News and Views

No blog on the subject of investments would be complete without mention of the Rule of 72. So what exactly is the Rule of 72? Albert Einstein is attributed with stating that “The most powerful force in the universe is compound interest.” Whilst it is disputed that...

If you are investing £100,000 into an investment you may be charged, say, a 3% initial fee and 1% p.a. recurring fee for managing it on an ongoing basis. Payment by fee or adviser charge (customer agreed remuneration) deducted from the investment is summarised as...

I was chatting to my son recently at a barbecue around my house when he told me about Look After My Bills. He told me that this service saves money on energy bills. I thought to myself, well why not simply use Uswitch to get cheaper energy? Uswitch is quick and easy...

  As many of the readers of my weekly blogs are clients, they will already be invested in our new fund, The CCM Intelligent Wealth Fund, which is included in our Wealth Investment Strategy. The fund is managed by our sister company, Minerva Money Management. At the...

What is a pre-paid funeral plan? Well, as the name implies, such a plan is paid for in advance of dying. Between 2011 and 2017 funeral costs increased by an average of 5.45% each year. That’s more than the interest rates on even the best savings accounts. Using this...

  I have advised many, many clients over more than three decades now and I have learned what it takes to become financially free early in life because many of our clients have already achieved this. I have been financially free for the last few years yet I continue to...

  Do you have a final salary pension scheme from a previous employer or one that has been closed by your current employer? Are you aged 50 plus? If the answer to the first two questions is "yes", have you ever had your pension professionally reviewed? If the answer is...

  Following on from my blog last week about teaching young children the difference between working for money (salary) and money working for you (passive income) I thought it would be timely to give you some tips on how to create multiple sources of passive income....

  Many of the regular readers of my blog will of course already be financially free because we specialise in advising baby boomers who are usually close to retirement or already retired. However, this blog will be of relevance to those of you who are younger and...

  There are a number of investments available in the UK that qualify for 100% business relief after 2 years meaning they become free of Inheritance Tax at this stage. Such investments include AIM ISAs, Venture Capital Trusts (VCT) Inheritance Tax Solutions (ITS...

  I know this sounds too good to be true but believe me it’s not. There is an Inheritance Tax (IHT) mitigation plan called the Foresight Accelerated Inheritance Tax Solution. The plan consists of an investment which qualifies for 100% business relief after 2 years...

  There is literally a plethora of easy ways to save Inheritance Tax which remains to this day largely a voluntary tax. We have clients’ with multi-million pound estates who have no Inheritance Tax to pay when they die due to the advice we have given them over the...

  I recently presented a pension review report to a long-standing client. He had been a member of his company’s money purchase pension scheme for over 10 years. As he had a senior position and was well paid, both he and his employer had paid a lot of money into the...

  I am delighted to report that our sister company Minerva Money Management’s new fund The CCM Intelligent Wealth Fund has had an excellent first 3 months. It rose in value by 7.3% net of charges over the 3 months ended 15 July 2018 and had grown to a fund size of...

  Ethical and environmental investments have become increasingly popular in recent years. Previously it was difficult to achieve good investment returns especially if the investor was strict about the screening of shares. However, in recent years the fund performance...

The Charities Aid Foundation conducted a study of charitable giving earlier this year called UK Giving 2018. Amongst its key findings were the following; The total amount given to charity increased to £10.3 billion – however, this is driven by fewer people giving...

  I recently attended an evening presentation by an organisation called Philanthropy Impact on the subject of Social Enterprise Businesses. Philanthropy Impact’s mission is to inspire philanthropy and social investment across borders, sectors and causes. What I...

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. When an individual is in serious ill health and unlikely to live long enough to...