Blog
When providing investment advice, we may discuss the idea of home bias and its potential impact. Home bias describes the tendency for investors to put a larger portion of their portfolio into assets within their own country, like stocks and bonds. For example, a UK investor with a home bias would have a higher percentage
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Budgeting is often associated with financial planning, but did you know that it can also have significant benefits for your mental health? While it may seem surprising, taking control of your finances and creating a budget can help reduce stress and anxiety, improve your self-esteem, and lead to overall better mental well-being. Here are some
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One of the two limits on how much you can put into your pension each tax year is the “Annual Allowance”. This limit was £40,000, but the government increased this to £60,000 in the Spring Budget. There has been a rule that this limit is reduced if your income is too high. If your income
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We have updated our guide to actions that could be taken to minimise taxes here. For our clients, some of the key ones are making full use of the ISA and Pension allowances. The only thing we would advise against doing now is disturbing invested assets to make use of these allowances. An example of
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Many business owners have used their pension funds to buy the properties where their businesses operate. But now, people who don’t own a business are interested in purchasing a commercial property using their pensions. However, it’s important to remember that commercial property values can go up and down, and many factors can affect them. It’s
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The government has removed the limit they had on the amount of money you can save in your pension over your lifetime. This was called the Lifetime Allowance (LTA); exceeding it meant paying a tax charge. This has opened up different opportunities for different clients. Should I restart contributions? If you have stopped contributing to
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Lifetime allowance abolished From April 2023, the Lifetime Allowance (LTA) is going away. This means that people can save as much as they want in pensions for their lifetime. There is still a limit on how much tax-free cash you can take out. You can take out up to 25% of your pension savings tax-free,
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With tax reliefs and allowances constantly changing, it is essential to ensure that you are taking full advantage of them. High inflation, freezes on allowances and tax bands, and cuts to CGT and dividend allowances mean you could be feeling the pinch more than ever. You can find our complete guide here, but here are
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Starting from 6 April 2023, the rules for filling in gaps in your National Insurance contributions (NICs) record, which affects the amount of state pension you can receive, will change. You need at least ten years of NICs to receive any state pension and 35 years to get the full amount. People can fill gaps in
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In 2019, the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) developed new guidelines to help people figure out how much money they need each year when they retire. Instead of just looking at a certain percentage of what people made before they retired, these guidelines consider how much money people need after they retire, based on
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