Probate Share Portfolio - Cheeky request

Probate Share Portfolio - Cheeky request

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Lord Pikey

Original Poster:

3,257 posts

214 months

Tuesday 4th August 2015
quotequote all
This is a very very cheeky request, and i wont be surprised if you lot tell me to ps off. But you can only ask.

My wifes grandmother passed away (at 104!) recently and was a fairly well invested lady. We have been given a list of her share holdings and asked which we would like to liquidate and which we should keep. The issue is we have until Monday to make this decision and its not really going to be possible to research 40+ companies in depth.

So my very cheeky request is if if paste the list below, if there is anything that we really should hold on to please let me know, otherwise I think we will sell as its a nice chunk towards our first home.

Or, if you can recommend someone to do this professionally then we have no objection in paying for an opinion either


British Telecom 5.75%
Invesco Corporate Bond
JP Morgan Global High Yield Bond
Kames Sterling Corporate
M&G Managed Corporate
Schroder Strategic Credit
Threadneedle High Yield UK Bond
Astra Zeneca
Aviva
Barclays
BHP Billiton
BP
British Land
BT
Carillon
Costain
Glaxosmithkline
Intercontinental Hotels
Lloyds Banking
Persimmon
Royal Dutch Shell
SSE
Severn Trent
Vodaphone
Aberdeen Opportunities Equity
Barclays UK Core
JP Morgan Uk Dynamic
Standard Life Investment Property
Mercantile investment
BNY Global Income
BNY Mellon Asian Income
South32 Ltd
Brown Advisory

Thank you! We are feeling very rushed


otherman

2,190 posts

164 months

Tuesday 4th August 2015
quotequote all
Depends what you'd do with the cash. If it needs investing it could all stay where it is. If you plan to spends some, you could reduce risk by staying in the funds and cashing out the individual companies.

Lord Pikey

Original Poster:

3,257 posts

214 months

Tuesday 4th August 2015
quotequote all
We want to buy a house next year, and other other factor is we want to shares cashed out into Euros as we are buying in Germany. This means we are keen to get the cash asap so we can take advantage of the Euro being on its arse.

So ideally we would take them all as cash, but anything that is seriously low or expected to rise in the next year or two we could leave as shares.

Does that make sense?

NorthDave

2,355 posts

231 months

Tuesday 4th August 2015
quotequote all
  • *I'm not an IFA or in any way qualified***
but if I was buying in the eurozone I would sell them all and make the most of the exchange rate. I doubt any of them will do enough to warrant keeping them when compared to the current rates.

walm

10,609 posts

201 months

Tuesday 4th August 2015
quotequote all
Perhaps I don't understand how it works but THERE SHOULD BE NO RUSH.
Either you sell the holding or you get given it - AND YOU CAN SELL IT LATER.

So as The Guide always suggests - DON'T PANIC.

I am not qualified to make a mixture of fund vs. equity requirements for you, particularly as you haven't given your existing holdings.

However, I do research many of the companies you mention on the list.
And simply put, if someone says X or Y company is going to do really well over the next year, then they are just talking bks unless they happen to be a heavily concentrated hedge fund manager who has the investment as one of his top 10 positions - and even then he's only going to be right slightly more than 50% of the time - IF HE'S GOOD.

My point is that even if you had all the time in the world to research 40 companies - you aren't a professional stock picker so you would be simply wasting your time.

But to my relatively uneducated eye - what you have there is a fairly diversified portfolio of companies - which, if I were you, I would just sell and bung the cash into a FTSE tracker - you have most of the big constituents anyway.

As for your Euro concerns - this again is something people make a huge song and dance about but really don't understand what they are talking about.

For example, I can't remember the exact split but I suspect VOD has more EUR profit than GBP. So really you have exposure there.
RDS for example is obviously oil exposed which is a dollar traded commodity so you are dollar exposed there.
Likewise AZN and GSK are mostly dollar exposed.

My own 2p is that the EUR is "on its arse" for a reason.
That reason is imminent interest rate rises in the US and in the UK vs. ongoing QE in the Eurozone.
So long as that becomes a reality the EUR will struggle vs. those two.
So my own view would be that I am happy to hold GBP or USD exposed equities if I wanted to buy something in EUR in a year's time.

This is not a very strong opinion however, since most of that is already in the EUR price.
If you really want to hedge it just cash out what you need today and convert it TODAY and keep it in EUR for a year.
Or do 50% of it to give you some comfort.

For something like a house deposit I would probably avoid leaving it in equities which are in their 7th year of a bull market. You might want more security than that.

But most important - GET PROFESSIONAL ADVICE.
I am sure a resident PH IFA will be along to help.
Just giving you my view from what little you gave us. IANAIFA DYOR etc...

Simpo Two

85,147 posts

264 months

Tuesday 4th August 2015
quotequote all
If you are not sure what to do, do nothing until you are (that applies to anything).

Little graphs aside, my amateur thought is that considerable simplification and 'weeding out' would save costs and therefore, all else being equal, give a better return.

arguti

1,772 posts

185 months

Wednesday 5th August 2015
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Not qualified but is it not simpler to just transfer the shares out of the estate directly to yourself and then make decisions later?

Some of those shares, for example, Royal Dutch Shell, are not doing well at the moment because of low oil price etc but I am am about to buy some ie not a good idea to jettison shares that are not performing well at the moment if you think there is long term upside.

Lord Pikey

Original Poster:

3,257 posts

214 months

Wednesday 5th August 2015
quotequote all
Thanks all.

lots of food for thought and the time frame has been eased now so we can take our time with the decision.

egomeister

6,698 posts

262 months

Wednesday 5th August 2015
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I can't comment on the bonds, but the shares listed there are focused on large stable companies which tend to deliver dividends so there should be a long term income stream from those.

In terms of wanting to move to Euros asap - why? Yes, the price is at a peak at the moment but look at the chart over 1, 3 and 5 years - it's only going one way. Even if there was a flattening or reversal between now and when you buy, it'd only be very minor relative to the timeframe of house purchase/mortgages. The recent Greek bailout only delays the problem, and helps out the banks who have funded the loans. The main thing I can see that might soften the Pound relative to the Euro is the promised EU referendum.

Ozzie Osmond

21,189 posts

245 months

Wednesday 5th August 2015
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Simpo Two said:
If you are not sure what to do, do nothing until you are.
^^^ Definitely this. The "rush" makes no sense at all. Without knowing the overall value of the portfolio, how many people are involved in receiving cash from it and how it is split between the various investments it's impossible for anyone to give you any useful guidance. IMO you need an investment adviser to help you. Why are the people dealing with the estate not able to provide that service?

Simpo Two

85,147 posts

264 months

Wednesday 5th August 2015
quotequote all
Ozzie Osmond said:
Why are the people dealing with the estate not able to provide that service?
Because solicitors don't know about finance (other than their fees).

Solicitors do legal stuff.
Financial advisers (are supposed to) know about where best to put your money.
Accountants add it up.

IMHO of course, some overlap may exist smile

Riff Raff

5,086 posts

194 months

Wednesday 5th August 2015
quotequote all
Just as an aside, a fair few of those companies are paying hefty dividends. I hold a fair few of them as yield generators. I wouldn't be selling anything until I knew when the companies were going ex-div. The BHP shares for example are paying a full year dividend of about 120p compared with a current share price of just over £12. Whether that dividend can be maintained given the current bloodbath in the mining sector is another matter, but advice like that is what you pay a financial adviser for.

Ean218

1,955 posts

249 months

Wednesday 5th August 2015
quotequote all
Simpo Two said:
If you are not sure what to do, do nothing until you are (that applies to anything).

Little graphs aside, my amateur thought is that considerable simplification and 'weeding out' would save costs and therefore, all else being equal, give a better return.
The only costs are in the managed funds. The equities and bonds don't accrue costs.

walm

10,609 posts

201 months

Wednesday 5th August 2015
quotequote all
Riff Raff said:
Just as an aside, a fair few of those companies are paying hefty dividends. I hold a fair few of them as yield generators. I wouldn't be selling anything until I knew when the companies were going ex-div. The BHP shares for example are paying a full year dividend of about 120p compared with a current share price of just over £12. Whether that dividend can be maintained given the current bloodbath in the mining sector is another matter, but advice like that is what you pay a financial adviser for.
This is a prime example of why non-professionals shouldn't do "loads" of research into stocks and then make "educated" investment decisions.

1. BHP pays around $1.20 in dividend. DOLLARS. That's a 6-7% yield. NOT 10%.
2. On the day of going ex, the stock will drop. You can't buy a stock the day before it going ex, take the div and then sell the stock for the price you paid. Sure it might bounce back a little but that is in no way guaranteed. Oh and you will lose the witholding tax even if it does bounce back.
3. The stock is down 40% over the last year or so. I am not sure 6% makes up for it.

Agree with you on the mining bloodbath though!

Greshamst

2,027 posts

119 months

Wednesday 5th August 2015
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I'd be tempted to sell the shares in individual companies, rather than the trusts, as the trusts will be reasonably balanced in themselves. I don't have time to look through the trusts, but here's my views on some of the company shares. I'm trying to keep this as basic as possible as I don't know what understanding of shares you have.

As others have said, get a real IFA to look at it to see how it's balanced and give a professional opinion.

Aviva - Quite near the highest they've been during the past 5 years, could be good to sell.

Barclays - Quite near the highest they've been since financial crisis, could be good to sell.

BP - Down a lot at the moment due to the cheap price of oil. Would hold for another 5-10 years if possible

British Land - Near the highest they've been since financial crisis. If housing market bubble bursts, then could drop, but with a lot of property in prime london, would probably hold. Depends on your view of housing market.

Glaxosmithkline - Would hold on to these for anoth3-5 years. Good dividend earner, not doing as well at the moment as in previous years, so hold in hope they'll recover.

Lloyds - Recovering well, would be a good income earner in future if they're able to increase dividends. (Unless these were bought before the HBOS takeover when they were £11, so likely to have less than 1000 shares)

Royal Dutch Shell - Same as BP, Hold waiting for oil price to rise.

Vodaphone - Hold, good income earner.

Beggarall

550 posts

240 months

Thursday 6th August 2015
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The OP does not give any idea as the total value of this portfolio nor how much is invested in any particular share. Since this is an inheritance we do not know if his wife is the sole beneficiary or whether there are others involved. Has probate been completed and is there IHT to pay?
If there is a very substantial sum to be inherited by his wife (say more than £200K) then I would suggest it worthwhile putting it in the hands of an IFA because there may be lots of alternative ways of managing this strategically taking account of long term needs and how this might fit with other sources of money within the family etc. This would also take account of the need for some immediate cash for house purchases etc. If, on the other hand, his wife’s share is small (say less than £50K) then it is probably best to sell the lot and start again, using whatever cash is needed for purchases etc. Just MHO