In most cases your financial adviser will need to know about all your assets so that he/she can advise you properly. Do you want advice on your whole portfolio or just on one part of it?

Specific questions to ask yourself are:

• Do you want growth or income?
• If you want an income, how often will you need payment?
• If you want growth, when will you ultimately want the payout?
• What level of growth do you want? And how much risk/volatility in your investments value are you willing to accept in order to get it?
  • What level of security do you want; would you be willing to see your assets drop in value? If not, do you want the capital guaranteed or a certain level of growth guaranteed as well?
  • What level of growth to do you want to try for? Are you willing to see a level of volatility that may see a part of your investments go up or down by up to 50% in a year, but may risk your whole capital investment?
• How often will you want to review your investments?
• Will you be adding to your investments or is what you have now "the lot"? If it is, then how does this affect your willingness to take risk?
• Who will own the investments?
  • What is their tax situation likely to be when they receive the money?
  • Would a trust be appropriate?
  • Who will you need to control the money; the future decisions on investment and payout?

The next step is to talk to a financial adviser so that he/she can ask the questions you've not thought of and start to invent a strategy that will satisfy your needs.

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