What is an ISA?

‘ISA’ stands for Individual Savings Account, a tax-efficient wrapper offered under Government legislation as a way of encouraging you to save. An ISA sits over your choice of a number of different investments to shelter them from further tax on any income or gains

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The HMRC have confirmed that tax payers will start to receive a personal statement each year, showing a breakdown of how their tax is spent.

Plans to provide personalised statements have been confirmed by the Treasury and George Osborne in his latest budget.

The aim of the statement will be to

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The Chancellor George Osborne, announced yesterday on the BBC Andrew Marr show that he intends to crack down on the abuse of so-called Stamp duty Land Tax Schemes. The Chancellor was referring to the upcoming Budget this week.

These schemes are sometimes used by individuals looking to reduce the

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As we are coming to the end of the tax year, many investors might ask themselves whether it is better to use your annual  ISA allowance or Pension allowance. The simple answer is both if you have the capital available to do this.

However if you only have a limited amount of money, which route is

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A report by the Ethical Investment Research Service (EIRIS) in October 2011 showed a dramatic increase in the number of investors using ethical or socially responsible investments.

Eiris is a not for profit organisation that provides research on ethical investments, banks and financing.

The

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The winners and losers

Last year according to citywire only 12% of US Equity funds beat the S and 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,

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Is residential property a good investment?

Over the last ten years owners of residential property have benefitted from rental income above the returns available from deposit based investments.

In addition to good rental income levels, landlords have also enjoyed a substantial increase in the

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Interested in Trustee Investment and the responsibilities. Our website has a new page of information.

Whether you want to grow your capital, increase your income or both, this will determine the type of investments you choose. A growth investment is designed to expand the original amount of money you’ve set WHEREAS an income-driven investment is meant to generate regular payments to you, ideally

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Planning for inflationary pressures and the effects on your assets

Rising inflation poses a risk to any investor. Cash and gilts are the most vulnerable asset classes when it comes to erosion from inflation: cash because the returns are generally quite low and gilts because they pay a fixed

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We have recently launced our investment bulletin. the bulletin investment bulletin will be published each month and gives a snapshot of the current ecomony and a few investment tips.

To find out more about our investment advice service , why not contact us

Why Isa providers concentrate on selling Isa investments to clients at the end of the tax year just doesn’t make sense.

Admittedly most investments are made towards the end of the tax year at the last minute, but there are advantages to making an investment at the start of the tax year.

Since

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