Blog – 2 Columns

PROTECTING WHAT MATTERS MOST Financial resilience is the ability to recover quickly from unexpected financial shocks.  Many of us insure our homes and cars without really thinking about it, but far fewer insure their lives and incomes. And yet, if you were to die, how would those you leave behind be able to manage financially? […]

The freeze on the inheritance tax (IHT) nil rate band will mean more tax from more estates.     In March 2006, then Chancellor, Gordon Brown, announced that the the inheritance tax (IHT)  nil rate band for 2009/10 would be £325,000. Announcing the change (over three years before it would happen) was seen by some […]

A recent report showed that global dividend payments held up much better than those in the UK in 2020.  For investors in UK shares and funds investing in UK companies, 2020 was a grim year when it came to dividends. The pandemic cast a long shadow over the pay outs to investors:  Early on, the […]

The planned increase in corporation tax has changed some of the mathematics on incorporation.     The Budget announced a significant change to corporation tax from 2023:  Small companies, with profits of up to £50,000, would continue to pay the tax at the current rate of 19%, subject to adjustments for associated companies and financial […]

Three letters, ESG, have become a major driving force in investment decisions. ESG – environmental, social and governance – considerations are playing an ever-increasing role in investment decisions. What used to be classed as ethical investment, socially responsible investment (SRI) and green investment have now merged under the ESG banner. The table below gives a […]

The Spring Budget on 3rd March was not the end of the taxing story.  The run up to the March Budget was accompanied by much press speculation about changes to capital gains tax (CGT), inheritance tax (IHT) and pension tax relief. The first two had been the subject of reports from the Office of Tax […]

Action Fraud continues to warn the public about a National Insurance scam, after it received over 34,000 more calls in February 2021 when compared to February 2020. Victims have reported receiving an automated telephone call telling them their “National Insurance number has been compromised” and in order to fix this and get a new number, […]

On 20 March 2020, a New York Times headline read, ‘Some Big Investors Are Stockpiling Cash to Prepare for Whatever Comes Next.’ The coronavirus had struck – and nobody knew what to expect. A statewide stay-at-home order was issued that very day. Investors were scared. At that stage, US equities had been crashing for a […]

Keeping up with the science Investment planning is now more of a science than an art. Technology, ever-increasing investment opportunities and stricter regulation have all encouraged a more scientific approach. But has your investment strategy kept up pace? Investment planning and asset allocation is a multi-stage process. The actual execution of investment transactions is virtually […]

New data shows how far UK dividends fell last year, but projections for 2021 suggest the declines are nearly over.   In January 2021, ‘Link Asset Services’ published its latest findings covering the final quarter of 2020 and the year as a whole. The headline figure was that total dividends fell by 44% over the […]

As the pandemic enters its second year, what have we learned? The World Health Organisation declared Covid-19 a pandemic on 11 March 2020, coincidentally the day that Chancellor Rishi Sunak presented his first Budget. At the time, the Chancellor announced a £12bn stimulus to counter the impact of the pandemic. By November, the Office of […]

Taking some time to start planning for 2021/22 now can be worthwhile.     While there is often a focus on planning for the end of the tax year, much less attention is paid to the start of the tax year. The lack of an obvious deadline is probably one reason – deadlines tend to […]