The winners and losers

Last year according to citywire only 12% of US Equity funds beat the S&P 500 stock market index last year.

Many UK investors tend to hold a relatively small amount in US Equity funds.  In the past many investors might have been disappointed by the returns achieved, however the US has a reputation for going into and coming out of recession quicker than some other developed countries.

Even through the US have major Budget issues and the unstabilising effect of 2012

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First week back and like many people I’ve been catching up with paperwork and numerous spam emails that had dropped into my email box between Christmas and New Year.

I read and article yesterday and whilst watching the news late last night, I wondered why there is so most emphasis put on the FTSE 100. The FTSE 100 is the top 100 shares listed on the London Stock Exchange in term of capitalisation i.e. size
Here are a few facts about the FTSE 100.

The index is dominated by a number of big

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How can I save on Income Tax?

There are a number of ways to reduce your possible income tax liability.

A simple example would be to make a personal contribution towards a pension arrangement.

Contributions benefit from tax relief therefore reducing the amount of UK income tax you might pay.

Alternative options would be to use Venture capital Trusts or EIS schemes. If you would like to find out more about saving on income tax please call us.

There are some aspects of tax planning advice

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Changes to Basic State Pension

Confirmation from the Dept of Works and Pensions has outlined changes to the basic state pension.

The coalition has been concerned with the complexities of means testing and the burden this puts on the state to adminster means tested benefits.

Apparently radical reforms are planned with a flat rate pension of £140 per week.

The aim is to put an end to means testing, simplify tax and make pension planning more accesible to everyone.

The Daily Mail has indicated

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Public Sector Pensions Report

Labour MP John Hutton has recommended an increase in the contribution made by employees to public sector pension schemes.

He recently branded Public sector final salary schemes as “inherently unfair” as a large proportion of private sector workers are no longer members of final salary schemes. The Independent Public Sector Pension Commission has produced an interim report confirming that an increase in the level employee contribution is the fairest way to

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Government change pension contributions

An announcement by the Treasury this morning has confirmed that the annual pensions allowance is to be reduced to £50,000.

The total lifetime allowance for pensions (the total value of your pension before tax is applied) is to be reduced from £1.8 million to £1.5 million.

The changes are to be introduced to save an estimated £4 billion per year.

It is anticipated that 100,000 people will be affected by the change. Most of the people affected earn

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Pension Reform and Employers

The 2008 Pensions Act will introduce Auto Enrolment, a major pension reform starting in October 2012.

Employers (starting with the largest) will be required to offer a workplace pension scheme that satisfies the new legislation. Requirements will be phased in over four years. From Oct 2016 all employers will be required to comply with the legislation.

Auto-enrolment is being introduced to tackle the issues that currently prevent employees saving for retirement and

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The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) has recently published research about introducing a simpler more generous state pension.

The report maintains that a level state pension of £140 per week would be simpler to administer, remove millions of people from claiming benefits and would not cost the taxpayer any more than the current state pension arrangement.

Under the existing state pension scheme a third of pensioners would be entitled to means tested benefits by the year 2055. The

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US job figures better than expected

Stock Markets worldwide have leapt higher this afternoon after better than expected news concerning US job figures.

The FTSE 100 jumped 1.3% higher to 5442.6 after the US announced a smaller rise in unemployment in August, well below the consensus view that non-farm payrolls would fall by more than 100,000.

European Stock markets have also benefitted from the good news across the pond.

Today's good news comes after better than expected manufacturing figures

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Paying Tax on Shares

The Global stock markets have really improved from their low point of March 2009. In fact the FTSE 100 increased by over 12% in the second quarter of 2010.

If you got the timing right and invested in shares or collective investments , you could have made a substantial gain over this period.

If you have made gains that are subject to capital gains tax , then you should consider using this allowance each tax year.

We have put some useful information on our site about capital

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The Future of Emerging Markets

With the UK facing budget cuts and the possibility of quantitative easing (QE2- printing money) combined with inflation it would be easy to be nervous about the financial future. Investors in emerging markets such as Brazil, Russia, India and China have a great deal of issues to think about.

A good video from L&G is available to watch.

Brian Coulton, emerging markets strategist at Legal & General Investment Management, believes a big chunk of the $600 billion the

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Standard Life drops Bonuses

Standard Life has announced the thousands of policyholders will see their annual bonuses cut or frozen. It has claimed that the reason for this is to maintain the guarantees on their with profit policies.

The bonus announcement confirmed that most polices increased in value since last year, but action had to be taken to ensure that future guarantees could be met.

Standard Life has more than one million customers that invest into various with profits policies.

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Swiss and UK come to Tax Agreement

A landmark agreement between the British and Swiss governments will force UK taxpayers to pay tax on undeclared money held in Swiss accounts. The tax levy of 50% was announced after the agreement was announced. The targeting of undeclared money held in private accounts will reportedly raise £3 billion and signifies a crackdown on tax havens used by UK taxpayers. investors caught by the new agreement will also be required to pay a retrospective levy for unpaid

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Is it Time to review your Investments?

Would you like to increase your capital, improve your income or both? Your response will determine the kind of investments you choose and, furthermore, you have to be aware about the idea of ‘total return’. This is actually the way of measuring of performance - the specific rate of return of an investment or perhaps a pool of investments for a given period of time. Total return consists of interest, any capital gains made and dividend distribution

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Mortgage approvals lowest for 12 months.

The number amount of borrowing approved in August fell to the lowest level in more than a year.

The Bank of England confirmed in its most recent lending publication that approvals fell from 47,000 to 45,000 for the month of August 2010.

The number of mortgage approvals has fallen sharply since the start of the year.  It is understood the stamp duty holiday last year had an adverse effect this year with buyers purchasing before the end of the

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FSCS confirm new limits

The Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) has confirmed that the limit of protection for savers will increase from the current level of £50,000. The revised limit, due to be introduced in January will be 100,000 Euros.

The change has been announced to bring the UK into line with European Legislation.

Currently savers are covered up to £50,000 per UK regulated institution and £100,000 for joint accounts.

The exact limit in sterling has not been decided by

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Child Benefits for 40% Taxpayers to Go

The Chancellor, George Osborne has confirmed to the BBC that Higher Rate tax payers will not benefit from child benefits from 2013.

He confirmed that parent earning over £44,000 who pay 40% tax will no longer be entitled to receive the benefit.

It is estimated that 1.2 million families will be affected by the proposed cut.

The Chancellor confirmed that the changes would save the UK tax payer £1 Billion per year.

‘It’s a big decision for us, but

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UK Interest Rates remain unchanged

For the 21st Month in a row the Bank of England has maintained interest rates at 0.5%

The Monetary Policy Committee confirmed that although the level of inflation was above the agreed target, the economy was still to fragile to consider rate increases.

The MPC confirmed that their program of Quantitative easing would continue at the same level.

The news is bad for savers as deposit rates are at an all time low. Savers need to think about this latest

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FSA to reveal RBS Failings

Financial Services Authority (FSA) has offered to publish a limited report on the failings of RBS. This agreement follows calls for the regulator to provide public information about its findings and the Government Bailout. The FSA confirmed it had finished its investigation into the failings of RBS. It has not disclosed the findings as they require RBS to give agreement to release the information.

Lord Turner confirmed

'The FSA would ideally like to be in a

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Bank bailout costs taxpayers £5 bn a year

A National Audit Office (NAO) overview of Britain’s bailed out banks show they cost the taxpayer £5 billion annually in interest.

The Treasury pays out £5 billion annually to cover the interest on the loans used to prop up banks, and although this is largely covered by fees for state insurance schemes this really is likely to decrease and taxpayers will continue to pay.

Taxpayer support for that banks now stands at £512 billion even though the

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