Providing a financial safety net for your loved ones If you have loved ones who are dependent on you, life assurance can make sure they’re taken care of financially if you die. So whether you’re looking to provide a financial safety net for your loved ones, moving house or a first-time buyer looking to arrange […]

Helping you to understand the increased flexibility and choice available to you The Budget announced unprecedented flexibility and choice in how people can use their pension savings in the future. From 6 April 2015, people over 55 can choose to withdraw their pension savings as they wish, although this will be subject to their marginal […]

New freedom could still prove costly The Budget 2014 announced unprecedented flexibility and choice in how people can use their pension savings in the future. From 6 April 2015, people over 55 can choose to withdraw their pension savings as they wish, although this will be subject to their marginal rate of income tax in […]

Concerns a tax planning arrangement was being abused HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has confirmed that new proposals for a single nil rate Inheritance Tax (IHT) band for trusts will not be applied to existing trust arrangements, where no further assets are added or variations made to that trust.

Why so many of us are financially uncertain Almost half (47%) of Britons are up and down when it comes to money, making shrewd savings one moment to justify overspending the next, according to research from Standard Life by YouGov Plc.

Records at five-year high, according to new report The number of people saving adequately for retirement at 53% is the highest it has been since 2009 and the biggest ever year-on-year rise, up from 45% in 2013, as the impact of auto enrolment and improvements in the wider economic environment begin to take effect.

You could be missing out on your retirement options More than one in three people approaching retirement are unaware of the pensions reforms announced in the March Budget, according to new research[1] from MetLife.

Animal spirits are finally stirring again to you It has been a long wait, but animal spirits are finally stirring again. Not just in financial markets, where the bull market has been underway for more than five years now, but in the real world of corporate activity.

Three quarters of grandparents say that they have dipped into their savings to help their grandchildren this year Forget the bank of Mum and Dad – today’s young people are now receiving help from the bank of Gran and Grandad, with millions of grandparents offering financial support to their grandchildren.

Easy-to-understand groupings should be viewed with caution Investors like to sort things into neat categories; it helps make sense of a highly complex world. Categories like ‘Emerging Markets’, ‘BRICs’ and the ‘Fragile Five’ have all been invented as easy-to-understand groupings of supposedly similar countries. Yet we have to be careful of such generalisations, because the […]