Our insights

How to make your child a millionaire

January 18, 2013 by TIna

Category: Uncategorized

”How to make your child a millionaire – through regular investing and using perfectly legitimate tax dodges’’ – the headline of a recent article in the Daily Mail.

Reading this article also makes it clear that we need to be well off to achieve this aim, and even more so, if we have more than one child. However, the article does usefully remind us of three basic ways by which we can deliver more modest nest eggs for our children, tailored to our means, if we start early (as soon as they are born).

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The Government Overhauls the State Pension System

January 16, 2013 by TIna

Category: Uncategorized

Given the Government’s recent introduction of Auto-Enrolment and the determination to see as many people as possible enrolled in company pension schemes, it was inevitable that they would also turn their attention to the state pension.

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Aviva reports on the Unpaid Work of Retired People

January 15, 2013 by TIna

Category: Uncategorized

It is estimated that 10.4 million over-65s give up 10 hours each per week typically, to volunteer to support their families or work locally within charities or in local communities. The combined efforts of this ‘volunteer army’ add up to 104 million hours of free work, worth £643.8 million per week at the national minimum wage, according to Aviva’s Real Retirement Report.

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Gloomy Interest Rate Forecasts for Savers

January 15, 2013 by TIna

Category: Uncategorized

January 2013 is not a good time to spread gloom but a number of major players in investment and banking are quite downbeat about the possibility of an early UK economic recovery.

According to the investment bank Citi, interest rates will stay at rock bottom for another four years as the economy struggles to recover. Citi predicts that the Bank of England will leave interest rates at 0.5 per cent until mid-2017 – a year longer than expected – as it battles to restore the economy to health.

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Ten New Year’s Resolutions for your Financial Planning

January 06, 2013 by TIna

Category: Uncategorized

Around 50% of us make New Year’s Resolutions and ‘sort the finances out’ must be one of the most popular: but that’s a little vague – it’s more a wish than a firm commitment to take action.

Looking at the January appointments we’ve had with new and existing clients, here are the topics that we’ve discussed most often. If you’re determined to sort out your finances, these may give you some food for thought.

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Global Under-Insurance

January 04, 2013 by TIna

Category: Uncategorized

Natural catastrophes cause terrible loss of life and impose an ever-growing cost on governments and businesses. 2011 was the insurance industry’s most costly year on record for natural catastrophe claims, as a devastating sequence of catastrophes occurred across the globe. 

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