Arthur Wynyard’s Retirement

We have come to the point where we say goodbye and heartfelt thanks to Arthur Wynyard who at 71 will be retiring at the end of August 2014. Arthur was my third hiring and has lasted the course longer than anyone else! We have seen huge changes and the ups and downs of life within financial services, heaven only knows how many regulators he has worked under!

Over the years, he worked in various capacities as both an adviser and paraplanner as he gradually prepared for his full-time retirement. Many of you will initially have come across him as an adviser, but he stopped this some time ago to work as a paraplanner. He has been something of a protective shield against the sometimes unhelpful tide of waffle and general incompetence that we experience from certain product providers and helped to ensure that details are correct and our clients are treated well. As with much of our work, a huge amount of what he has done has not been seen by our clients, but experienced by them, perhaps rather like the foundations to any good building

Arthur has gradually reduced his working week enabling him to pursuit his other interests which he will now be able to enjoy in a full-time capacity with his wife Liz, their 4 adult children and his several grandchildren. He is a very keen gardener and if you have visited the office lately, he is responsible for our rather marvellous hanging baskets that greet everyone upon arrival.

Thank you Arthur for all your efforts helping us to serve our clients, strive to improve what we do and how we do it. We have seen huge changes in the what, how and why of what we do – all rather different from when you joined with me all those years ago, with the aim of helping people make better financial decisions. Thank you for putting up with my constant “improvement tweaking” and sticking with me through the “ups and downs” of commercial life and remaining willing to learn new skills. Thank you too for all of the roles that you have played which are incumbent for those working within a small business. You thoroughly deserve a happy and long retirement.

Dominic Thomas: Solomons IFA

‘All good things must come to an end’ as they say and the end of my time at Solomon’s is fast approaching. It has been an exciting, sometimes stressful, always interesting and mostly enjoyable. I have met and had the privilege to deal with some really great people over the years I worked as an adviser. I started with the company in the very early days and I would like to thank Dom for giving me the opportunity to be part of an expanding and growing organisation. I wish him and Solomons all the best for the future and pray that it will go from strength to strength.

What am I going to do with my retirement? Good question as I have not really planned anything, which for someone who is supposed to be a planner is not a good example. However, my family have some ideas to do with child care, decorating and gardening for them. I hope to be able to play golf, watch cricket and other sports more often and do a bit of travelling mainly around the U.K. I am also hoping to be able to provide some hands-on support to a local youth charity called Oxygen. However, as a Christian I believe that God guides my life and He may well have plans for me that I am as yet not aware and as it states in Proverbs 16:9 ‘We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps’. God willing the next phase in Life will be as exciting and as fulfilling as the previous ones. He may even grant me a long period of ‘retirement’ but I am sure that He will have something for me to do throughout it.

Arthur Wynyard

Arthur Wynyard’s RetirementDominic2023-12-01T12:39:26+00:00

Out with the old, in with the…. Old?

Out with the old, in with the… Old?

Well, the day has finally come. Skandia is being consigned to ancient history. Not precisely true, the parent company Old Mutual are rebranding Skandia from the end of this month as Old Mutual Wealth. As of 22nd September all references to Skandia will cease. So as with the multitude of “rebranding” of insurance companies in the past, will this one be any different? (other than a very good day for the printer). Skandia, er.. sorry Old Mutual are adamant that this is much more than a new coat of paint and a rebrand. They believe that this marks a new start and more innovation and giving customers what they want.

Skandia have certainly been a highly innovative company. Market leaders in the world of multifund offerings, enabling IFAs to offer a broad range of funds and the ability to construct some really good portfolios for clients. In fact few could really touch them, Fund Managers beat a path to their door simply to get onto the list as the first and largest fund supermarket in the UK. Times have changed and from an outside observers perspective the key changes seem to be – technology, regulation, competition and a change of parent. It remains to be seen precisely how Old Mutual Wealth will fare, but certainly the future will be far more competitive and require considerable foresight and innovation to keep pace, let alone lead the platform market, which is now rapidly becoming a crowded place.

If you have any Skandia arrangements, you will be getting a letter from them explaining the changes and the new branding very shortly.

Dominic Thomas: Solomons IFA

Out with the old, in with the…. Old?Dominic2023-12-01T12:39:26+00:00

“A-List” you don’t want to be on

The Inland Revenue, these days known as HMRC, yesterday published its list of 1,172 “aggressive tax avoidance schemes” which are under investigation. These are the sort of schemes that the media has been providing significant coverage and delighting in the opportunity to have a pop at an “A-List” celebrity or two… or rather more. The list is a 2 page document of numbers, looking rather like a sequence from the film “The Matrix” which I asked my design team to parody to make the point. Like it?

Tax avoidance is perfectly legal, tax evasion is not. Tax avoidance includes everything from investing in an ISA, pension or using your annual capital gains allowance. It would also include moving savings into a lower or non-taxpayer’s name to avoid a higher rate of tax on an albeit puny amount of interest. These are of course “schemes” that are manufactured by the Chancellor and HM Treasury to satisfy number of aims. Firstly, to provide a tax-break for voters. Secondly to encourage saving and therefore reduce reliance on State support and finally to encourage trade, which is how we create jobs, raise taxes and pay our way. Most people with a modicum of intelligence will use tax avoidance schemes if they can.

Tax evasion is illegal, it always has been. Tax evasion is the deliberate and wilful, non-payment of owed taxes. This is effectively the running away to Rio with your millions out of the reach of HMRC. Society loses out and society is cheated and if the tax gap figures are to be believed this amounts to between £31-£35billion each year.

Aggressive tax avoidance schemes are a grey area, hence we are in this mess. To suggest that they sail close to the edge of the rules is fair. Some schemes deliberately creating or manufacturing losses, or moving money around offshore to avoid the UK tax system. As with most things, some of this is more obviously close to evasion than others. The motivation behind it all is to pay less tax, not necessarily to have a fantastic investment return. However in the context of 45% or 50% tax rates, the tax saving is of course a very healthy return. Invariably those that market and manufacture these schemes are paid handsomely (some might say excessively) for their cut of the scheme. For example on £100,000 investment, which might save £100,000 of tax a charge of £15,000 is not uncommon. The motivation is to save tax, because some people pay huge amounts, which they believe is unfair. This is probably due to a belief that Government has no real idea about how to spend wisely. It is often coupled with the idea that personal control over personal wealth is a defining feature of real freedom.

My view is simple. It isn‘t surprising that people want to reduce their tax bill. The tax system could be both simple and fair, but it is highly complex. I believe that this is deliberate. Complexity serves the very wealthy, who are also those with power. However some of these schemes are used by more “ordinary people” not simply the super-rich. People that fundamentally believe that they pay more than their fair share of tax. This is where the debate or argument needs to be had, as there is little real prospect of Governments (of any persuasion) having a simple Tax and Trust system, despite deceptive terms like “Simplification”.

Whatever your view, HMRC are now investigating a huge number of schemes, each of the numbers represents a scheme number. HMRC now has the power to simply take money from your bank account. This process is very much a case of guilty until proven innocent and whilst some will be, not all are, yet this approach could have a very damaging impact. Of course, those that peddle the schemes are usually covered by water-tight contracts with clauses waiving any responsibility and point to “Queen’s Council” as opinion not “fact”. Hmmm.

Anyway, we will not use schemes that “sail close to the edge” of tax rules. We will use allowances and avoidance tools of course, but not the type that land you in trouble with HMRC. There will be no need to dodge bullets…

Dominic Thomas: Solomons

References:

HMRC Avoidance: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/avoidance/

HMRC strategy: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/budget2013/evade-avoid.htm

“A-List” you don’t want to be onDominic2023-12-01T12:39:25+00:00

Explosive ideas

I think I may be on a theme at the moment – something is gnawing at me and it’s not the occasional mosquito. Perhaps I am concerned about my own mid-life stage and seeing my children head off to University (that’s probably something to do with it). Perhaps it is meeting with clients and prospects who give me cause to wonder if only… if only I had met them 10 years earlier. Whatever the cause, I’m conscious that time is a very valuable resource and you don’t want to spend too much more of it reading a ramble.

Long story short… well that’s kind of the point. Most of our lives we live as though we have a long time left, “all the time in the world” but the reality is that life is very fleeting. So we need to enjoy what there is and plan for our futures as best we can with what we have today. I heard a phrase the other day which went along these lines “people value present money much more than they value future money”. I think pretty much every financial planner will probably agree that this is the case. Getting some people to take action about their future can be very difficult. Take fees for example, this is invariably a tiny proportion of the difference that good financial planning will make. I’m not talking £000’s but many £000’s of £000’s. Yet for many the fee is the number that they really “feel” and relate to. Its now, it’s present. The future – well that’s some way down the track.

The future is of course made up of from a history of “the present” the “now’s”. I am struggling to convey the importance of getting the present sorted out properly so that the future is much better. I’m not sure where I’m failing in this regard, but I am. Perhaps my copy writing could do with a serious spruce up, perhaps I need to try a different approach… yet I am struggling to win you over aren’t I. By win, I mean persuade. Persuade that taking action today about your future is just as important as the tasks you are actually doing today. So I’m declaring open season on ideas. If you have any that you believe convey the notion of long-term thinking and future value being as valid as present value, I’d love to hear from you.

Too many of us seem to think that the future will simply look after itself. We are more like Allan Karlsson, from “The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared” who bumbles from one incident to another, narrowly avoiding disaster served by a helpful side order of luck and naivety. It’s a delightful movie, but it is fantasy, yet it would seem that many of us prefer the fantasy that things will work out ok, as opposed to working to make them ok. I wonder what explosive I might use to shift some thinking.

Dominic Thomas: Solomons IFA

Explosive ideasDominic2023-12-01T12:39:24+00:00

Chasing Gold – That Night in Rio

Chasing Gold

So Germany won the World Cup, deservedly so. A final game of 120 minutes chasing gold. However, as if to underline my previous post about the tournament, I came across a useful piece on the BBC website. This also suggests that it is not about one month in Brazil – that is merely the end of the competition. Of the German squad that picked up winners medals last night in Rio, six of them were members of the 2009 Under 21 European Championship – who beat England 4-0 in the final to win the tournament. They were Neuer, Ozil, Howedes, Boatend, Khedira and Hummels. By comparison only one Englishman from that same match made it to Rio – James Milner. Unfortunately Theo Walcott was injured, but the rest did not feature in the squad.

Success in football or indeed in any walk of life is not easy. Last night we saw one of the best players in the world walk away with a trophy that could have gone to a number of other players, who probably all had better tournaments. There is no doubt that Lionel Messi is one of the most talented players, but simply being so, does not guarantee success. Those that made the decision to give him the golden ball award, should have thought again, Messi from all accounts is a very decent man and looked uncomfortable collecting the award, and yes, whilst I don’t know that he was (who does?) one got the sense that it was more than simply being on the losing team, this smacked of marketing and nothing more.

The same is true with investing, you can simply look up the top performing funds, but this is historic data and any good portfolio is more than a collection of historically well performing funds. It’s about getting the right mix (asset allocation) and then the right level of risk (defence and growth) and then the best value for money that will do the job (so none of the “stars” that played for Brazil). Certainly there are moments when you are likely to need to hold you nerve, but that is all part of the long-term thinking rather than a constant chop/change trying to chase the gold.

Dominic Thomas: Solomons IFA

Chasing Gold – That Night in RioDominic2023-12-01T12:39:24+00:00

World Cup Winning by elimination – the final 4

The thing I still don’t really understand is the way most sports are reported in the media. Take the #WorldCup2014 as an example, (why not, it seems everyone else has). Anyhow, we were told that the tournament started in June, this isn’t really the case. Brazil is simply the nation that is holding the final stages of the competition. In fact the “World Cup 2014” started in September 2012, perhaps you recall Bosnia’s 8-1 win over Liechtenstein? No… perhaps you remember the 5-0 England victory over Moldova. This is a lengthy process of elimination. Now it is early July the final stages have been reached, with four teams remaining, all 4 are ranked in the top 15 (of 207) and if world rankings are anything to go by, Germany will win this evening and meet Argentina in the final.

My point? Well – many people seem to forget that the road to “victory” is rather long and involves knocking out the competition. It’s a rather sad state of affairs when the so-called experts suggest that going for a draw is either sporting or genuinely helpful. The challenge, (to win) as with most sports is to out-score your opponent (unless your game is golf) yet we seem to have entered a sporting age of rather than trying to win, it is more important not to lose, hence the defensive tactics and the inevitable penalty shoot-outs.

Has sport become unsporting?

I couldn’t help but wonder when one pundit and former player suggested that people will forget about how the game was won… but that it was won, then proceeded to wax lyrical about a great Brazilian team of the past that didn’t win the World Cup… not exactly forgotten then? Yes it is possible in sport, particularly in football, to win without being the best –Chelsea’s Champions League, Greece winning the Euro’s, supporters will have a different perspective, but the neutral remembers these finals for their lack of memorable moments, 90 minutes (usually 120) lost forever. However this is just the last 90 or 120 minutes of a tournament and doesn’t reflect the full story, but as humans we remember and focus on the loudest noise (the final). This seems ably displayed by football pundits who regularly write off the USA team, who certainly played with sporting spirit against Belgium but who are in fact ranked 13th best in the FIFA World Rankings, just 3 places behind England (10th) and ahead of France, Chile, Netherlands, Mexico, Croatia and…

There can be only one..

Only one team can win the World Cup and then once this has been achieved, the entire process restarts. We hope that the best team wins, but history reminds us otherwise. How on earth am I going to link this to financial planning? Well… the same sort of enthusiastic optimism creeps in. Many hope for a “win” despite the track record and they tend to only get engaged at the latter stages – when the finish line is in sight – the final straight so to speak. We are by nature, sadly rather short-sighted, forgetting the daily routines that need to be applied to deliver the results we seek. Unlike sport, everyone can actually “win” with their financial planning – provided that they start, know the rules and have an objective in mind. It doesn’t come down to penalties and when your time is up… well its up. We might have our favourites that we would like to win in sport, but only one will (ok there are some exceptions – cricket being one). Make sure your financial plan is not stuck on the bench, left at home or disqualified, it is a “game” that can be won by all, but of course you’ve got to have some goals. OK, so consider this last sporting analogy – reflect on how old you are today and your life expectancy… if this were a sport, how long do you have left? How many minutes of play are left to make a difference? Time for a change of tactics? Time to get in touch…

Dominic Thomas: Solomons IFA

World Cup Winning by elimination – the final 4Dominic2023-12-01T12:39:23+00:00

Social Media can kill

Social media can kill

Social media is a mixed blessing, it is almost unparalleled in unforgiving speed, much like an F1 car in the wrong hands. In a climate of assessing the value that we all bring to the smorgasbord of life, the mixture of new technology, aspiration and creativity form the backdrop for a new movie called Chef.

Chef puts heart on the menu

Chef is one man’s journey of rediscovering who he really is, or perhaps more accurately who he could be. Many of us will have harboured dreams of “doing our own thing” some of us get to do this. Most do not; for a vast array of reasons, perhaps “financial security” being one of the more obvious and understandable concerns. This is not quite the usual “American Dream” yarn, but it certainly holds onto the vital ingredients of one.

In essence, we have a man trapped without realising that he is holding the keys. It takes a fairly pithy exchange on social media to expose his repressed feelings about the life he is leading, which catapults him into taking stock and renewing his passion for life….and love. Why I like the film, is that, ok it’s sentimental, (so what!) but in fairness, the main character is a decent guy, he works hard, he’s present, though not always available for his son and he’s making a good living by making great meals. He’s a good chef. Normally films of this genre are more heavy-handed, with the character in crisis at the bottom of his “luck”. This isn’t really the case in Chef.

What Chef offers is the view that life can be more fulfilling…. More flavoursome!…and that perhaps many of the answers are close at hand – perhaps close at home. That the skills you have are enough, but the courage of self belief is lacking. This is not a rags to riches story in the traditional sense, but an unveiling of life’s riches. It combines a sense of the authentic, natural but doesn’t lay waste to, or pour scorn on, the many advantages that modern technology can bring and its ability to make viable “new communities”.

Making a killing?

On one hand, this could be seen as a story about entrepreneurialism, though I don’t think this is really the case, there are admittedly similarities. Rather like entrepreneurs, there is a sense of creating a better future and making choices about it and then decisions to act. This reminded me of a podcast I recently listened to by Dan Sullivan who outlined the difference between choices and decisions. He argues that these are not interchangeable terms, but that a choice is about the future. A decision is about how much of the past you want to take into that future. He reminds us of the Latin root word for “decide” is found in patricide, suicide and so on, a sense of putting to death or killing parts of the past that are not welcomed into the future. So I wonder how many of us are living out a future that hasn’t properly been “chosen” and has yet to “kill off” the unhelpful elements of the past? How might this be the case in your financial planning?

Dominic Thomas: Solomons IFA

Social Media can killDominic2023-12-01T12:39:23+00:00