The UK’s mass affluent investors[1] face an average annual income shortfall of £12,610 in retirement. This jumps to a staggering £28,000 shortfall among the mass affluent millennial population, according to the BlackRock Investor Pulse survey. Continue reading “Income matters”
The Chinese New Year, also known as ‘Spring Festival’ in China, is China’s most important traditional festival. The 2016 Chinese New Year, ‘The Year of the Monkey’, commenced on Monday 8 February. Monkeys in the Chinese zodiac are ‘clever, mischievous and curious’, so we’ll have to see if this brings about a luckier year for Chinese financial markets. Continue reading “Enter the Dragon”
Pensions have been transformed by the arrival of freedom reforms on 6 April 2015 which now give much greater flexibility over what you can do with your pension pot. The new freedoms mean you can enjoy far greater choice on how you spend and generate an income from your pensions, but with further changes on the horizon these are some of the key points you need to know. Continue reading “Navigating uncharted waters”
Taxes, as we know, are one of the two great inevitables in life. As the UK tax system continues to grow ever more complex, and with more responsibility being placed on the individual to get their own tax right, ensuring that you receive the best professional advice to optimise your tax position is paramount. Continue reading “Tax Planning”
Options to minimise how much tax you pay
By understanding which investments are the most tax-efficient, you can make the most of your options to minimise how much tax you pay. As well as deciding what to invest in, you need to think about how you’re going to hold your investments. Choosing tax-efficient investments will often mean you’re able to keep a higher proportion of any returns you make. Continue reading “Tax-efficient investments”
Time is ticking away to make smart year-end retirement planning decisions. It’s common knowledge that increasing our retirement savings will better prepare us for retirement. But in addition to saving for retirement, it’s also important to maximise on other ways to improve our retirement finances in 2016 and beyond. Continue reading “Retirement booster”
One of the key challenges some people face is imagining a retirement which may be decades away. As individuals take on more responsibility for their retirement, a clear idea of what they can expect from the State Pension and their own savings becomes ever more important. Continue reading “Future gazing”
Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) are one of the most valuable tools available to investors focused on wealth creation for the long term. There is no tax on interest payments, no higher-rate tax on dividend payments from 6 April 2016, no tax on capital gains to pay and no need to declare ISAs on a tax return. Continue reading “Beat the ISA deadline”
If you became sick or injured, how would you meet your monthly financial commitments or even your medical bills as you recover? Protection insurance can be a valuable safety net for you or your family should you become ill or die. More than one in five (23%) Britons with savings say their savings wouldn’t last longer than a couple of months if they were unable to work, yet less than one in twenty protects their income. Continue reading “Financial resilience”
Last year, the Chancellor announced a significant change to Individual Savings Account (ISA) inheritance rules – a change that has the potential to improve the situation of around 150,000 widows or widowers a year. Continue reading “Keeping it in the family”
