ABOUT CARLTON SMITH PRIVATE WEALTH

Your partners in planning a comfortable, secure future

You want to look forward to life after work, with the best financial arrangements possible to suit your circumstances and outlook. We can help you to achieve that goal. You’ll want trusted advisors who bring fresh clarity to the process and deliver peace of mind about your income, your life plan and your retirement. We’re committed to helping you make informed decisions about your financial future, so you can trust your investments and plans, and move forward on a clear, confident path towards your goals.

Nic Carlton-Smith, Director & Life Planner

Money is not the solution in itself; it is merely a tool. Our role is to help you understand your financial future and help you achieve your dreams.

OUR PHILOSOPHY

It’s about money, but also much more...

Working out what you need to do financially to achieve your goals in life is an emotional calculation. Our job is to help you define what life beyond work means to you and to realise the steps you need to take, making the best use of all opportunities, to get there. Planning your finances for your future isn’t taught in schools, which is why we see it as vital to educate our clients about all the possibilities that exist to help them save efficiently, pay less tax and have more in retirement. On the surface we sell insurance, pensions and investments, but underneath we are really selling reassurance and contentment. We’re in the business of helping you to use your wealth to create the future you want to live.

  • Respect Honesty, openness and professionalism are key. Our benchmark for all advice is: ‘Would I sell this to my own family?’
  • Empathy We care about your future and dig deep to put ourselves in your shoes and understand your needs, aims and motivations.
  • Passion Nothing brings us greater joy than seeing people’s lives transformed. Our mission is to show clients the way to a peaceful, contented life in retirement.
How we can help you

The case of 'How much is enough?'

Neil and Sue Builder worked hard, very hard. But then they enjoyed the lifestyle which they had created for themselves and their daughters Rebecca and Lucy.

Neil was 45 and he had a plan – his own financial plan. Because Neil hated three things: His mortgage. Pensions. But most of all, financial advisers!

Read Neil & Sue's journey

The Case of Mr & Mrs 'Got-Too-Much'

Read their story

The Case of Mr and Mrs '10 Years Younger'

Read their story

The Case of 'Too Much Risk'

Read their story

The Case of "Are We There Yet?"

Read their story

OUR TEAM

Gain from our experience and expertise

No-one is an island, and in addition to those of us meeting clients for one-to-one consultations and personal reviews, we have a highly effective office team who are fully-versed in all our products, services, and systems. Efficient, professional and amiable, we bring a human dimension to the process while we focus on helping you achieve your goals.

Meet our team

Your Options

Solutions to suit your lifestyle

Years of helping people use their money efficiently to create a comfortable future has shown us that you all have your own outlook, priorities and ambitions. What’s your vision? We will help you get there.

Your Options

FROM OUR CLIENTS

Nic has worked with us for the past 3 or 4 years and we have found him to be easy to talk to, professional, proactive and he thinks ‘outside the box’. We have used Carlton Smith Private Wealth to make investments for our SSAS and Nic has helped explain these clearly. We would have no hesitation in recommending Nic and his company.

Read more of the testimonial M Boatright - Ultra Trade Frames Limited (corporate client) Suffolk

"I write this note in gratitude and recognition of the power of your 'system'.

For the years my wife and I have been working with you, the annual review and the regular investment suggestions have been very useful and always carried out in an efficient and sociable atmosphere - and in itself that had seemed enough.

However, the forecasting part of your system has proved particularly useful in recent months........... when I lost my very well paid job in Q4 of 2011 with no certainty where the next employment was coming from, I was obviously very concerned.

However, with your forecasting system we were able to put different future employment 'vs' early retirement scenarios to the test and discover that even the 'almost worst scenario' would allow us to live our lives in the style to which we have become accustomed! This was obviously aided by the stringent savings/pension routine that you suggested we commence 2 or 3 years ago - another benefit.

So whilst this has not reduced my desire for a fruitful and rewarding 'final' career, it has taken away the stress and curiously enough the removal of that stress has allowed me to re-evaluate what I would like to do for the next 8? years - watch this space.....

I would like to recommend your system to any potential new client with best wishes."

Read more of the testimonial JB (Managing Director of a construction firm)

"It was evident from the outset that Carlton Smith Private Wealth’s approach to our finances was going to be different to that which we had previously experienced. After selling our business some four years previously, my wife and I had been looking for a financial adviser to help us to achieve our goals and more importantly really understand what we wanted to achieve over our lifetime.

We knew that we weren’t able to live just off the interest that cash generated and that we had to plan for the future and in the most tax efficient way possible.

Nic Carlton Smith completed a thorough and very detailed analysis of our personal circumstance looking at both the present and various scenarios of different paths our lives could take in the future. This was truly a different approach from other IFA’s and financial advisers we had previously met. It was refreshing to meet a firm that wanted to build up the detail step-by-step and to give us the fullest possible picture from which to make our final decisions. At no time were we rushed or coerced into making decisions or going down routes we didn’t feel appropriate. Nic Carlton Smith made recommendations and stripped away the mystery that seems to surround so many financial products and spent time explaining their investment process in considerable detail to us. As part of the planning review process they also managed to incorporate our pensions into the overall strategy and at the same time resolve a long standing issue with the scheme we were then part of.

We are cautious investors wanting to look after what we had managed to achieve and I am delighted that Carlton Smith constructed and recommended a strategy based on our needs and outlook.

I would have no hesitation in recommending Carlton Smith to anyone needing financial advice."

Read more of the testimonial T & C (Former company owner and his wife, Norfolk)

"My wife and I have been advised by Nic Carlton Smith, from Carlton Smith Private Wealth, for quite a few years now. We enjoy the personal service and have found Nic a friendly, helpful individual who has given us a greater feeling of security with our finances. We are pleased that he spent the time with us to fully understand our circumstances and aspirations before coming back to us with an initial plan. He continues to meet with us on an on-going basis to ensure that our finances are managed in line with our changing needs.

Through his expertise he has provided us with a well-managed growing portfolio with regular communication and a personalised cash flow each year. This cash flow was particularly important when deciding if we could upsize our house and still afford to maintain our current lifestyle and retirement aspirations. Thankfully, the cash flow showed that we have no problem and are currently putting in an offer for a house we have fallen in love with. Thanks again."

Read more of the testimonial ND (Managing Director and Owner of UK-Wide Medical Supplies Company)

We were introduced to Nic during 2012 and after our initial discussion we decided to place our financial future in the hands of Nic and his team.

A complete overhaul of our pensions, ISA's and other investments was carried out with a view to reaching a satifactory position when we retire.

To date we have had several meetings at our company and Nic's office and we have been very impressed with the depth of knowledge, quality of work and effort put in to achieve this.

Nic and his team are very helpful with what to us is a very complex procedure and we feel confident that we can look forward to retirement with the best financial arrangements possible in our circumstances.

Read more of the testimonial D&J W – Corporate and private clients (Suffolk)

I first made contact with Nic after looking for a local financial adviser. From the very first meeting, I found him very personable and he set aside much more time than the ‘allotted hour’ to understand my aspirations and requirements. He was very proficient at explaining quite complex financial matters in terms that I could readily follow and it was clear that he fully understood what the local team could do well and when it was appropriate to make use of the expertise provided by their external support network (the same way that I would approach matters in my own line of expertise). I also felt he was genuinely interested in helping me to protect the funds I had available and had a real vocation to help me make the right decisions to secure long-term financial security for my family as I planned for early retirement; this contrasted with the apparent ‘we know best’ approach that we had encountered when meeting with other potential financial advisors. I brought my wife along to the subsequent meeting to gain a second opinion (she had attended the meetings with other potential advisors) and afterwards we both agreed that ‘cspwealth’ was the right advisory group to entrust with our financial planning guidance and support. The lead-in time I gave Nic to put the appropriate financial investment and management tools in place was quite short (as I hoped to be able to retire next Spring) but the support and tools available to him and his colleagues have facilitated rapid progress and we are as confident as anyone can be in this volatile financial market that I will be able to move smoothly from employment into retirement without significant change to the standard of living that we have become used to in recent years. I have no hesitation in recommending Nic and his team. Thanks Nic!

Read more of the testimonial DM (Senior Research Scientist based in Suffolk).

PLAN YOUR FUTURE

Every journey begins with the first step

Excited by the thought of your money working harder for you, and creating a secure future for you and your family? Call us today on 01449 615714, or click the button below to drop us a line.

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