These guides provide general information only, and do not represent a recommendation for any course of action. It is advisable that you discuss your personal financial circumstances with a suitably qualified financial planner before undertaking any financial decisions. If you have any questions arising from these guides, please do get in touch.
Investment planning and asset allocation
Investment planning is now more of a science than an art. Technology, everincreasing investment opportunities and stricter regulation have all encouraged a more scientific approach. But has your investment strategy kept pace?
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Financial protection for you and your family
Financial resilience is the ability to recover quickly from an unexpected fi nancial shock. Many of us insure our homes and cars without really thinking about it, but far fewer insure their lives and incomes. If you were unable to earn due to illness, have you thought about how you would pay your household bills? Savings can and do help in the short-term
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Investing for children
Most parents want to help their children financially, whether it is making sure there is enough money for their education or eventually helping them to buy a property. An early objective as they grow up may well be to help children understand the value and importance of money.
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Business succession planning
If you are a business owner, business succession planning and insurance is important. It is simply the process of planning for what you want to happen if you (or your co-owner, if you have one) were to die or fall seriously ill.
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The financial planning journey
Financial planning isn't just reserved for the especially wealthy. Whether we're aware of it or not, all of us are on a financial planning journey and nearly all of us will want to make the most of our money where we can. Whether it's a change in our circumstances, for example on marriage or divorce or on starting a family, starting to save for or to take retirement or investing to provide for our children's education, financial planning can help everyone across all stages of their lives.
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Pensions tax planning for high earners
If you are a high earner and feel you are paying more and more tax, you are not alone. More than one in seven income tax payers are taxed at the higher or additional rate and they pay about two thirds of all income tax.
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You and yours - estate planning
Estate planning is usually not a subject that attracts immediate attention. 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. Then it could suddenly become all important... or it might be too late. After all, accidents do happen.
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Investing tax efficiently
The way that investments are taxed has changed over recent years as successive governments have chosen to handle various sources of investment income in diff erent ways. The aim has typically been to increase tax revenues.
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Saving for retirement
Retirement is something most of us look forward to ‚àí 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.
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Taking income at retirement
There comes a time when you stop working for your money and put your money to work for you. For most people, that is retirement.
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Taxation of property
Becoming a landlord has been an attractive proposition for anyone who could raise a deposit, thanks to a prolonged period of low borrowing costs and generally rising property values. However, the outlook is currently a lot less clear. Uncertainty in the housing market has reduced property prices, particularly across London and the South-east, and a no-deal Brexit might see values fall by a further 6% according to KPMG. From April 2020, fi nance costs will generally no longer qualify for relief at higher tax rates, with various adverse capital gains tax (CGT) changes also coming in.
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Making the most of ISAs
Individual Savings Accounts, universally known as ISAs, began life as relatively simple savings plans in 1999, but over the past 21 years the rules surrounding them have become ever more complex. A May 2018 report on savings tax from the Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) suggested that there is scope for a wider full review of the current ISA landscape, to make the regime simpler and more accessible'.
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