Tag: retirement
Financial Planning and Divorce
No-one who is going through a divorce finds the process easy: it’s long, messy and almost always painful. Even if there are no children involved, divorce is a procedure that takes its toll on both sides: the acrimony, the paperwork – and the inevitable meetings with your solicitor. It’s understandable that many people involved in [...]
Read moreDifficult Choices – ISA or Pension Savings?
In the UK, we may be putting more savings into stocks and shares ISAs than into personal pensions. Reporting on savings trends in the 2010/2011 tax year, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said savers put £14.3bn into personal pensions in that tax year, compared with £15.8bn into stocks and shares ISAs. This compares with [...]
Read moreTake advantage of the 50% Tax Band for Pension Tax Relief
In the Budget, the chancellor announced that the top rate of income tax, payable on earnings of £150,000 or more, would fall from 50% to 45% from April 2013. This cut means that tax relief on pension contributions for earners in that tax bracket will also fall to the same level. As the measure [...]
Read moreProtected Rights – new possibilities from April 6th
Historically, many people chose to contract out of the State Earnings Related Pension Scheme using their money purchase pension. Put simply, this meant that the money that would have gone into SERPS went into their personal pensions instead – effectively, they were swapping known benefits from the Government for unknown (but potentially greater) benefits from [...]
Read moreWork longer, live longer!
New statistics published in February 2012 by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), reveal that people are working longer than they used to. The average age at which people leave the labour market – a proxy for average age of retirement – rose from 63.8 years to 64.6 years for men and from 61.2 years [...]
Read moreAuto-enrolment opportunity to save is coming up
Now that the Government has announced a clear timetable for the roll-out of auto-enrolment, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) suggests that employer pension contributions could break the ‘savings stalemate’ for more than half of people. The opportunity to benefit from employer contributions remains the single biggest reason for people to stay ‘auto-enrolled’ in new [...]
Read moreFindings reveal ‘head-in-the-sand’ attitude towards pensions
Despite the recent strikes against cuts in public sector pensions, Aviva reports that most British people have a head-in-the-sand attitude to pensions. Aviva said that few people start “actively thinking” about pensions until they are 48 years old, and take another four years before they do anything about it. Behind the failure to start preparing [...]
Read moreTen strategies for tax planning in 2012
In the theme of making New Year’s resolution’s for 2012 – an often overlooked part of putting your finances in order is making sure that your tax planning is effective. Are you claiming all the tax relief you’re entitled to? Are your investments arranged in the most tax efficient way? To give your financial planning a head [...]
Read moreTen New Year’s Resolutions for your Financial Planning
Around 50% of us make New Year’s Resolutions and ‘sort the finances out’ must be one of the most popular: but that’s a little vague – it’s more a wish than a firm commitment to take action. The main subject of many of our January appointments with both new and existing clients seem to have [...]
Read moreGovernment confirms auto-enrolment delay for small firms
With George Osborne’s Autumn Statement and the strike by public sector workers happening almost simultaneously, an announcement by Pensions Minister Steve Webb about auto-enrolment in pension schemes was never going to grab the headlines. However, the announcement does have significant implications for Britain’s small businesses. The Government is currently implementing a plan for auto-enrolment in [...]
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