Put it into interest earning deposit accounts with several banks/building socs. If you have a truly ace IFA ask his advice - but don't do what I did.

I have lost 45K since last January because I relied on advice from my IFA to place the house proceeds (only 300k of it) into a Whitechurch portfolio and a self-administered Tansact-online account. I made it clear I needed access to the funds to buy a house again within a year - thats now out of the window!

The funds the IFA and Whitechurch advised me to invest in were identical in both holdings but Whitechurch put no stop loss limits on anything and when the euro crunch arrived the investments lost a packet. I have since clawed my Transact-online holding back so losses stand at about 10% but when the FTSE hit 5100 after nine days of losses I just had to pull out of Whitechurch because I could not risk losing any more - and I lost over 18%. So much for what they said was an actively managed account!

IFAs say you have to look at the long term. This is a cop-out because your investments are not monitored or managed on a daily basis - these people just rely on the long term trends coming good. If you need the money within a year make sure you monitor any investments daily - or play it safe and put it into interest bearing cash deposits and make sure the deposit holders are not linked so each 85K deposit is guaranteed.

Birmingham Midshires, Post Office Savings and Yorkshire and Saffron building societies offer products where returns are linked to inflation.

The Post Office offers a five-year bond which pays a return of the retail price index plus 1.5 percentage points. So if RPI stands at 5pc a year from now, when interest is added to the account, you would get 6.5pc added to your money. The minimum investment is £500.

Yorkshire Building Society offers a similar return (RPI plus 1.5pc) although the minimum investment is £3,000. Saffron Building Society and Birmingham Midshire both pay a return equal to RPI. The Saffron Building Society is offering a six-year bond, while Birmingham Midshires has a three-year option, as well as the five-year bond for those that don't want to lock their money away for so long.

Savers should be aware that, if inflation falls, then so will the returns paid on these bonds.

Dr Jimbo. If you told your Ifa that you wanted no risk and a and capital loss.
Why did he invest it in funds which need at least a 5 year time horizon.
He should have sent you a suitability report uotlining your risk and timescale and why his advice was appropriate to this.
If it doesnt match up complain that you were missold

Open 11 banks accounts. Not that onerous if you do it on-line. I did. You should get the 3% you want. Instant access Leeds BS, Santander and lots more

Keep the money stashed in your house. Don't sell until you can buy another house/houses with it. Over the years, my money stayed well in bricks and mortar. Everywhere else, it's been eaten into by whoever was "investing" it for me.
IMHO.