Only a quarter of Brits have life insurance or critical illness cover policies in place, despite two in five knowing someone who has had a serious accident or been too ill to work, a study1 has found. Compared to protection for our homes (55%), cars (53%) and travel plans (20%), the take-up of insurance policies […]
Category archives: General Financial News
Get your ducks in a row for the 2022/23 tax year
Effective tax planning strategies can help shield you from the chill this spring. While there’s minimal change in the operation and structure of the taxation of UK individuals in the 2022/23 tax year, the ‘no change’ element is significant. Excluding the 1.25 percentage point increase to National Insurance and Dividend Tax rates from April 2022, […]
Second-best year on record for fund inflows
Despite the pandemic, new stats from The Investment Association (IA)1 show investors added over £43bn to funds last year, the second highest recorded. The IA details a key finding ‘inflows to responsible investment funds totalled a record £16bn, up £4.3bn on 2020.’ In December, net retail sales reached £2.3bn. Equity funds were the most popular […]
Wealth – In the news
Dividend growth 2022 – cautious optimism A recent report1 has revealed a dramatic rebound in UK dividends in 2021, increasing 46.1% last year to total £94.1bn. This figure was boosted by a record £16.9bn in special dividends, three times the normal level. Special dividends are non-recurring and usually larger than a typical dividend payment. For […]
Pension wealth increasing
New data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Wealth and Assets Survey1 has revealed that the largest single component of household wealth is private pension holdings. In the latest recorded period (April 2018 to March 2020) pensions represented 42% of aggregate wealth, up from 34% (2006-08), an increase in pension wealth of nearly £70k […]
Achieving balance this spring
As well as being a season of hope and renewal, spring is also viewed as the ideal time to declutter and reorganise. The last couple of years have taught us the importance of achieving balance in our lives – this extends to our finance too, making now an opportune time for investors to review and […]
Preserving your retirement from the risk of mental decline
Many of us can now look forward to a longer retirement, due to increased life expectancy, however this unfortunately comes at a cost. The prevalence of age-related cognitive decline is on the rise, which could leave us vulnerable to costly financial errors. There are nearly 885,000 people living with dementia in the UK1, with estimates […]
The ‘Late Financial Bloomer’ faces a complex retirement journey
A new group of consumers, dubbed the ‘Late Financial Bloomers’ are set to change the face of retirement1. An array of socioeconomic factors, such as later home ownership, are the primary drivers behind this shift. Divorce and marriage trends are also key contributors, as is later childbirth. First marriages now take place four years later […]
Investment terms trigger stress reaction
The common use of jargon can make investments and pensions seem impenetrable and intimidating. If the thought of words such as ‘Equities’ and ‘Investment ISAs’ gets your heart racing, you’re not alone: new research1 has shown that financial terms really can make people feel anxious. How can this be tested? Researchers used a variation of […]
Climate disclosures top corporate agendas in 2022
Regulators have been urged by the IMF to do more to prevent financial companies from making misleading claims concerning their environmental credentials – ‘Proper regulatory oversight and verification mechanisms are essential to avoid greenwashing.’ To achieve the expansion needed to reach the target of reducing worldwide carbon emissions to net zero by mid-century, will require […]