General News
Knowing your financial future – 3 out of 4 female BS9 readers may not
The 8th March was International Womens Day and a day or two later I found myself reading a report from Hargreaves Landsdown suggesting only 29% of women have a clear idea of what their pensions are worth, compared to 44% of men and perhaps more worrying about 72% did not have an idea as to how their pension(s) were performing.
The Return of Inflation – A Lesson From History…Perhaps?
As a financial planner, I help clients in many ways, often using cashflow modelling to provide bespoke pictorial predictions of someone’s financial future to help them work towards their objectives. One metric that I build into the system is Inflation. For years it is has tended to go quite unnoticed with an equivalent annual rate for Consumer Prices Index (CPI),
Where Do We Go From Here?
As questions go, it’s a short one – just 6 words. However, anyone trying to answer it at the moment, will take a great deal longer, with liberal use of that word, ‘However’ being required! In recent weeks I have thought of COVID 19 and all its implications (not just financial), as being like going into a dark tunnel. For
COVID 19 – Office Arrangements & End of Tax Year Planning
Dear All I am writing to update you on our current working practices and how we can ensure that we continue to provide support in these difficult times. Our phones in head office will be monitored but we would ask you to email any queries in the first place. Please only use the office phone number if it is very
Company Update
Dear All I am writing to reassure you that we are fully operational during this business-critical and uncertain period. Following new guidance from the UK Government on 16 March, we’ve prioritised staff wellbeing and asked our colleagues who are at higher risk to return to home as well as asking our staff to follow Government guidance on self-isolation, where relevant.
For The Times They Are A Changing
As a financial adviser my clients expect me to keep abreast of what is happening in the world of investments. I think I have heard the views of about a dozen investment companies so far in 2020 and what has struck me is how many are talking about Environmental, Social and (corporate) Governance (ESG). A few weeks ago, I attended
The outlook for Equity Markets…possibly!
It’s the start of the year and predicting what may happen to global stock markets in the year ahead is just as difficult as any year….2020 vision or not! It is always tricky writing such articles because by the time you read it, things can be quite different. However let’s press on. 2019 was a volatile (but rewarding) year for
Protecting against risks
Sometimes people ask me what their greatest priority should be in terms of their financial planning. Everyone’s circumstances are different and so priorities will vary, but I have always believed someone should deal with the ‘what ifs’ before doing anything else in terms of planning a more comfortable future. In recent months I have been more aware of this because
Should Financial Journalism be more closely regulated?
In recent weeks many of the headlines in the financial press have been about Neil Woodford and his flagship Equity Income Fund. The problem, for those that are unaware, is investors wanting to exit the fund but not being allowed to, due liquidity issues. The fund, valued in 2017 at £10.2bn, is now £3.7bn in value. Investors in the Woodford
