Take full advantage of tax relief – annual and lifetime limits

Pensions are a highly tax-efficient form of saving, and if possible you should take full advantage of funding your pension contributions to the maximum allowable. You receive tax relief on contributions that you pay into your pension. Tax relief means some of your money that would have gone to the Government as tax goes into your pension instead. You can put as much as you want into your pension, but there are annual and lifetime limits on how much tax relief you get on your pension contributions. Read more…

Why monitoring the value of your pensions is important

A lifetime allowance puts a limit on the value of pension benefits that you can receive without having to pay a tax charge. The lifetime allowance is £1 million for the tax year 2016/17. Read more…

Freedom to choose and manage your own investments

A self-invested personal pension (SIPP) is a pension ‘wrapper’ that holds investments until you retire and start to draw a retirement income. It is a type of personal pension and works in a similar way to a standard personal pension. The main difference is that with a SIPP, you have greater flexibility with the investments you can choose. Read more…

Do you have any forgotten or lost pension policies?

It’s not always easy to keep track of a pension, especially if you’ve been in more than one scheme or have changed employer throughout your career. The extent to which pension policies are being forgotten has been revealed in research from Aviva. A survey of almost ten thousand people who hold a pension has revealed that just under one in eight (13%) admitted they have at least one pension that they had forgotten about[1]. This is equal to more than 2.5 million pension policies currently sitting in the back of people’s minds[2]. Read more…

Make the most of your investment opportunities
To make the most of your investment opportunities, it’s your goals that count, so keep them firmly in mind when you make financial decisions. It’s important to take a consistent, long-term strategy to build a more secure financial future through steady purchases of well-diversified investments.  Read more…

Achieving your long-term financial goals whilst minimising risk

One of the most effective ways to manage investment risk is to spread your money across a range of assets that, historically, have tended to perform differently in the same circumstances. This is called ‘diversification’ – reducing the risk of your portfolio by choosing a mix of investments.? Read more…

Certain innate behavioural traits influence decision-making

Nobody knows quite what the future holds. The good news is that advances in medicine and healthier lifestyles have led to an increase in the average life expectancy of both males and females.  Read more…

Saving flexibly for a first home and retirement
Lifetime Individual Savings Accounts are being launched by the Government to help 18 to 40-year-olds to save and invest flexibly for the long term. The aim is that people will not have to choose between saving for their first home and retirement. Read more…

Inheritance Tax – no longer a tax that only the richest people in society have to face

When you die, the Government assesses how much your estate is worth and then deducts your debts from this to obtain the value of your estate. Read more…

Taking preventative action is essential
With careful planning and professional financial advice, it is possible to take preventative action to either reduce your beneficiaries’ potential Inheritance Tax bill or mitigate it out altogether. Read more…