Month: February 2017

January is a month that often feels twice as long in financial terms after the extravagances of Christmas and New Year, but just because we’ve reached February and your bank balance is finally looking a bit healthier doesn’t mean giving up all those thrifty habits you’ve adopted at the start of the year. It’s far...

Retirement consultancy Mercer recently revealed that the final salary pension deficit of the 350 largest companies listed in the UK had reached £137 billion by the end of last year, despite the FTSE 100 index closing 2016 at a record high. That figure is more than three times the corresponding deficit amount of £39 billion...

The decision by the Bank of England to cut interest rates to a record low of 0.25% in August last year was the latest blow for savers who hold a high percentage of their assets in cash. 2017 brings fresh economic uncertainty both at home and around the world through the triggering of Article 50...

A recent report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) suggests that the amount of tax paid in the UK is set to rise to levels not seen for thirty years. Plans by the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, to increase tax rates and reduce public spending in order to fill the £34 billion hole in the...

Whilst you might expect an increase in the cash and investment ISA limit to be welcomed, at least one dissenting voice has come from Steve Webb, former Pensions Minister and current policy director at Royal London. Webb has warned that the rise in April from the current annual limit of £15,240 up to £20,000 could...

For anyone in the 1995 NHS Pension scheme who had more than 13 years 5 months until retirement on 1st April 2012, change has been afoot. You should now either have moved to a new 2015 pension scheme which was introduced in April pf that year, or you will be doing so over coming years....

Introduction Despite the claims of Brexit and the debate on triggering Article 50, it is impossible to start this commentary anywhere other than in Washington where, on January 20th, Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States. It is remarkably difficult to find a news outlet that has a neutral view...