First Light Investments

Here are a few examples which give a snapshot of the diversity of our work.

Low Risk High Income Funds November 2008

Dear Peter, Thank you for coming to see us again this morning. It has been ten years now since G retired and we both look forward to our regular meetings with you and I know G...... likes to show off at the Golf Club with all he has learned from talking to you over the years.

We were looking at your new website and I thought I would write to say what a marvellous thing you did for us in 1998 when G...... retired. If you remember, we came to see you to try to try and make more income from our money and I was very worried because I did not want to take any risks with it.

You recommended that we put a lot of our money in the Ground Rent Fund. I distinctly remember you saying that it would be very steady and not to expect any surprises. But that if we took 5% per year we would have this without paying any tax and our investment should grow steadily every year.

Since then the value of our investment has gone up by over a half and so has the income

Again, thank you.

Peter writes.......

Mr and Mrs O...... are lucky to have money in one of our Professional Investor Funds - the original Ground Rent Fund and have seen returns averaging 10+% per year since 1998.
During all the time they have been invested the fund has never gone down in value.
Over the years we have managed to source a number of examples of this type of fund with the Holy Grail in a sense being high income at the lowest possible risk and whose values do not go up or down with the markets. This type of fund generally invest in assets which are limited in volume so the funds are not made widely available and do not advertise.
We run a low risk higher income portfolio the Specialist High Income Portfolio, which is made up of a small number of these funds. This is very popular, particularly to provide regular income from investments for retired clients and also for pension drawdown funds, for which the regular growth in 'monthly steps' make them ideal.

Divorce settlements

Mrs J.. from Stamford writes:

Thank-you Peter for your extremely helpful advice yesterday. I was most impressed how quickly you came up with a very workable solution to the financial problems of my divorce, finding a way through the mortgage and pension issues with rapid calculations and I am looking forward to getting everything organised properly at last. I will certainly recommend you to anyone I know who is in looking for help with their finances.

Hope that this will look good on your web site! I did wonder about saying there was light at the end of the tunnel having consulted First Light Investments but maybe not...Anyway I am really grateful for the help thus far. Today I rang the Building Soc. to request an up to date statement of the mortgage so those figures will be to hand, postal strikes permitting.

Peter writes.......

We meet numbers of individuals who, having reached an agreed settlement in their divorce proceedings come to us for good financial advice.

In this case Mrs J....., after a number of years and much expense with solicitors and consulting other local financial advisers, was getting nowhere.

By utilising one of the partner's pension arrangements we came up with a balance of the assets which was a sensible solution to the whole issue and laid this down clearly so that both sets of solicitors should clearly understand it and bring matters to the swift conclusion that my client (and her bank balance) required.

Remote Financial Advisory and Planning Solutions

Peter, thank you for arranging my new investment; being able to start it off immediately without the need for cheques and paperwork is such a boon. I know you did tell me not to look every day and I am trying not to, but looking at them all online is addictive and the laptop is out every morning before I get picked up for the refinery.

How was Christmas, its 37 degrees here?

J D - Singapore

Peter writes.......

Increasingly we have numbers of clients who have business interests abroad or have moved away, often they are in the UK for very short periods of time and do not have the time for a traditional face-to-face consultation.

We can provide a secure, on-line, active wealth management service, First Light Wealth, which allows viewing and control of the entire portfolio of investments and pensions from one web page.

For those who do not have the time for a traditional face-to-face consultation, or are abroad for much of the time, we are able to provide remote financial advisory and planning solutions to suit the clients' agenda. Plus our web technology also allows us to organise new onshore and offshore investments and pensions in many countries and major currencies. We can run a completely paper-free, Internet based, systematic wealth management and advice service without the need for face-to-face meetings.

In addition our advice fees for direct services of this type are substantially lower than our traditional face-to-face services.

Inheritance Tax and Equity Release

Dear Mr Dracup

My sons and I wish to sincerely thank you for organising my Equity Release, as you know they used the money as deposits for their new homes and both families have moved in just in time for Christmas.

G R - Uppingham

Peter Writes.......

In this case we have sorted out two issues for Mrs R and her family.

1. Both sons received a major amount of money to put down as deposits on their new homes.
2. The family's potential Inheritance Tax Bill when mum goes has been reduced by a 6 figure sum.

Equity Release can offer a great advantage in that funds can be passed down the generations immediately to reduce an Inheritance Tax liability and can also be used to set up such as Trust Funds and Education Funds for grandchildren.

High Risk Strategic Fund

Dazzling performance Peter, all my funds are going up faster than the grain prices. You have shown me that there is another way and have weaned me off stocks and shares for good.

Mr G writes from his farm in Leicestershire early 2008

Peter writes.......

We advised Mr G to put a small part of his wealth into our Specialist Strategic Portfolio. This is a very high-risk fund and is only intended for the professional investor.

Like our Specialist High Income Portfolio, the ideas for Our Strategic Fund have grown from 15 years of our experiences of sourcing specialist investments for clients. It builds on regular information and contacts, connections, colleagues and friends in the fund management industry, strategic political and fund advisory groups and Sovereign Wealth Fund advisers from various parts of the world.

We also work closely with award winning Discretionary Fund Management Groups.

As an example of the type of regular information we take on board, we get daily blogs from two advisers to the US Treasury and new and tips from old friends and contacts that run extremely successful Hedge Funds from respectively London and New York.

When Mr G wrote in early 2008, the Fund's recent past history in 2006, 2007 and early 2008 showed a wide spread of regional specialists and investment managers in many of the World's emerging growth economies.

At the moment (March 2009) the fund composition reflects a number of political issues and responses to the current World recession. For example, as I write it has a large holding in smaller company funds based in the USA, to take advantage of President Obama's vast new spending. In addition it also has a substantial metals holding.