Tag: wealth management
A look at what IFP do for our clients…
This section of our quarterly newsletter will look at a specific case study and demonstrate how you can identify which of your clients we may be able to help, how we provide our services and the results of providing high quality independent professional financial advice. The Retiring Business Owner Case Study Mr Owner aged 57 and [...]
Read moreMay Market Commentary
Wednesday April 25th must have been the morning David Cameron felt like phoning in sick. The Office of National Statistics officially confirmed that a shock 0.2% contraction in growth had pushed the UK into its first double dip recession since the 1970s. Meanwhile the Levenson Inquiry rumbled on with Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt facing calls to [...]
Read moreFinancial 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 moreWhat are your financial goals?
Working in financial planning we come across a varied range of individuals who often arrive with generic financial objectives with regards to investing money such as to outperform the FTSE 100 Index or a range of other sectors or benchmarks. If an investment achieves this it is perceived to have done well, if not then [...]
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 more5 Qualities an IFA brings to your investment portfolio
Let’s assume for a moment that you’re in the happy position of having £100,000 to invest. What would you do? Play absolutely safe and put the money on deposit? Or go all out for capital growth and put your windfall into a fund that could give you a sky-high return – but that carries an [...]
Read moreApril Market Commentary
March was a month which began with headlines about the Greek debt crisis and the impending ‘final deadline.’ By the end of the month the focus – in Britain at least – had shifted to Granny Tax, Cornish Pasties and the shortage of petrol. On March 7th world stock markets suffered some of their worst [...]
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 moreBeware of the dog – the importance of monitoring funds regularly
If you watch the money programmes on TV or read the financial pages of the newspapers, you might have come across the term ‘dog fund.’ What does the term mean? And why is it so important to the ordinary investor? Put simply, a ‘dog’ is a poorly performing investment fund. Let me explain in more [...]
Read moreGuarding against Inheritance Tax biting into your estate
It is never too early to start planning where inheritance tax (IHT) is concerned. At the very least, you should keep a watching brief on the value of assets that could be part of your estate, particularly in relation to the inheritance tax nil-rate band. This has not changed since 2009 and whilst it is [...]
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