We advise on financial planning, investments, pensions, retirement, inheritance tax and estate planning. Independent, paid by you rather than by a provider, with the scope and the fee agreed in writing before any work begins.
Submit your enquiryWhat independent means here
Sterling & Law advises across the whole of the relevant market rather than from one provider's range. Every piece of work starts with a written scope and a written fee, every client has a named adviser, and we would rather tell you early that you do not need advice than bill you for finding out slowly.
About us
What we do
We would rather be genuinely useful across a few connected areas than adequate across many. Where something falls outside them — tax return work, conveyancing, drafting a will — we say so and point you to someone who does it properly.
Independent, whole-of-market advice built around what you are actually trying to do.
Learn morePortfolio construction and ongoing management, with the costs and the risk stated plainly.
Learn moreWorkplace and personal pensions found, costed, and consolidated only where it helps.
Learn moreDrawdown, annuity, and the sequencing decisions that determine how long the money lasts.
Learn moreQuantify the likely liability first, then look at options — in that order.
Learn moreWills, trusts, powers of attorney and nominations — coordinated rather than collected.
Learn moreStart here
Nobody wakes up wanting "decumulation strategy". They have a drawer of pensions, a date they would like to stop working, or a sum of money and no idea what to do with it. Pick whichever sounds closest.
Timing
Very little in financial planning is urgent in the way a legal deadline is. But several things expire quietly, and the commonest reason a good option disappears is that nobody knew there was a date attached.
Most annual allowances do not carry forward. Whatever is unused at midnight on 5 April is generally gone, and the weeks before it are the busiest and worst time to make a considered decision.
Unused pension annual allowance can often be carried forward for a limited number of previous years. The oldest year drops off each April, so the window closes gradually rather than all at once.
Many gifts only fall fully outside an estate after a period of years, with the benefit building over time. Starting earlier is the single biggest advantage available in this area, and it cannot be bought later.
Where someone dies holding a pension, there is a limited window for benefits to be dealt with before the treatment can change. Beneficiaries are frequently unaware a period applies at all.
Poor returns early in retirement do permanent damage that identical returns later would not. The withdrawal rate set at the start matters more than any decision taken afterwards.
An LPA can only be made while the person making it has capacity. After that the route is a court application — slower, more expensive and more intrusive, at the worst possible moment.
General descriptions of how the rules commonly work, given to show which questions are time-sensitive. Not advice, and not a substitute for checking the position that applies to your own circumstances. Tax rules change and depend on individual circumstances.
Being useful
We work alongside the people you already use — accountants, solicitors, employers’ benefit schemes. Being brought in for one part of a question is a normal way to instruct us, not an awkward one.
Written by the people who do the work
Most people have more arrangements than they remember, and the forgotten ones are not always the small ones. What to look for, and the guarantees that get thrown away by accident.
Read more
Two retirements with identical average returns can end very differently. The difference is which years were the bad ones — and it is the single most underrated risk in drawdown.
Read more
Inheritance tax planning usually starts with a product. It should start with a number — and that number is often smaller than people fear.
Read moreA first conversation at our cost, and an honest view on whether advice would change anything for you.
