Archive for February, 2012

Maximising Pension Contributions

Date Added: Monday, February 27th, 2012

Are you claiming higher rate pensions tax relief?
If you pay higher rate tax you will not receive tax relief automatically on your personal pension contributions unless you claim it. This means that someone earning more than £42,475 in the current financial year could potentially be losing a fifth of the value of their pension […]

Inheritance Tax Planning Matters

Date Added: Thursday, February 23rd, 2012

How much of your hard-earned money will the taxman get his hands on?
Inheritance Tax (IHT) in the UK may be one of life’s unpleasant facts but IHT planning and quality advice could help you pay less tax on your estate.
For the 2011/12 tax year, no IHT is charged on the value of your estate up […]

Searching for Valuable Investments

Date Added: Monday, February 20th, 2012

33% of investment companies are yielding more than FTSE 100 average
While the hunt for income continues apace, recent figures released by the Association of Investment Companies (AIC) demonstrate that 33 per cent of conventional investment companies are yielding more than the FTSE 100 average annual yield of 3.2 per cent. Of these, 66 per […]

Fine-Tuning Your Portfolio

Date Added: Monday, February 13th, 2012

Reduce risk, hedge inflation and diversify your overall investment strategy
Commodities have received much media coverage over the past year, with prices rising as other asset classes falter. Investing in commodities within your portfolio may not only create exposure to different investment products, but can also help reduce risk, hedge inflation and diversify your overall investing […]

Staving off a Sovereign Default

Date Added: Monday, February 6th, 2012

Getting to grips with the current crisis of indebtedness
The turbulence that has gripped financial markets is a response to the perception that politicians in the Eurozone and the US have been slow to face up to issues of indebtedness.
If Interest rates in the UK and the Eurozone remain low for years to come, the pound […]

Will Osborne U-Turn and Begin Spending to Stimulate Growth?

Date Added: Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

George Osborne and the coalition Government have forced their austerity measures on the UK economy, but have they gone too far?
Many economists that I have spoken with or listened to in meetings over the past 2 years have advocated that the solution is not only to make cuts and raise taxes.  Used in isolation, these […]