Everything that goes into growing the money in an investment plan or pension involves time and money. You should expect to pay a reasonable level of charges. These charges do reduce growth. Let us use an example where the underlying investments within a plan grew by 5% before charges. If charges were 1%, they would
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Junior ISAs (JISAs) became available from November 2011. Both cash and stocks and shares JISAs are available. Children can hold one of each at a time (two accounts in total). Who is eligible? All UK resident children under the age of 18 who do not have a Child Trust Fund (CTF) are eligible for JISAs.
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On 25 March the Coronavirus Act 2020 received Royal Assent. It is a bumper piece of legislation, running to 348 pages and covering a wide range of areas (many excluding Scotland because of its devolved powers), including: Food supply; Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) modifications, such as the funding of the employer’s liabilities; Suspension of the rules that
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On Friday the Chancellor gave a graphic illustration of what ‘whatever it takes’ means. After waiting a year and a half for a Budget, within the space of nine days we have had three. The latest, presented in Downing Street was a real money-no-object blockbuster: Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme This type of scheme echoes measures
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Zoom is a video meeting app which is like skype but works on any device. All you need is a device with a camera, a screen, a microphone and speakers. This could be a laptop, tablet, or your phone. It is safe and secure. It works very well, and also allows us to share screens.
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As the world grapples with a global pandemic, we face a tough time. There are lots of opinions on Covid-19, some more informed than others. Our role is not to add to these but to advise them on how they have impacted on their financial planning. Stock markets across the world have fallen, recovered briefly,
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Further to the recent government announcements and in the interest of staff, their families, and our clients, we will have a reduced team in the office. Also, all client face to face meetings are suspended over the short term. Any staff who are not in the office will be working remotely. If you have a
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It is an unbelievable 500 days since the last Budget in October 2018. The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has only been in the job a few weeks and to say the Budget will have represented a challenge for him is a massive understatement. Even more so given current world events. Budget Day started with an announcement
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As you might imagine, this is a question clients ask us often. A rule of thumb is the “4% rule”. This means on a £100,000 pot you would withdraw £4,000 and increase the withdrawals each year with inflation. Taking any more runs the risk of the pot dwindling and running dry within 30 years. We
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Every year, thousands of people lose millions of pounds due to investment scams. Technological advances mean scams are becoming more common and harder to identify. There are some warning signs you can use to avoid falling victim to scammers. Investment scams aim to get unsuspecting people to hand over money. They can seem legitimate, appearing
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It is natural to see headlines about world markets falling and to worry about your portfolio. While it is never fun to see your portfolio take a hit, losses are a normal part of investing. Over the last near eight years, our portfolios have fallen in value a significant portion of the time. A key
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The returns you can get from your money can mean different things to different people. To some, getting better returns is something to boast about. We believe returns are meaningless unless they go towards making your life better in some way. This can be being able to retire earlier or being able to help loved
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When taking an income from your pension pot, you will start with two choices. Do you want to hand over your money to an insurance company and they will pay you an income for the rest of your life? Or do you want to keep a pot of money from which you decide how much
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A survey of 2,000 people reveals we spend 110 hours a year think about what might have been. Eight out of ten believe their lives would be better if they had taken more risks. The most common regrets were: Not saving more when younger Not keeping in touch with old friends Not taking the plunge
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Investing comes with risks. We have covered before why it is not a good idea to take more risk with your portfolio than you are willing to. Something else you need to get right is to not take more risk than what you can afford to take. We call this your risk “capacity”. Imagine being
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On Friday 7th February, the House of Commons Library (HoCL) issued a briefing paper entitled ‘Reform of Pension Tax Relief’. The following day the front page of the Financial Times (FT) ran a headline “Javid eyes tax raid on high earners”. The article suggested restricting tax relief on contributions to 20% could “raise more than
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If you want to make better decisions with your money, we can help. However, working with us is not for everyone. We help our clients take the necessary steps to get the most out of their money. There are some things some expect from us which bear little relevance to what we do. Some of
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Although often in the news, Inheritance Tax (IHT) is easy to misunderstand. If you thought IHT was for wealthy people to worry about, think again. Rising property prices have meant more estates than ever are likely to face an IHT bill. The amount of IHT collected has doubled over the last decade. If your estate
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To be in control of your money, you should have a plan for what you spend. This allows you to give each pound you make a purpose. Although this may seem like a lot of work, it is key to lasting financial success. A good spending plan will help you take each financial step as
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Perhaps you have been asked to be a trustee or you are considering setting up a trust yourself. In either case, there are a few things you should know before deciding. Being a trustee requires a certain level of involvement. This blog post should hopefully give an insight into what is involved. What does a
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Divorce is one of the most difficult subjects to talk about. The emotional upheaval of divorce can be difficult to deal with. So too can the financial implications. When relationships end, there are so many things to consider. Children, home, and support are the first things you focus on. When you begin the process of
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Getting the most out of life can be like climbing a mountain. The goal is to reach the peak and hoist up your flag. The journey will be challenging, so you need to be passionate about it. Most financial plans involve investing and markets always have difficult periods. It is essential to have something to
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Over time, those who have invested money into the world equity markets have generally done best. However, investing our hard-earned money, and the risks involved, can make any of us feel nervous. Any decision you make involves risks. The decision to invest is no different. Whatever you invest will go down in value as well
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Proposed rules mean solicitors must increase their due diligence on whoever they refer to. So, what does this mean for law firms? The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) urges firms to have a holistic picture of their client’s needs. Part of this is having formal relationships with financial planners such as ourselves. There are clear links
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The start of the new year is the time when tax planning comes to the fore in the financial planning calendar. It gives enough time to put anything in place before the end of the tax year on April 5th. But does the General Election on 12th December mean tax planning should take place early?
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Doing the right thing with your pensions is not always easy but it has become much harder for members of the NHS pension scheme. Many have incurred tax bills through no fault of their own. Some are opting out of their pension schemes altogether to avoid tax. Giving up the lucrative benefits afforded by the
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Many of us go to great lengths to protect what we have while we are here. We put in alarm systems, smart doorbells, thick locks. However, most of us do not do anything about protecting what we have when we are gone. A new survey by the British Heart Foundation found 61% of people do
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Our portfolios incorporate how to maximise the chances of long-term investment success. This means nothing if we do not invest for the long term. We built our investment process on the belief that over the long term, the global economy will reward those who invest in it with suitable returns. We also believe the investment
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We can get the answer to just about anything in a few clicks. However, the difference between getting a solution and the one which is right for you can be huge. This difference is where the value of good advice is. The truth is everybody would probably benefit from financial advice in some way. Saving
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We covered how we decide where our clients should invest in an earlier post. Now we move onto what to invest into. We believe where to invest is the primary consideration when making investment recommendations. However, what to invest into is also important. Rather than buying a bunch of shares, bonds, or properties, we recommend
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In a previous post, we explained the guidelines clients should invest by. We will now start to explain how we put this into practice for clients. A lot of financial industry talk can lead you to believe there is a “perfect” recipe for what you should invest in. Sadly, you can only know the perfect
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Financial planning is key to resolving worries about money. It may be useful to think about financial planning in terms of some common concerns: Will we be able to support our current standard of living in retirement? Can we manage financially if one or both of us needs long term care? What happens to my
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If something were to happen to you, the last thing you want is to be worrying about money. Financial planning is not just about getting what we want from life. It is also about protecting our loved ones. We do not like to think about illness and death but ignoring them can have severe consequences.
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Lifetime financial planning done correctly has to include a fluid financial forecast created using sophisticated planning software. We take a snapshot of your financial situation and project this forward year by year. The process is only as comprehensive as the information we put into it. The more information we put in, the better the output. The
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We have spent considerable time and effort in building a portfolio construction process sitting at the forefront of the profession. Its genesis lies in answering a simple question: ‘What should we do to ensure clients have the best chance of investment success?’ This has ultimately led to a series of underlying questions which we will
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