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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. The impact of the ongoing cost-of-living crisis on the nation’s physical, mental and financial health has […]

New measures affecting pension allowances announced in the March Budget could mean your retirement planning strategy needs to be reviewed.  If Jeremy Hunt did produce a ‘rabbit-out-the-hat’ in his Spring Budget, it was the announcement of the effective abolition of the pensions lifetime allowance (LTA) from 2023/24. Since 2006, the LTA has been a cornerstone […]

The Budget announced three important changes to childcare provisions in England, but one trap remains. The cost of childcare has become a hot topic in recent years. Despite increasing demand, in March 2022 the number of childcare places available had little changed since August 2015. The government has attempted to address this in England (childcare […]

A new government bill indicates that a change to the automatic enrolment minimum age and increases to workplace pension contributions could be on the horizon.      Private members’ bills rarely get far in the parliamentary process. They all too easily die at the hands of filibustering, as second and any subsequent readings of a […]

New research shows that global dividends have shaken off the impacts of Covid-19 and reverted to their pre-pandemic days, but the UK’s performance isn’t so promising.  When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020, it had contrasting impacts on the values of shares and the dividends they paid. While share prices dropped precipitously in the first […]

The rush to meet the voluntary national insurance contributions (NICs) top-up deadline of 5 April has forced HMRC to grant an extension to 31 July.   The last major reform to state pensions took effect on 6 April 2016. From that date the second state pension and basic state pension were replaced by the new […]