Month: January 2020

Financial resolutions

What does wealth look like to you?

Whether it’s stopping smoking, losing weight, eating more healthily or getting fitter, most of us have probably made at least one New Year’s resolution, but how many of us will actually go on to achieve it? We all have different financial goals and aspirations in life, yet these goals can often seem out of reach. In today’s complex financial environment, achieving your financial goals may not be that straightforward.

Life is full of uncertainties

If the worst were to happen, would your bills still get paid?

Everyone should consider protection, even those who don’t have a family or a mortgage! Unless they have substantial savings or inherited wealth, most people rely on their salary to pay for everything. Over the years, you may have taken out a number of different insurance policies to give you and your family financial security. Perhaps this may have been when you started a family, took out a mortgage or became self-employed.

Tax-efficient investing

Legitimate ways for higher earners to reduce a tax bill

Without a carefully developed tax planning strategy, higher-rate taxpayers run the risk of missing out on key tax benefits and paying more in taxes than necessary. A higher tax liability can diminish the value of your investment earnings over the long term.

Estate protection

Preserving your wealth and transferring it effectively

Estate planning is an important part of wealth management, no matter how much wealth you have built up. It’s the process of making a plan for how your assets will be distributed upon your death or incapacitation.

Pension freedoms

Retirees now have a whole host of new options

The pension freedoms, introduced on 6 April 2015, have given retirees a whole host of new options. There is no longer a compulsory requirement to purchase an annuity (a guaranteed income for life) when you retire. The introduction of pension freedoms brought about fundamental changes to the way we can access our pension savings.

ISA returns of the year

Time to explore your ISA options?

An Individual Savings Account (ISA) enables you to save in a simple, tax-efficient way, while generally giving you instant access to your money. This gives you short, medium and long-term saving options, and with the end of the current tax year not too far away, it’s important to make the most of your annual tax-free ISA allowance.

Age is just a number

What rising life expectancy could mean for you

We know that age is just a number, and for different people it means different things. It’s also a phrase used by some people who oppose age restrictions. In the UK, 65 years of age has traditionally been taken as the marker for the start of older age, most likely because it was the official retirement age for men and the age at which they could draw their State Pension.

How prepared are you for retirement?

Planning ahead helps ensure that you’re on track

You work hard to enjoy your current lifestyle, but are you doing enough to ensure that you will continue to enjoy it in retirement? Many of us live for today, but saving into a private pension plan can help you retire sooner rather than later.

The big questions to ask before you retire

Are you on track to enjoy the retirement you want?

If you’re among the many older UK workers who will say farewell to full-time work in the next five years, now’s a good time to make sure you’re truly prepared. Whether you’re viewing the next phase of life as retirement, semi-retirement or an unknown adventure, it’s essential that you obtain professional financial advice. From age 55, you have the flexibility to choose how you take some or all of your money from your pension.

Wealth uplift

Calculating the value of financial advice

Quantifying the value of financial advice has always been a challenge because people who receive financial advice have different characteristics to those who do not. But what if it was now possible to quantify the value of financial advice and isolate a pure ‘advice effect’? This is exactly what the researchers at the International Longevity Centre – UK (ILC) have been able to calculate.