Lump Sum Investment Advice

oldboy1

Hi All

My father has asked me to help him decide on how to invest his nest egg and I would welcome any suggestions from the learned contributors to this forum.

He is almost eighty and lives alone so doesn't want to enter into any long term investments. And also high risk investments are out due to his age.

His health is okay but not great and basically he wants to best manage his money to ensure that A He can be comfortably looked after if he ever needs to go into a home and B He can leave a few bob to his three children when he dies.

He is looking to invest circa 400K so here are my questions:

Is there any point in this stage of his life in diversifying his investment portfolio considering that he does not want to be locked into anything longer than 12 or 24 months max?

Should I just survey the market on the consumer agency website to see who is giving the best rate for lump sums at the moment and go with them?

Is there any advantage to going to a financial adviser when you bear in mind he only wants a basic low risk return with the deposit amount guaranteed?

He currently has a Current Account with Bank Of Ireland who are chasing him to invest the lump sum with them - will I be in a position to ask for better terms than their advertised rates? Do they have any leeway to match their competitors' rates?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Regards

OB

yard_king

the time line you present is far too short for a decent return on investments , the only thing i would recomend is short term goverment or corporate bonds and since none of those pay any more than irish banks , i would say , stick in the post office or bank and get over 3% which is pretty good in the present climate

you need to give yourself ten years when it comes to playing the markets , if you had put 400 k in the markets in 2002 , you wouldnt have made a penny , such was the sell off in 2008 and 2009 , theese things happen and no one know if they wont happen again

a financial advisor would tell your dad to put the vast bulk of it in bonds even he had a longer timeframe as that is the rule of thumb which they opperate under

if your 25 , they recomend you invest 25% in bonds - 75% in equities

if your 50 , its 50 - 50 in each

if your eighty , 80% in bonds

two year bonds pay less than savings interest rates as interest rates on savings in ireland are very high

handlemaster

don't take any chances get a paid financial advisor. You don't want your dad to get stressed or worried at this time of his life.

sean_wayne

handlemaster wrote: »

don't take any chances get a paid financial advisor. You don't want your dad to get stressed or worried at this time of his life.

yes but make sure its an independant one

those who work for banks and refer to themselves as financial advisors are sales persons