There is a lot of hearsay about how much money you can pass to your children without causing an inheritance tax headache, but in reality it is easier than you may be led to believe. First, you need to check if there’s even an issue with Inheritance Tax. Each person can have an estate of up to £325,000 when they die before inheritance tax is an issue. This is increased to £500,000 if that person owns their own home and...Read More

Inheritance tax can appear to be fairly simple in the way it is calculated; you add up the value of the taxable estate, take off the available nil rate bands, and then multiply by 40% to give you the tax. But all is not what it seems, and this can be much more complicated than you think. Let us look at the steps: “..add up the value of the taxable estate,..” Most pensions are not subject to inheritance tax, but...Read More

Good question. And the answer can be different for each person, but here are few tips: Keep some: it is best to have some savings for emergencies, and it also helps smooth your expenditure if you make adhoc large payments for holidays, insurances etc. Spend some: if there is anything you would like to buy in the next few years, it is probably best not to invest that money. This could be something like a new kitchen or a car....Read More

According to FT Adviser, by 2018, 88% of the products sold to provide retirement income were not lifetime annuities. This was a reversal of the retirement income market before 2015, so it is a reasonable question to ask. The vast majority of investors were sold, or chose, a flexi-access drawdown solution; this was the result of the great Pension Freedom Act back in 2015, which would free us all of the shackles of poor quality annuities. There is some truth...Read More

Income drawdown is the pension product that can pay you an income, but still give an investment return on your capital. It’s not new but in 2015 it was revamped, and resold to the public as the great new way to access your money Flexi-access drawdown (FAD) was the new kid on the block: unlimited access to all your money, and you can take big bits or small bits – however you want it. Except it’s not quite that simple,...Read More