Monthly Archives: January 2017
Portfolio protection
Are we seeing the return of inflation?
It has been easy to grow complacent about inflation in recent years. The rate of inflation has remained stubbornly low, but could inflation be finally returning to Western economies, aided by the ‘Trumpflation effect’?
Sustainable investing
Strategies to meet some of the most pressing global challenges ahead
Sustainable investing has gathered momentum across the world in the past decade as investors look for financial returns while helping to achieve a positive impact on the world around them.
What are you planning for in 2017?
How to look forward to what you want to accomplish
When was the last time you wrote down your goals? More importantly, when was the last time you revisited them?
Assessing current and forecasted wealth
Making the most of your money to achieve your financial objectives
To be in a position to navigate the financial aspects of your unique life’s journey, you need to regularly track your progress towards key goals such as paying off your mortgage, buying a second home, building a retirement fund or setting up an Inheritance Tax trust.
Looking ahead to your retirement years
Making sure you can sustain the level of income you need
From stopping work altogether to a slow and gradual reduction of commitments – retirement means different things to different people. Making sure you can sustain the level of income you need as you move away from full-time employment or your business interests is key to a long and happy retirement.
Pension power
Take full advantage of tax relief – annual and lifetime limits
Pensions are a highly tax-efficient form of saving, and if possible you should take full advantage of funding your pension contributions to the maximum allowable. You receive tax relief on contributions that you pay into your pension. Tax relief means some of your money that would have gone to the Government as tax goes into your pension instead. You can put as much as you want into your pension, but there are annual and lifetime limits on how much tax relief you get on your pension contributions.
Take your pension to the max
Why monitoring the value of your pensions is important
A lifetime allowance puts a limit on the value of pension benefits that you can receive without having to pay a tax charge. The lifetime allowance is £1 million for the tax year 2016/17.
Self-invested personal pensions
Freedom to choose and manage your own investments
A self-invested personal pension (SIPP) is a pension ‘wrapper’ that holds investments until you retire and start to draw a retirement income. It is a type of personal pension and works in a similar way to a standard personal pension. The main difference is that with a SIPP, you have greater flexibility with the investments you can choose.
Misplaced pension pots
Do you have any forgotten or lost pension policies?
It’s not always easy to keep track of a pension, especially if you’ve been in more than one scheme or have changed employer throughout your career. The extent to which pension policies are being forgotten has been revealed in research from Aviva. A survey of almost ten thousand people who hold a pension has revealed that just under one in eight (13%) admitted they have at least one pension that they had forgotten about[1]. This is equal to more than 2.5 million pension policies currently sitting in the back of people’s minds[2].