Money Management articles from November 2007

Money Management archives from November 2007

Blast from the past.
November 1, 2007... Byline: News from 25 years ago In our November 1982 issue we reported that index linked investments were growing in popularity because they were seen as an inflation beating savings method. People were putting their money into these...

Taxing implications.
November 1, 2007... Byline: Some gains to be made from CGT changes There will be winners and losers as a result of the Chancellor's decision to end capital gains tax (CGT) taper relief and indexation allowance. Currently, calculations take account of the...

Taxing blow of inheritance.
November 1, 2007... Surging house prices have put middle income earners in a bind as their estates are increasingly being caught by inheritance tax (IHT). Once seen as a concern for only the wealthiest families, the booming property market has pushed more homes...

Crib sheet: inheritance tax.
November 1, 2007... History A death duty was first introduced in the UK in 1694, but inheritance tax (IHT) in the form that we know it today was introduced by the Conservative government in 1986. It was intended as a tax on the wealthy, but rising house...

Is it just a damp squib?
November 1, 2007... Byline: Mixed reaction from providers to Chancellor Alistair Darling's pre budget report The lack of change in the pre budget report for the treatment of so called third way or flexible annuities has received mixed reactions from...

Innovative design.
November 1, 2007... Byline: Advisers call for new products Financial advisers believe that there is a strong need for innovations in the retirement planning market, according to Lincoln Financial Group. They claim that 89% of advisers believe that a range...

Seeking safety in volatility.
November 1, 2007... Byline: Value seen in locked in pension fund gains Recent market volatility has highlighted the value of locked in gains in post retirement pension funds for investors, according to research from MetLife. The FTSE 100 showed negative...

Splitting down the middle.
November 1, 2007... With ever increasing lifespans and corresponding declining annuity rates, retirees are seeking more efficient ways for their pension pots to work for them. They are looking for greater control, the potential for continuing capital growth and,...

The only way is up.
November 1, 2007... There is no denying that in many ways the UK follows in the footsteps of our cousins across the Atlantic, and the area of retirement planning is no exception. The arrival of flexible retirement income products - those which sit as a compromise...

Genuine choice.
November 1, 2007... The third way market is a huge one, currently worth about AGBP12bn a year but forecast to grow over the next five years to between AGBP15bn and AGBP20bn as the number of people reaching retirement age with money purchase pension arrangements...

Crib sheet: Flexible annuities.
November 1, 2007... History The UK retirement market has traditionally consisted of annuities and income drawdown contracts. However, with retirees living longer and annuity rates falling, demand has grown for an alternative to these traditional options...

Not quite the end.
November 1, 2007... Byline: IHT changes to affect trust regime Changes to inheritance tax (IHT) rules for couples mean that nil rate band discretionary trusts are essentially obsolete as a means of simply utilising the nil rate allowance for the first to die...

Shop around.
November 1, 2007... Byline: OMO review short on substance, critic says The open market option (OMO) review has been branded a missed opportunity to improve the annuity market. The results of the review, published in the Government's pre-budget report in...

Unknown bonus.
November 1, 2007... Byline: Advisers not aware of tax shortcut Awareness of a tax shortcut when investing into a venture capital trust (VCT) needs to be higher, providers and advisers have warned. Patrick Reeve, managing director of Close Ventures, said...

Clearing the air.
November 1, 2007... Byline: Call for single examining body The Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) has called for a standardised set of qualifications for the financial services industry, but advisers say that its recommendations have missed the mark. The...

You're independent, he's tied, they're salesmen.
November 1, 2007... Byline: As Hoover is to vacuum cleaners and Sellotape is to sticky tape, so independent should be to quality advice C onsidering how much we have all fought, over the past 20 years, to have the value of independent advice recognised, I was...

BBC undermines FSA's findings.
November 1, 2007... Byline: Panorama programme exposes sub prime failings The BBC's findings of sub prime misdemeanours call into question the FSA's role in overseeing financial services, Peter Williams, executive director of the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders...

Savings secured.
November 1, 2007... Byline: FSA increases FSCS cover The FSA's increase to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) depositor protection level following the Northern Rock crisis has met with mixed reactions from advisers. The new level protects...

IFAs fare better in test.
November 1, 2007... Byline: Which? mystery shop says go to IFA AIFA has received a boost from an unlikely quarter in its fight against the retail distribution review (RDR) proposals. An investigation by Which? found that only 32% of tied advisers, working...

Amendment.
November 1, 2007... Byline: SIPPs survey Unfortunately A J Bell supplied us with incorrect information for the special report on SIPPs, (see page 97) which had gone to press before they discovered their error. Most of the information on its Sippcentre SIPP...

Out with the old.
November 1, 2007... Byline: New SIPP allows protected right investment Suffolk Life has launched a new self invested personal pension (SIPP), the MasterSIPP, which will be offered to new clients in place of its existing deed poll scheme. The MasterSIPP...

South African style CIC in UK.
November 1, 2007... Prudential has extended its vitality point system to its range of protection products to launch PruProtect. The suite of products comprises life cover, income protection and severity based serious illness cover. Severity based serious illness...

Bespoke tailoring.
November 1, 2007... Bankhall, the adviser support services organisation, and platform provider Capita have collaborated to launch a platform available to Bankhall's 6,000 members. The platform, called Portavista, contains an independent whole of market risk...

Ventures in the east and west.
November 1, 2007... Two aspects of Europe feature in new fund launches this month. Jupiter has launched the New Europe fund investing in emerging Europe as part of its Global Fund SICAV, while PSigma is offering a European income fund, which will invest primarily...

No headache flexibility.
November 1, 2007... Scottish Life has launched a new income drawdown product. Income Release is incorporated into the company's Pension Portfolio integrated pension product offering. It can accept protected rights pensions and allows the investment of other non...

No time for complacency.
November 1, 2007... Byline: Network members warned to be active on RDR Members of networks have been warned by industry leaders and networks themselves that they should consider making individual submissions to the FSA consultation on the retail distribution...

No downside?
November 1, 2007... Keydata is launching its Dynamic Growth Plan, a structured product that offers growth up to a maximum of 84% of the original investment over six years while providing some downside protection. The structured product consists of seven...

On safari.
November 1, 2007... New Star's new Heart of Africa fund will open for investment for a limited period of three weeks from 22 October. The open ended investment company (OEIC) will invest in sub-Saharan Africa, excluding South Africa. New Star said that...

New beginning.
November 1, 2007... Maia, the multi-manager boutique management collaboration with Resolution, has launched with an initial offering of five funds. The range will initially consist of two offshore qualifying investor funds (QIF) and three onshore unit trusts....

Lending lunacy.
November 1, 2007... Byline: Letter of the month It looks like borrowing for credit impaired is getting a whole lot more expensive, with at least seven UK sub-prime lenders having raised their interest rates or withdrawn their mortgage ranges in the last month...

Commission bias.
November 1, 2007... I cannot claim to being sufficiently acquainted with commission practices across the IFA sector as a whole to know whether or not, as Terence O'Halloran claims, commission bias "is long gone". However, on the basis of what I see from time to...

RDR and high net worth advice.
November 1, 2007... As the industry panics about the subtleties and undercurrents of the RDR, there is much written about the issues surrounding high net worth advice. This is only natural, as most advisers want high value clients who appreciate and will pay for...

Update: with profits endowment survey.
November 1, 2007... It will come as no surprise to readers that average payouts on with profits endowments policies are still in decline. But there are still strong performing funds, with the terminal bonuses on a handful rivalling even actively managed unit...

Special Report: SIPPs: colourful combinations.
November 1, 2007... The self invested personal pension (SIPP) success story can surely be held up as one able to counter the usual doom over pensions. Survey after survey suggests that SIPPs are selling like hot cakes. Yet not everyone in financial services is...

Out of sight, out of mind.
November 1, 2007... Britain's ageing population will require long term care in record numbers in the coming years but only a fraction are prepared to pay for an event that people believe will never happen to them. Currently, more than 420,000 older people are...

Smart but unproven.
November 1, 2007... 130/30 funds were first seen in the US market some five years ago, so it was only recently that someone had the bright idea of combining traditional long-only funds with funds 'shorted', as in the world of hedge funds. The mechanics of 130/30...

The small minded.
November 1, 2007... Byline: FSA targets smaller firms on TCF Small advisory firms have welcomed the FSA's new measures designed to help them comply with its treating customers fairly (TCF) initiative. The FSA plans to introduce a programme of visits and...

Prising off the lid.
November 1, 2007... Since the turn of this century, the personal finance press has reported a mood of frustration and bewilderment among the 11m policyholders in 70 with profits funds, valued at AGBP190bn. Of this figure, the consolidators - companies set up...

Financial Planner of the Year Awards 2007.
November 1, 2007... This year there were 11 individual case studies from which contestants could choose. The quality and consistency of this year's winners was again impressive; and because, as usual, almost 50% of all entrants went in for the overall award, we...

A good service.
November 1, 2007... One of the most common topics of IFA frustration is poor administration when writing protection business. Errors, delays, lost information and sometimes unhelpful (and unfriendly) service are often the subject of many adviser chats and fora....

Special Report: CFDs in SIPPs: buyer beware.
November 1, 2007... The presence of Contracts for Differences (CFD) on the London Stock Exchange has increased dramatically over the past few years. These days, estimates suggest that the daily volume represented by CFD trades on the London Stock Exchange is...

Iniquities of SDLT.
November 1, 2007... Stamp duty land tax was introduced in the Finance Act 2003 to replace stamp duty on land and buildings. It came into effect on 1 December 2003 and is a tax on land transactions (including purchasing a property) in the UK. It is generally paid...

Water management.
November 1, 2007... Environmental solutions are now a priority among governments, businesses and consumers. Additionally, trends in this area have been very good for investors with several green unit trust funds featuring among the top performing UK funds in...

Taking stock - property and the banking crisis.
November 1, 2007... Byline: Is this the moment for the default investment option of property, asks former investment banker Russell Taylor? Property has been the saving investment of the British middle classes. Those with capital sold shares during the...

Long term fixes.
November 1, 2007... Back in the summer, in the dim and distant days before the US sub prime mortgage crisis threatened to destabilise the market and people queued round the block to withdraw their money from Northern Rock, the government resurrected its promotion...

Publish SIPP performances.
November 1, 2007... Byline: Requiring SIPP providers to publish their performance can greatly benefit customers, says John Chapman Three years ago self invested personal pensions (SIPPs) were obscure niche products; now they are mainstream. What has brought...

Labour doubles IHT allowance.
November 1, 2007... Married couples and civil partners are to benefit from new inheritance tax (IHT) rules that are said to make 97% of estates exempt from the tax. In his pre budget report, Alistair Darling, the Chancellor, effectively doubled the threshold...

Pulling power.
November 1, 2007... Byline: Morningstar to campaign for advisers Morningstar managing director Don Phillips has said that Morningstar will use its influence with fund companies for the good of advisers in that it would like to be part of greater transparency...

Standard Life in favour of pre budget report.
November 1, 2007... Standard Life's estate planning specialist Julie Hutchinson has welcomed the proposals on inheritance tax (IHT) in the pre budget report (PBR). Hutchinson said that the new rules on combined nil rate bands, which allow widowed spouses or...

No change for AIM.
November 1, 2007... Byline: Electra Quoted: AIM investors to be unaffected AIM investors are unlikely to be affected by the changes to inheritance tax proposed in the pre budget report (PBR), a fund manager at Electra Quoted has said. Judith MacKenzie,...

Ignorance is not so blissful for the British public.
November 1, 2007... Byline: Research shows a lack of awareness of IHT rules despite recent political activity The British public are overwhelmingly unaware of the need to plan for inheritance tax (IHT), according to Bradford & Bingley. A report from the...

Product update - estate planning vehicles.
November 1, 2007... l Butterfield private bank has launched an inheritance tax planning service. The service comprises an individually managed portfolio made up of alternative investment market (AIM) shares, in which the client will retain full ownership of the...

Advisers learn to trust in inheritance tax.
November 1, 2007... Winterthur is hosting a series of work-shops covering trusts and inheritance tax (IHT) planning). The workshops will cover pre-March 2006 trusts, combining potentially exempt transfers (PETs) and chargeable lifetime transfers, HMRC...

Less sass for SSAS.
November 1, 2007... A loophole that allowed pension funds to be passed on tax free at death has been closed by the government. Since A-Day, small self administered pension schemes (SSAS) have been marketed as a way of passing on pension pots to family members...

The elephant in the corner.
November 1, 2007... The temptation for the adviser, whether experienced or inexperienced, can be to avoid the subject of inheritance tax (IHT) planning, especially if it is a first meeting and the client has other immediate priorities such as retirement or...

Changes ahead.
November 1, 2007... Accumulation & maintenance (A&M) trusts were heavily affected by the 2006 Budget since new A&M trusts moved from being a potentially exempt transfer (PET) to being a chargeable transfer (CT). This meant that new A&M trusts became unattractive...

Step by step.
November 1, 2007... Imagine a meeting with a new client: what information do you need to arm yourself with to fully understand the client's circumstances and needs? A good place to start is domicile. If the client is not UK domiciled or has a non UK domiciled...

A compatible combination.
November 1, 2007... Investment in Alternative Investment Market (AIM) companies is now a widely accepted inheritance tax mitigation tool; investors in qualifying AIM companies can, if holding the stocks for a minimum of two years at the time of death, gain 100%...