Blog
The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has caused many households to reassess their financial defences with the purchase of protection insurance. The diagnosis of a serious illness can mean a tough time for your health and your wealth. If you were to become critically ill and could not earn a living, would your family cope financially? Our
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It is always important to manage expectations when investing. We often get questions about whether there is an explicit time someone must invest for how accessible the money is. How long do I have to invest for? If you are investing in an investment account or an ISA, then technically you could invest the money
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A new report from the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) has shown pension saving has crashed among the self-employed. What does it say? Back in 1998, just below half (48%) of the self-employed paid into a private pension. By 2018 this had plummeted to just 16%. The contrast with regular employees, because of auto-enrolment, is
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NHS Pensions Savings Statements are prompting enquiries on annual allowance charges. Here is a reminder of the special provisions that apply to annual allowance charges of NHS clinicians in England and Wales for the 2019/20 tax year. Many will have recently received Pensions Savings Statements for tax year 2019/20 and may have questions about their annual
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I have always been passionate about helping people feel more financially confident and achieve financial security. What this can be boiled down to is increasing financial wellbeing. The Financial Wellbeing Book, published in 2016, laid out five parts to financial wellbeing: A clear path to identifiable objectives Control of daily finances Ability to cope with
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Many investors are worried about the US election’s effect on the stock market. One school of thought is a Biden victory could lead to measures that would hit businesses. Another asserts the stock market prefers Republican victories. What does the data say? The logic of efficient markets is that anticipated events do not impact prices.
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The Government has rejected the Public Accounts Committee (PAC)’s proposal that HMRC should evaluate pensions tax relief. The concern was HRMC did not understand the impact of some of the UK’s largest tax reliefs which includes pension tax relief. The committee called for a formal review, but the Government disagreed. They pointed to several recent consultations
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The pace of the global economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic appears uneven. Recent US economic data has been at the optimistic end of expectations. However, activity in the UK, where Brexit looms large again, has lagged forecasts. The risks of a second Covid-19 wave (and, potentially, more severe lockdowns) are growing. But so too
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The Institute for Fiscal Studies the effect of the pandemic on those nearing the end of their working lives. In a new Briefing Note, the IFS investigated how workers aged 50 and over have reacted to the pandemic. This has included how their retirement plans have already been affected by the crisis. What were the findings?
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The Money & Pensions Service (MaPS) has undertaken some research among people aged 50-70 with some pension savings besides the State Pension. The results make disturbing reading: 37% of over 50s are leaving their retirement financial planning until their final two years before retirement or won’t prepare at all 35% of retirees said they left financial
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