Category: Financial planning

A new government savings bond, offering what the Treasury says is a “market leading” rate of 2.2%, has been launched online. The Investment Guaranteed Growth Bond (IGGB) was promised by the chancellor in last year’s Autumn Statement. Savers will be able to invest between £100 and £3,000 at any time over the next 12 months.

In the Budget, the Chancellor Philip Hammond announced a 25% charge for people moving their pension abroad. If you’re planning to spend your retirement somewhere warmer and sunnier than the UK then the news may have worried you somewhat – will it end up stalling your dreams of life after work spent overseas? The charge

When someone dies and leaves a will, an executor is usually appointed in the will to deal with the deceased person’s estate – their money, property and possessions. Before they’re able to do this however, the executor has to apply for a ‘grant of probate’. This means they are legally allowed to distribute assets from

With both property prices and the cost of living continuing to rise, as well as low interest rates making it difficult to save, the ‘Bank of Mum and Dad’ is increasingly becoming a partnership with the ‘Bank of Gran and Grandad’. If you have grandchildren, it’s only natural that you’ll want to provide for them

Premium bonds celebrated their 60th anniversary last year; whilst they’ve remained popular throughout that time, it’s not hard to see that what they offer is closer to a lottery ticket than a viable investment opportunity. The chances of winning the jackpot is 26 million to one, and as all the interest generated in money invested

Richard Harrington, who was made pensions secretary by Theresa May soon after she assumed office as Prime Minister in July last year, recently wrote an article for This Is Money divulging his spending tips for 2017. It’s a piece littered with what could be called ‘financial advice’, so what does the new minister recommend we

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

If you’ve lent money to your children to help them with university fees, a deposit on their first home or even just to support them with the rising cost of living, then you’re not alone. Statistics suggest that around a quarter of all mortgages are now partially funded by the ‘Bank of Mum and Dad’.

The popularity of investing in property to fund retirement remains prevalent, in spite of the government’s attempts to make buy-to-let less and less attractive. But is buy-to-let investment really a viable alternative to a pension pot, for example? A recent study has investigated the numbers behind each option. The research looked at how £100,000 would

The latest figures surrounding the pensions lifetime allowance (LTA), which governs how much your pensions can be worth without triggering an extra tax charge, suggest that a considerable number of middle-income earners are being hit by the lower threshold. The amount collected from pensions exceeding the LTA by HMRC during the 2015-16 tax year came to