Have you ever thought how you would make ends meet if you had a serious accident or illness? There’s your mortgage or your rent to pay, the weekly groceries, utility bills and general everyday living expenses. Not only do you...
Wealth of talent sought for new IFA training scheme
A Greater Birmingham firm of independent financial advisers (IFA) has launched a training scheme to provide new career opportunities in the profession. As part of it, Eastcote Wealth Management (EWM) has linked with Aston University to secure some of the...
Employers urged to take a fresh look at group life assurance or risk potential tax threat (Birmingham Post Article 29.03.2018)
The current pension Lifetime Allowance is threatening to play havoc with group life assurance schemes – popular with many companies. Employers need to be up to speed on the different types of schemes available and consider if their employees are...
Young lead the way but retirement savings stutter (Birmingham Post Article 21.06.2018)
The Scottish Widows Retirement Report is now in its 14th year and is always a good barometer of whether people are saving enough for their old age. With the 2018 one recently out, it is a mixed picture. More young...
Take those losses on the chin and look to go again (Birmingham Post Article 19.04.2018)
The stock-market correction of early February was closely followed by another one in March making the first quarter of 2018 a jittery period for many investors. Firstly, it was fears of swifter than expected interest rate rises causing the setbacks...
Taking the pension route to minimising tax (Birmingham Post Article 15.03.2018)
Tax changes are providing further evidence of the advantages of pension contributions versus dividends for owners of small and medium sized enterprises. This is particularly pertinent because the annual dividend allowance is reducing from £5,000 to £2,000 in April and...
Economic growth does not necessarily equate to stock market success (Birmingham Post article 17/05/2018)
The emerging markets appear key to world economic growth, but are they key to stock market performance? The global economy is set to expand by 3.1 per cent in 2018, slightly up from three per cent last year, the World...
ISA rule change boost for widows and widowers (Birmingham Post Article 31.05.2018)
No-one has the power to transcend death but recent ISA rule changes have in effect done exactly that. They came into being last month and are greatly beneficial for surviving spouses. It means they may be able to save thousands...
The Royal Family – worthy or worthless? (Birmingham Post Article 25.05.2018)
There is an endless fascination with the Royal Family’s finances. Yet a cost/benefit analysis is almost impossible, dependent on imponderables and guestimates. We have just witnessed the vastly expensive wedding of Prince Harry to Meghan Markle but no-one truly knows...
Too many lack an understanding of money (Birmingham Post Article 11.01.2018)
Financial illiteracy has long been an issue but, according to Old Mutual Wealth’s Jane Goodland, it is now an epidemic. The problem is – what to do about it? There have been plenty of initiatives in recent times but none...