Six tips to give your Isa a last-minute savings boost March 20, 2019 As the tax deadline creeps closer, by now you’re probably tired of the constant reminders to use or lose your annual £20,000 tax-free Isa limit. Perhaps you’ve been ignoring the prompts, putting everything off until now. You certainly wouldn’t be alone in doing so. In fact, looking at the past three tax years, wealth management [...]
New ‘halfway house’ pension scheme given the go-ahead in bid to reduce risk for savers March 18, 2019 Pensions secretary Amber Rudd has given the green light for a new, Dutch-style pensions scheme to enter the market, which bids to give savers more stability by pooling risk. The so-called Collective Defined Contribution (CDC) scheme, which is widespread in Denmark and the Netherlands, will be offered to Royal Mail workers first, before a planned [...]
Just Group leads FTSE fallers after revealing £400m fundraising plans March 14, 2019 Retirement services firm Just Group has seen shares fall 11 per cent today after revealing plans to raise almost £400m to comply with new capital requirement rules as it unveiled a heavy loss before tax in 2018. The firm said it plans a debt offering of £300m and will raise a further £80m from an equity [...]
Spring Statement 2019: How investors can profit March 14, 2019 | City Talk By Jemma Jackson from interactive investor. There were no bunnies in the chancellor’s hat, but here are the ways investors can benefit this spring. As predicted, Brexit uncertainty torpedoed any chance of good news for the UK’s savers and investors in Chancellor Philip Hammond’s Spring Statement. We hear there’s a ‘deal dividend’ of £26.6 billion, [...]
Enrolling with the times: How the workplace pension hike could affect you March 13, 2019 Since the government began phasing in auto-enrolment almost seven years ago, 10m people have now joined their workplace pension scheme. By encouraging Brits of all ages to save for retirement, the auto-enrolment system was designed to stop the UK from hurtling head-first into a pensions crisis. So far, it’s been a success. Even more people are [...]
Savers cut pension withdrawals amid market volatility and Brexit uncertainty March 11, 2019 Savers have responded “prudently” to Brexit uncertainty and market volatility by cutting pension withdrawals. Ahead of the fourth anniversary of the introduction of pension freedoms, an AJ Bell survey found that regular annual withdrawals were on average 4.7 per cent of the fund value – a third lower than 12 months ago. Read more: With £9.2bn [...]
Pensions watchdog drops investigation into publishing giant Johnston Press March 11, 2019 The pensions watchdog has dropped its investigation into the sale of newspaper publisher Johnston Press. The Pensions Regulator (TPR) probe was launched in November after the publishing giant, which owned the I newspaper, The Scotsman and the Yorkshire Post, was sold to JPI Media out of “pre-pack” administration. Read more: Johnston Press administrator warns of [...]
14 shares for your ISA March 9, 2019 | City Talk By Richard Beddard from interactive investor. Richard reveals three rules, codified in his Decision Engine, that reduce the stress of trading. Every five weeks I share my Decision Engine’s ranking table, which orders the shares I follow by the scores I have given them. The scores are a measure of confidence a company will turn [...]
How savers can use an Innovative Finance Isa to reap the rewards from the property market March 6, 2019 "If things go wrong (and they can), then a property-backed Isa at least means that there is a tangible asset that can be sold to recover your money,” says Frazer Fearnhead, chief executive and founder of property peer-to-peer lending platform, The House Crowd. “While it’s not a guarantee, it does mean that the secured property [...]
How to use an Isa to invest in peer-to-peer loans March 6, 2019 Since peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms began to enter the market in 2005, savers have used the services to hand out more than £10bn to borrowers. Aside from providing a significant boost to the UK economy, P2P offers attractive interest rates to lenders by cutting the banking sector from the borrowing process. The Innovative Finance Isa [...]