Great British ISA plans will not be allowed to hatch
Plans for the ‘Great British ISA’ have been shelved before they were hatched, sadly.
The idea was unveiled in the previous Government’s final Budget (as it turned out) earlier this year by the then-Chancellor Jeremy Hunt.
The scheme would have allowed savers to invest an extra £5,000 into London-listed equities on top of the existing £20,000...
The simmering stock market pot subsides
I am pleased to report that the rumbles in markets proved short-lived. However, having ‘biggest losses since 1987’ for Japan and then clawing the way back again (well, still 13% off its peak) is not helpful and a potential portent for the over-priced sections of the Globe.
Volatility is your friend when it is upwards...
Market sentiment and what it means
Good afternoon. The horrors from the Middle East have not abated. The whole situation is so sad and it is impossible to predict the outcomes. In ways not seen in past decades and centuries, the inert hatred from certain quarters seems to have also manifested itself across the World, in civilised populations which have...
Better news for the economy?
Well, curious admissions from the IMF and feeding-through to the ONS. Everyone puts such store of value on economic statistics only to find that all the criticisms about our sluggish economy over the last few years were wrong... what is worse, however, is the deluge of commentators sarcastically loving to ‘rubbish’ the efforts of...
Pension customers ‘overpaying’ thousands in temporary tax
Those who have made flexible withdrawals from their pension pot could have paid thousands more in tax than they should have done – if only temporarily.
New figures show the ‘temporary overpayment’ is more than £1billion since 2015 and £48million in the first three months of this year alone.
HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) will repay...
Will pensions ‘political football’ stay on the pitch?
The removal of the lifetime allowance (LTA) from pensions in the Spring Budget was widely welcomed by most independent financial advisers (IFAs), but recent research has shown that many believe it will not last.
A survey by Standard Life has shown that more than two thirds (69%) of IFAs think that planning around the LTA...
Would you remove your own appendix to ‘save money’?
Latest on the banks crash and why forecasts are unreliable
So, a mini bank collapse (compared to the larger ones) which has passed without significant contagion, saw bank shares across the globe fall in value by $0.5trillion in a week, the most since the pandemic panic. This will affect investors’ portfolios everywhere as banks represent a large portion of market indices too. Goldman Sachs loses...
