Pension v ISAs – looking into new inheritability rules

Category: Inheritance & isas & pensions & Uncategorized

The choice of which vehicle can provide the best savings returns over time – the Pension Pot or the ISA – is a long talked about topic. Standard Life recently published research which identified and compared tax and interest rate factors in relation to both options. With recent changes to rules governing inheritance, the research has also been updated to compare what can be passed on to family members on death and how tax efficient each method is.

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60 is the new 40!

Category: Lifestyle & retirement & Uncategorized

Good news for all of us who have accepted that we are getting older: Saga reports that new European research shows that 60 is the new 40! The research reveals that people are now reaching middle age at the tender age of 60, instead of the previously expected figure of 40 years old.

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Selling your annuity as we move towards a second-hand annuity market

Category: annuity & retirement & Uncategorized

An annuity is a regular monthly income source that savers, largely from private sector companies, receive at retirement in exchange for their lifetime pension savings. Now George Osborne has said that around five million pensioners, who have used their retirement savings to buy an annuity, will be allowed to sell it for a cash sum after March 2016 and consultation has begun on how a second-hand annuity market might operate and be regulated.

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May Market Commentary

Category: Market commentary & Uncategorized

In the UK April saw the clock ticking down towards the General Election. For the rest of the world, life went on pretty much as normal: that’s to say, China and Germany remorselessly cranked out another trade surplus, the American economy gave us more mixed signals, and Greece teetered on the edge of bankruptcy.

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Pensions and ISAs compared – how can you decide which is best?

Category: Investments & pensions & Uncategorized

According to HMRC, 45% of savers in stocks and shares ISAs are aged 55 or over. These savers already understand the mantra of ‘gross is good’ and have chosen an investment on which there’s no additional tax due on investment growth and income. What many investors seem to be unaware of is that the exact same tax treatment is available on funds held within a pension.

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Consumer Frustration with Financial Application Processes

Category: financial planning & Investments & Uncategorized

New research from Experian has revealed key factors driving people to pull out of an application for a financial product or service. A lengthy application process is the number one frustration felt by over half (51 per cent) of UK adults applying for financial products and services, according to new research by Experian, the global information services company. The research, which looks at the top frustrations causing customers to pull out of an application, found that two fifths (40 per cent) of adults were deterred by the length and complexity of the application form, putting them off completing the application altogether.

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