Just how well have your investments fared recently; and, just as pertinently, how much are you paying for the privilege? Twice a year, online investment company BestInvest names and shames what it colourfully calls “dog funds” which, in its own words, are “the bad mutts of the fund management industry”. To make the list, a […]

How many more years will YOU need to work to receive the State Pension? Two recent pieces of research show that the effects of increasing the age at which you can receive it are being felt unequally depending on your financial situation and gender; and – critically ­– that plans to further increase the age […]

There has been a lot of talk in the financial pages over the last few weeks over the Lifetime Allowance (LTA), complete with dire warnings for those who might be in danger of exceeding it because of an upsurge in the values of some investments over the last year. For those not well versed in […]

A further 1.2 million of us will find our earnings going over the 40% tax threshold as a result of the government’s decision to freeze the higher rate tax threshold, according to figures recently released from the House of Common Library. Not only that, but those currently in receipt of child benefits could also find themselves losing out […]

New ONS report provides a “state of the nation” analysis of where our wealth is tied up… showing some big variations depending upon where people live and their age as well as identifying some major shifts in recent years. New figures from the ONS in their “Wealth and Assets Survey” reveal that more wealth is now […]

New research from Hargreaves Lansdown has found that more than a quarter (26 per cent) of people do not know how much they and their employer are contributing to their pension. Knowing exactly how much is going in is vital in order to understand what your final pension might be in retirement – and whether […]

A new year is upon us, writes Tony Watts OBE. What will YOU be doing to ensure your retirement plans are on track? Here are five things to consider…         1)  Track down any lost pensions An estimated £19.4 billion is currently lying in pension pots… unclaimed by their rightful owners. That’s […]

  New figures show that over a million of the UK’s workforce (6%) believe that they will never be able to retire, while some 17.1 million (44%) think they will definitely be working past the State Retirement Age (SRA) and over a fifth (22%) are unsure how long their retirement savings will last. The latest […]

After years of delay, the Government has published its plans on how they will help cap the amount of money you will pay should you go into care. And while the proposals (which are for England only) have attracted plenty of negative comment, they do at least enable people to put in place plans on […]

Does inflation matter to one’s retirement plans? Richard Collinson “reads the runes” on what might lie ahead…and how we can make sure our plans stay on course. It seems like a long time ago that inflation was a concern to the economy. Since topping out at 4.46% in 2011, it’s been bumping along at just […]