Rollercoaster, see-saw, helter-skelter ... The fairground ride analogies have been out in force over the last few months as the global financial crisis has brought unprecedented volatility to investment markets. Some of the short-term consequences of the turbulence are examined elsewhere in this newsletter, but there are longer-term lessons to be learnt too. Many of those lessons have a tinge of old fashioned common sense about them.
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If you have made, or are about to make, your New Year’s resolutions, one of the first, and a vital one, should be to make a full review of your financial situation.
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Share markets around the world have seen substantial declines in 2008, with the pace of falls accelerating sharply during September and October. The spectre of recession meant that even sectors that had been performing relatively well, such as commodity producers, were pulled down. It was all very gloomy.
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The credit crunch started in the US, but first hit the UK over a year ago with the Northern Rock crisis and has grown in seriousness ever since. The sea change in the world’s financial structure is affecting more and more people’s lives.
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Strange as it may seem, for inheritance tax (IHT) purposes, death is not, in fact, final. Your will or intestacy provisions can be altered by your beneficiaries to change the destination of your assets. For IHT purposes, these changes are deemed to be made by you.
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When things go wrong with financial products, it is good to know that there is a safety net in place to protect investors in some circumstances.
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One consequence of the credit crunch has been a rise in the yields on the fixed interest securities that underpin annuities. By September 2008, annuity rates had reached a six-year high.1 This is good news if you are looking to convert your pension fund to a lifetime income, although the bad news could be that the credit crunch has also affected the value of your pension plan.
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Many people believe that on death their assets will automatically pass to their surviving spouse or civil partner, even if they don’t make a will. Where there are significant assets this is not the case: the state dictates where your assets will go.
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When personal pensions were launched in 1988, one of their most important features was that they could be used to opt out (technically ‘contract out’) of the state earnings-related pension scheme (SERPS).
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Protecting the environment and the impact of climate change are no longer matters of fringe interest to a small handful of activists. ‘Carbon footprint’ is a term that is now widely understood, and governments around the world are introducing targets for CO2 reductions.
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There is now extra help from the government for mortgage interest payments made by people who lose their jobs and are buying their homes with a mortgage.
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Have you ever wondered what your total state pension benefits will amount to when you reach state pension age? There could be up to four components – basic state pension, graduated pension, state earnings related pension (SERPS) and state second pension (S2P).
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The 5% annual increase in the retail price index for September is an important number, because it is the basis for next April’s increases in most personal tax allowances and bands. It also determines the annual rise in the basic state pension. Next year’s basic state pension should be £95.25 a week for a single person and £152.35 for a married couple.
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If you received a paper tax return for 2007/08 in April and have not yet sent it back to HM Revenue & Customs, it is now too late to do so. The final date for submitting a paper return issued in April 2008 was 31 October 2008.
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