Category: Blog

Introduction

It is always difficult writing a report like this, as you are always trying to ‘hit a moving target.’ While you can record the stock market levels at the close of business on, say,  30th November, there is always the risk that the commentary is overtaken by events.

That has never been more true than this month: we wrote these notes on Monday 3rd December and, of course, you have to press ‘publish’ at some stage. However, we are very conscious that the situation regarding Brexit, and perhaps also the civil unrest in France, may have moved on by the time you read this.

Drawdown is a way of achieving greater flexibility with your pension funds. Every time you move your money into drawdown, you’re allowed to take 25% of this as a lump sum, which is exempt from tax. The rest continues as an investment, with taxable income able to be drawn straight from your pension whenever you choose. The tax-free lump sum must be taken at the start, but as you don’t have to move your whole pension at once, multiple lump sums can potentially be taken.

Introduction

October was, to put it mildly, an eventful month. It was a month which saw the majority of markets on which we report down steeply, as fears of higher interest rates in the US combined with worries about the US/China trade war. There was, however, one market that went up sharply: Brazil elected a new president,  a man who, I suspect, will feature prominently in future commentaries.

In the UK, the Prime Minister survived the latest round of calls for her head, and the Chancellor delivered his Budget a month earlier than everyone had expected.

The Chancellor, Philip Hammond delivered his Autumn Budget to Parliament yesterday.

We have produced a summary, looking at the broad areas of the economy and the numbers, personal taxation, pensions and savings, business investment and business taxation, along with other measures. You can download our Autumn Budget Overview by clicking here. 

A national saving and investment survey has shown only 7% of people have spoken to their parents about inheritance. One of the most important parts of planning to leave an inheritance is to talk about it. This is obviously not an easy topic and it may be a good idea to set aside some specific family time to have this discussion. This could help avoid any family disputes before and after you are gone.

Introduction

On Tuesday, 3rd November 2020 the United States will go to the polls to elect its next President. All the indications are that Donald Trump will stand for a second term and if the words of Bill Clinton, “It’s the economy, stupid”, are to be believed, he will win.

While not wanting to make a political comment or endorse his policies in any way that be welcome to some extent, he does provide plenty of news and entertainment for these commentaries, after all. September was no exception, as he ramped up the trade war with China, ordering tariffs on a further $200bn (£154bn) of Chinese imports, which will include electronic products and consumer goods such as handbags.

Keeping track of your pension can be difficult at the best of times, and if you have multiple pots it can seem nigh on impossible. Fortunately, we have some top tips to help.

First introduced in 2012, auto-enrolment makes it compulsory for UK employers to automatically enrol their staff into a pension scheme, unless you opt out.

Introduction

August used to be known as the ‘silly season’. Everyone who made the news was away on holiday, nothing happened and newspapers were desperate to fill their pages. So rather more obscure stories made it into print…

That, of course, was before Donald Trump. And Brexit. And Venezuela, Argentina and Greece. And…

Introduction

The news in July really could not have been much worse. The threat of a trade war between the US and China simmered throughout the month, and then on 31st July President Trump ramped up the tension with proposals of a 25% tariff on $200bn (£152bn) of Chinese imports.

China has already placed retaliatory tariffs on some American imports in response to the first wave of ‘Trump Tariffs’ (they even have their own page on Wikipedia now) and will surely do the same to counter this latest move. Small wonder that credit ratings agency, Moody’s, warned that there could ultimately be tariffs on 5% of total world imports if the trade war continues to escalate.

Since Freedom and flexibility reforms were introduced by the government in April 2015, many more retirement savers choose not to purchase a lifetime annuity and instead use pension drawdown to access accumulated pension funds . This short video is a simple explanation of what drawdown is.