speak to an FCA-authorised adviser.