James McIntyre, partner in the financial planning team at PM+M, explains why collaboration between financial planners and private client lawyers becomes even more important during volatile times.
Private client lawyers and financial planners are often the dual architects of a family’s long term wealth structure. Collaboratively, they are able to ask the questions which then allow the creation of a financial plan. How much do I need to save? How much can I afford to spend? How much do I need to sell my business for? How much can I afford to give away?
These critical insights help ensure that structure remains financially sustainable through changing market conditions, tax environments and family circumstances. In volatile markets, such as the geopolitical unrest we are currently experiencing, that partnership becomes even more valuable.
Delivering value
In stable conditions, conversations around wealth between individuals and their financial advisers? often focus on investment performance or technical legal structures in isolation. But periods of uncertainty reveal the importance of a more holistic approach, one that combines legal protection, tax efficiency, cashflow planning and behavioural guidance.
This is where collaboration between private client solicitors and financial planners can deliver significant value to clients. Of course it depends on the specific needs of the client, but more and more we are being contacted by Court of Protection solicitors as well as when people need to sell a business, put a commercial property in to a pension, or discuss complex probate, trust or IHT issues.
For many families, trusts, wills and succession structures are designed with long term objectives in mind. Yet market volatility, inflation, interest rate changes and geopolitical uncertainty can place pressure on those plans. A structure may remain legally robust while becoming financially inefficient or impractical if liquidity, income requirements or asset values materially change.
Protecting clients’ interests
Financial planning helps bridge that gap by stress testing the sustainability of wealth strategies against real world economic conditions. Again, every situation is different, and it depends on the client’s objectives and needs, but a financial plan is bespoke, and is built around a cashflow plan. Ultimately, if financial advisers and solicitors work together, the best interests of the clients are protected.
Cashflow modelling plays a particularly important role here. Forecasting tools allow planners to model multiple scenarios, helping clients and their legal advisers understand how changing investment returns, inflation or business valuations could affect long term outcomes. Rather than relying on a single projection, plans can be tested against a range of possible futures, building resilience into estate and succession strategies.
This is especially relevant in the context of intergenerational wealth planning. Lawyers may establish trusts or succession arrangements to facilitate efficient wealth transfer, while planners ensure those structures remain aligned with the family’s broader financial objectives. In periods of market stress, that coordination becomes essential. Liquidity requirements, pension withdrawals, business income and investment strategy all need to support the underlying legal framework.
This can be achieved if the core objectives are understood, potential scenarios are explored and the plan is stuck to.
Trusted teams
For clients drawing income in retirement, sequencing risk can significantly affect long term wealth preservation. A downturn early in retirement may erode capital far more severely than the same downturn later on. Financial planners can help manage this through carefully structured drawdown and liquidity strategies, while lawyers ensure estate planning arrangements continue to reflect the client’s evolving circumstances and intentions.
Family business succession is another area where close collaboration is critical. Economic uncertainty can affect valuations, financing conditions and exit timelines, potentially disrupting succession plans that may have been established years earlier. Solicitors manage the legal and governance aspects of succession, but planners help families navigate the practical financial realities, including cashflow sustainability, investment diversification and retirement funding for outgoing owners.
On a practical level, we would advise solicitors to find an adviser that you can trust and work with. Also, see them as a partner, build great relationships, match them to the client, ensure they understand how you need to work, problem solve collaboratively, and communicate – that can’t be overstated.
Maximising outcomes
Tax efficiency also becomes increasingly important when investment returns are under pressure. While lawyers advise on inheritance tax mitigation, trusts and broader estate structures, financial planners can complement this through tax efficient investment strategies, asset location planning and the careful management of gains and losses. Together, these disciplines help maximise net outcomes for clients.
The aim is to always provide the best and most efficient advice. Sometimes, however, this may not be the textbook answer, but the one that best fits the views and needs of the client. Effective financial advisers don’t rest of their laurels – they meet clients regularly and continually work on the financial plan.
Importantly, the value of financial planning during volatile periods extends beyond technical advice. One of the greatest risks to long term wealth is often behavioural rather than structural. Clients may feel pressure to react emotionally to headlines, abandon investment strategies or make short term decisions that conflict with carefully designed estate plans. A well-constructed financial plan provides reassurance and perspective during periods of uncertainty, helping clients remain focused on long term objectives. There is also a risk of not engaging with an adviser if, for example, a solicitor is a professional trustee.
Different perspectives, same goal
Equally, periods of stress often expose weaknesses in diversification and liquidity planning. Clients may believe they are diversified until multiple assets fall in tandem or access to capital becomes constrained. Here, planners work alongside investment managers to ensure portfolios are appropriately structured across asset classes, geographies and liquidity profiles, supporting the broader objectives established through legal planning. It once again comes down to engaging with an adviser you trust and collaborate, collaborate, collaborate.
Ultimately, private client lawyers and financial planners approach wealth from different perspectives, but increasingly towards the same goal: preserving and transferring wealth efficiently across generations while helping clients adapt to changing economic realities.
Volatility does not diminish the importance of estate and succession planning. If anything, it reinforces the need for joined up advice. In uncertain times, clients benefit most when legal structure and financial strategy work together, so their best interests are always front and centre.
About the author
James McIntyre is a partner in the financial planning team at PM+M. He helps business owners and private clients with anything from investments, pensions, protection, inheritance tax planning, cashflow planning and Court of Protection services – providing peace of mind that clients are achieving more from their hard-earned money.
