‘Do you know the only thing that gives me pleasure? It’s to see my dividends coming in.’ John D. Rockefeller To this day we can still relate to the words of American industrialist John D. Rockefeller, despite their utterance over a century ago. Be it a privately owned business or publicly listed stock, dividends come […]
Recent stock market volatility may have made you anxious about your pension, particularly if you are nearing retirement, but it is important to consider the wider picture to keep your plans on track. Resilient financial planning Those who stick to their carefully thought- out financial plans will inevitably be in better shape to ride out […]
The value in thinking ahead Retirement is something most of us look forward to − particularly on a Monday morning. However, those thoughts are often little more than a whimsical cocktail of not having to work and prolonged holidays. The reality could be rather different, particularly if your retirement date is some way off. For […]
The second quarter of 2020 saw a substantial switch back from the falls of the first quarter. Index 2020 Q2 Change FTSE 100 +8.8% FTSE All-Share +9.8% Dow Jones Industrial +16.4% Standard & Poor’s 500 +21.8% Nikkei 225 +17.8% Euro Stoxx 50 (€) +16.0% Shanghai Composite +8.5% MSCI Emerging Markets (£) +17.7% 2020 so […]
The adoption in the UK of a transatlantic approach to income tax could appeal to a cash-strapped Chancellor. “…only the little people pay taxes.” That 1980s comment by the New York Hotel owner Leona Helmsley sums up an attitude that many taxpayers still believe to be true. Today the same idea often manifests itself in […]
The state pension triple lock may not survive much longer. The impact of Covid-19 on earnings could mean a change in the way that state pensions are increased in each year. If nothing is done, it could give pensioners a large income boost, but cost the government dearly. At present, the new (single tier) state […]
The debate about the relative benefits of investments trusts and investment funds (unit trusts and OEICs) could be coming back into focus. Investment trusts have a history going back over 150 years, long before the first unit trust appeared in 1931 or, later still, the birth of the open-ended investment company (OEIC).The major difference between […]
The cricket season may only now be slowly getting underway, but May saw the Chancellor score two centuries which, in different times, would have deeply worried investors. Every month the Office for National Statistics (ONS) publishes a detailed summary of the public sector finances, showing how much the public sector has spent and how much […]
Action Fraud is warning the public to remain vigilant and take extra care when shopping online. Despite retail and non-essential shops re-opening across the UK, many of us continue to shop online. Action Fraud, the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cyber crime, is warning the public to remain vigilant and take extra care […]
Inheritance Tax (IHT) has come under the spotlight over the past few years; the Office of Tax Simplification have conducted a couple of reviews on the unpopular tax, which was left untouched in the Spring Budget. The good news is that, with expert planning, you can legitimately reduce the amount of IHT payable to HM […]
All too often, people put off estate planning. This is understandable as, rather than preparing for the here and now, it requires you to consider what will happen when your life is over, hardly something most of us rush to contemplate. Consequently, estate planning often becomes, and all too often remains, a do-it-tomorrow task. When […]
One perhaps unsurprising side-effect of the Covid-19 pandemic has been an upsurge of interest in wills and estate planning. However, the lockdown is constraining options. Press reports have suggested that the increased interest in will writing has been particularly high among those in the older age brackets who are more vulnerable if they become infected. […]
