Legal & General: FTSE 100 giant hikes shareholder returns after strong year March 12, 2025 Asset management and insurance giant Legal & General has reported a six per cent increase in core operating profit for 2024. Core operating profit hit £1.6bn and pre-tax profit under IFRS accounting standards stood at £542m. Off the back of these robust numbers Legal & General announced a £500m share buyback for 2025, as part [...]
Taxes might be going up. Here’s how to cut your tax bill March 10, 2025 Savers are preparing for the possibility of income tax increases, with Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves expected to announce some changes to the tax regime in March. Labour pledged not to increase income tax during its election campaign. However, the Treasury has discussed freezing income tax thresholds and has refused to rule out income tax [...]
Royal London to share £181m of profits with customers March 7, 2025 Royal London’s profits soared last year and it’s planning to hand some of this back to customers. Pre-tax profit at the firm grew 11 per cent to £277m, compared to £249m in 2023, after the group bolstered new businesses and consolidated its consumer book. The group announced a profit share of £181m in its annual [...]
Why ISAs and pensions make a ‘perfect combination’ March 7, 2025 A key personal finance deadline is approaching. Savers with Individual Savings Accounts have until April 5 2025, to use their annual tax-free allowance, which shields up to £20,000 of savings in the 2024/25 tax year from tax on interest, capital gains or dividends linked to ISA investments. Last year, investment platform AJ Bell said that [...]
Pension death tax will punish millions of savers, says advisory firm March 5, 2025 Planned government changes to pension taxes must be dropped, according to City experts. Advisory firm Blick Rothenberg has slammed the move as a “poorly conceived policy change [that] penalises prudent savers and their loved ones through double taxation.” The pension reforms – announced in October’s Budget and set to kick in from April 2027 – [...]
UK savers back AI on pensions, but ‘not as a substitute for humans’ February 12, 2025 UK savers are open to artificial intelligence (AI) playing a key role in pension customer support. But, most would rather have a combination of AI and human interaction, rather than a fully automated system. A recent survey by pension scheme provider PensionBee found that of its 1,000 participants, 79 per cent favoured a hybrid approach. [...]
What on earth is a ‘SIPP’?! A jargon-free guide on how it could help boost your ‘future you’ fund February 12, 2025 Camilla Esmund is a senior manager at Interactive Investor, the UK’s second largest platform for private investors Don’t be put off by the acronym – a ‘SIPP’ stands for a self-invested personal pension; a type of personal pension which gives you greater control over your retirement planning. If you haven’t heard of them, you’re not [...]
Legal & General shares soar as firm sells US insurance business for £1.8bn February 7, 2025 Following the deal, Meiji Yasuda will own L&G's US protection business and have a 20 per cent economic interest in its pension risk transfer (PRT) business.
SIPP pensioners are the most confident in a comfortable retirement February 5, 2025 Workers with a self-invested personal pension (Sipp) are the most confident their savings will pay for their retirement, research shows. Around 20 per cent of the over-55s have a Sipp, according to behavioural finance firm Oxford Risk. This group is the most comfortable that their pension will keep them comfortable in retirement. But those approaching [...]
Reeves set to gather top investors at Downing Street in growth funding push February 4, 2025 Rachel Reeves will try to convince some of the UK’s biggest investment firms to take more risks with their cash tomorrow as she looks to unlock billions of pounds of funding for her growth plans, City AM has learned. In a meeting at Number 11 Downing Street, the Chancellor is set to pitch her new [...]