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 […]

Reviving consumer spending and economic growth Since the global financial crisis, both the Bank of England and the US Federal Reserve have used the policy of quantitative easing (QE) to try to revive consumer spending and economic growth.

Providing you with increased simplicity and greater flexibility Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) have been around since 1999, providing a tax-efficient wrapper for savings and investments. However, in the recent Budget, the Chancellor, George Osborne, promised to increase the simplicity and flexibility of ISAs. As of 1 July 2014, there is now a single ISA which […]

Achieving the right balance of cash, fixed income and equities How you choose to allocate your wealth between different asset classes will be one of the most important investment decisions you ever make. Asset allocation can account for the majority of your portfolio returns over the long term, so it’s essential that you achieve the […]

Withdrawing income without prematurely depleting your portfolio Investing for income is not simply about establishing a portfolio of income-generating investments. It is also about the strategies you use to withdraw income from this portfolio.

Review our financial fitness checklist to see how we can help you make more of your money Utilise personal pension tax relief When you contribute to a registered pension scheme, you automatically receive basic rate tax relief on your contributions. Your personal pension tax relief depends on your circumstances. These are the current UK pension tax […]

A tax-efficient investment offering capital gains tax deferral Enterprise Investment Schemes (EISs) are tax-efficient vehicles set up to encourage investment into small, unquoted trading companies. The EIS is the only tax-efficient investment offering a capital gains tax (CGT) deferral. CGT on the disposal of other assets can be deferred by reinvesting the proceeds in EIS […]

Wealthier investors taking a long-term view A Venture Capital Trust (VCT) is a company whose shares trade on the London stock market. A VCT aims to make money by investing in other companies. These are typically very small companies which are looking for further investment to help develop their business.

Not sacrificing your life principles in exchange for chasing the best financial returns For investors concerned about global warming and other environmental issues, there are a plethora of ethical investments that cover a multitude of different strategies. The terms ‘ethical investment’ and ‘socially responsible investment’ (SRI) are often used interchangeably to mean an approach to […]