Investing & Performance | 18 September 2025
Flexible liquidity that could support your
long-term growth plans
Balancing liquidity needs with a long-term wealth strategy could give you the flexibility you need for all your ambitions.
A major challenge within any wealth portfolio is ensuring money is both working for growth and supporting the lifestyle it was earnt to achieve. However, it’s a mistake to think the flexibility of having money to hand means offsetting part of your wealth at the cost of growth. With prudent management of your wealth through structured liquidity, it’s possible to do both.
A smart way to fund life’s milestones
In today’s fast-moving environment, having access to liquidity could mean a strategic advantage. Whether acquiring a property, funding business ventures or managing intergenerational wealth transfers, we’ve designed Investment Backed Lending to empower clients to act decisively without disrupting their long-term investment strategy or growth potential.
How Investment Backed Liquidity has helped our clients
“Usually when a client invests with us, I always suggest, and offer to set up, an option for Investment Back Lending. It’s usually long before the liquidity need arises but the option is there.” says Coutts Director Janine Brown.
“Clients like the fact that there are no set up costs and no utilisation fees. It gives them peace of mind that should a need arise for liquidity, they could have funds within a few hours.”
“One client with whom I set up the Investment Backed Lending facility was able to secure lending against their investments to put money into a business and a property. Another client had planned on cashing in investments to fund commercial projects. However, we were able to bring their investments to Coutts and then provide a considerable loan against them. They were very happy with this as Investment Backed Lending allows them to stay in the markets and the pricing was more favourable for them than commercial debt.
“The client’s goal was to make the assets work harder to produce wealth for generations to come. Leveraging the investments has allowed them to accelerate this strategy.”
If you need to borrow, then Investment Backed Lending could ensure you don’t miss out on potential higher returns from your investments. Please be aware the value of investments and the income from them can go down as well as up and you may not recover the amount of your original investment.
Preserving capital through liquidity
Leveraging the value of an existing portfolio and using your investments as collateral to access immediate funds could offer several key advantages:
- Speed: funds could be accessed quickly, enabling the family to act as a cash buyer.
- Preservation of their investment strategy: their portfolio remains intact, allowing long-term investment objectives to stay on course.
- Tax Efficiency: avoiding asset sales may reduce potential tax liabilities associated with capital gains or inheritance.
- Flexibility: the facility could be tailored to suit short-term needs while aligning with broader wealth planning goals.
Your private banker is on hand to help guide and manage your wealth in a way that is attuned to your goals and possible exposures. Personalised liquidity to help your wealth have all its desired applications is something they could help you with today.
Like any form of borrowing, it’s important to be aware of the risks versus the returns, and of what else is available. Investment backed lending is just one option and our private bankers and wealth managers are on hand to help you explore all possibilities.
Important information
Before you borrow against investments, you should understand these risks:
- If the security you provide is insufficient to support the amount you have borrowed, you may be required to rectify the shortfall at short notice – this is referred to as a margin call.
- If your borrowing is in a different currency to the limit, fluctuating exchange rates could result in the limit being exceeded and you may be required to rectify the shortfall at short notice – this is also referred to as a margin call.
- If you borrow to purchase investments and these investments are themselves provided as security for your liabilities, your losses or gains could be magnified.
- Investment values can fall as well as rise, your capital is at risk.
Lending against investments must not be used for residential property renovation or improvements.
The final decision whether to proceed must be your own and in making your decision you should carefully consider the comparison between borrowing costs and potential investment gains/losses.
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