Shipman Financial Planning offer professional, unbiased guidance to trustees of charities. The directors, being trustees or advisers to charities large and small, understand the challenges that are faced by charities when considering the use and investment of precious funds.

 

You may already have an investment portfolio but are you concerned whether this meets with the ethical criteria of your charity and donors? Are the management fees reasonable, or is your charity incurring unnecessary cost? Does the risk profile of the investment match the trustees' wishes. Has an audit ever been undertaken to confirm the above points?

 

Our approach to charity clients is aligned with our approach to private clients: we work to identify your plans, values, goals and objectives and what the charity is seeking to achieve. Only after this, if appropriate, will we look to build an investment strategy. This would include considering any ethical criteria that should be applied and how this might impact upon anticipated investment returns.

 

We help trustees when exercising the power of investment to follow the standard investment criteria on the suitability and diversification of investments. We organise the review of the investments as required and provide the proper advice when investing or reviewing those investments. Therefore, ensuring the trustees comply fully with their responsibilities under the duty of care and the Trustee Act 2000.

 

Our advisers have strong contacts with other professionals working in the charity/non-profit sector such as accountants, consultants and lawyers who specialise in this area. We also have experience in setting up charities and philanthropic structures for high-net-worth philanthropists. In addition, we provide advice to charities on cash management to ensure that they are maximising returns on bank deposits, whilst giving due consideration to the financial strength of the deposit taker.

 

Special rates are available to charities and non-profit organisations and we are happy to offer a free initial consultation to assess whether we are able to assist you with your investment needs. We are deeply committed to the charities and non-profit sector and have established a pro-bono programme which includes undertaking work for a number of charities and locally based projects.