Is your pension subject to Inheritance Tax and any other taxes when you die?   Since Pensions Freedoms were introduced by the then Chancellor George Osbourne in April 2015 the common belief has been that Money purchase pensions are free of Inheritance Tax on death....

How to defer Capital Gains Tax or avoid it altogether   As any regular reader of my blog will know by now I have a dim view of the high taxes we pay in the UK, the hidden taxes and the sheer complexity of the tax system. Sir Humphrey of Yes Minister fame would love it...

Government review of Inheritance Tax   The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS), the wonderfully Yes Minister type name given to this so-called independent arm of the Treasury, recently announced it is going to have a consultation on the ultimate unpopular death tax...

Improvements to investor protection   The Financial Conduct Authority, the FCA, has recently completed a consultation on investor protection. It’s excellent news for investors. The investor compensation limit is going to increase from £50,000 per fund manager group to...

The smoke and mirrors of the UK’s largest “independent” wealth managers   Two of the most successful wealth managers in recent years, both FTSE 100 Share Index companies, are in fact not independent and neither can they be truly described as wealth managers as such....

How safe are your investments?   Did you know that collective investment schemes, primarily unit trusts and OEICS, have unprecedented levels of investor protection?   Every collective funds management group has Financial Services Compensation Scheme, FSCS,...

The wonderful world of tax efficient investment schemes Did you know there is a plethora of amazingly tax efficient investment schemes in the UK today but like the proverbial scorpion there is a sting in the tail for the uninformed and ignorant investor? The...

The arrival of the £1 million Inheritance Tax Free Allowance. Well almost! Last tax year heralded the introduction of the new Residence Nil Rate Band, the RNRB, which is an extra Inheritance Tax free allowance of £125,000 per person in addition to the existing IHT...

Beware of the hidden pension tax traps for the unwary Ever since the introduction of so called pension simplification in April 2006 ironically pensions have become ever more complicated. This has resulted in what can only be described as a Venus Fly Trap of tax traps...

Using insurance to pay for care fees tax efficiently One of the big challenges facing elderly people these days is how to pay exorbitant care fees when you have savings but not enough to pay such fees. Well the good news is that it is possible to buy long term care...

The death of trusts, long live trusts Trusts have been wonderful instruments for protecting wealth for future generations for literally centuries. In fact the history of trusts can be traced back the the Middle Ages when knights would go off to battle and leave their...

Prepaid funeral plans and prepaid probate A client of ours died a few years ago and his widow, in a state of shock, said she did not have enough money to pay for the funeral! On further investigation it turned out that she did have enough cash in the bank to pay for...

The lessons to learn from the failure of Toys R Us and Maplin The recent failure of Toys R Us and Maplin bring home to us just how much the Internet is shaping and changing the world. Toys R Us is an interesting example. It is widely acknowledged that one of the...

How you and your family can benefit substantially from ISAs In recent years there has emerged a confusing alphabet soup of differently named ISAs. The ones most people have heard of are as follows; Help To Buy ISA LISA (Lifetime ISA) IFISA (Innovative Finance ISA)...

Using your home to pay for long term care Long term care is a regular topic in the media these days as the health service is in the midst of a funding crisis in coping with the increasing demand for care due to our ever aging population and ever growing care costs. If...

Why minimising taxation on your investments is critical We recently reviewed our clients’ investments with us and I was delighted to discover that 85% of our funds under management are in tax free pensions and ISAs! Let me qualify that statement. Both pensions and...

Wills, Lasting Powers of Attorney and Advanced Directives Most people are aware of the importance of Wills but it is staggering how many adults do not have one. A 2013 report by Unbiased.co.uk and Certainty.co.uk revealed that nearly 60% of the UK adult population...

The Importance of Pension Reviews Do you have a pension you no longer pay into whether it is an ex-employer’s pension or a private one? Such pensions are known as paid up (private) or preserved (final salary). Technically private pensions are also known as defined...