BlogJune market commentary
Harold Wilson famously said that, ‘a week is a long time in politics.’ A month is a very long time when we come to write this commentary. Looking back to the first few days of May, the Royal Bank of Scotland was announcing plans to close 162 high street branches in the UK, Facebook said it was
What will leaving the Customs Union mean for my business?
When we leave the European Union we will also leave the EU customs union. The question we all want to know the answer to is ‘what does that mean for me?’ Well first, let’s have a quick reminder of what the customs union is. In short, it’s an agreement between European member states that there
Record numbers making use pensions freedom
The people have spoken and they love freedom! Recent figures show withdrawals in the 2017-18 year were worth £6.7bn, the highest figure since the pensions freedom reforms were introduced in 2015. Before the change in legislation, the majority of pensioners would purchase an annuity with their pension pot, which would guarantee them an income for
Why is economic growth so poor?
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has announced that GDP growth is down to 0.1% from last quarter’s 0.4%. This means that the first quarter of 2018 saw the UK economy at its slowest growth since 2012. Rob Kent-Smith, head of national accounts at the ONS, said: “Our initial estimate shows the UK economy growing
A cautionary tale: the Lazio case
Cyber-security is more important than ever before, as Serie A football club, Lazio, found out the hard way in March. After signing Dutch centre back Stefan de Vrij in 2014 from Feyenoord, Lazio agreed to pay his £6.8m fee in installments. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary when they received an email, including bank details,
The financial advantages of saying ‘I do’
A marriage or civil partnership can be a beautiful union of minds and hearts, but there’s no reason why it should end there. There can also be financial benefits to being with your partner, and one of these is the Marriage Allowance. In the 2018-19 tax year, the Marriage Allowance lets you transfer up to
What does the TSB experience teach us about online banking?
TSB haven’t had a good time recently, and the same can be said for the nearly 5 and a half million customers who still couldn’t access their accounts after 7 days of technical meltdown. When the bank attempted to migrate some of their services to a new platform, involving the transfer of 1.3billion customer records,
5 pitfalls that put your retirement plans at risk
Imagine the scene; you’ve spent your life living frugally, saving efficiently and investing wisely. You enter your well-earned retirement financially secure and excited for the years ahead. The future could pan out in one of two ways; the first could lead to continued security and the financial freedom to enjoy your retirement as planned; the
May market commentary
Introduction It looked for a long time that the main headline for this commentary would be the opening salvos in a trade war between China and the USA. The International Monetary Fund published a bullish report on world trade, saying that global growth will hit a 7 year high of 3.9% this year – giving
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Can I use equity release to pay for care?
June 20th, 2018• Comments Off on Can I use equity release to pay for care?• Posted By Greenwood
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