Pension time bomb

Planning to prevent the financial equivalent of climate change

Millions of workers across the UK could be heading for a significant shortfall in the amount of pension they need for an adequate income. The World Economic Forum (WEF) has issued a warning that calls on the Government to impose faster pension-age rises as it earmarks the UK as one of several countries facing a ‘pension time bomb’, with the UK pension savings gap reaching £25 trillion by 2050 if action is not taken soon. Continue reading…

Funding future care costs

‘The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young’

With the UK’s population ageing, more people will be living with long-term care needs. Oscar Wilde once said: ‘The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young.’ But the good news of rising life expectancy also brings with it the challenge of how we fund our future care costs. The question is: who is responsible for looking after us if we need care in old age? Continue reading…

Election 2017

Why investors need to keep focused on long-term financial goals

Prime Minister Theresa May’s announcement that she would call a snap UK general election on 8 June 2017 surprised many people. After weeks of campaigning, there was no outright winner, with both the Conservatives and the Labour Party failing to secure a majority, resulting in a hung parliament. Continue reading…

Inheritance Tax rule changes

Effective estate planning can safeguard your wealth for future generations

If you want to have control over what happens to your assets after your death, effective estate planning is essential. After a lifetime of hard work, you want to make sure you protect as much of your wealth as possible and pass it on to the right people. However, this does not happen automatically. If you do not plan for what happens to your assets when you die, more of your estate than necessary could be subject to Inheritance Tax. Continue reading…

Retirement choices

How much time do you spend planning for retirement?

The 2015 pension freedoms gave us greater flexibility over our retirement options, but the reforms have also made retirement choices much more complex. This means we need to start thinking about our retirement earlier. However, half (50%) of respondents aged 45–54 to a LV= consumer survey[1] didn’t think about retirement at all last year. Continue reading…