Ten million don’t check pensions

Solomons-financial-advisor-wimbledon-blogger

Ten million don’t check pensions

Wow! according to research conducted by AVIVA (who used to be Norwich Union) about ten million people are not checking their pensions. That is staggering. For many people their pension will be their second largest asset, their home being the largest.

ICM research surveyed 1500 people online, who were 45+ but under retirement age. A staggering 63% did not bother to check their pensions. AVIVA have extrapolated data from their research and widely known information about pensions published by the Office of National Statistics (ONS). Their data suggests that there are about 8.1m active occupational pension scheme members and about 8.2m with active private pensions. Active doesn’t necessarily mean “paying into” – after all these are pensions that alter in value each year (or day) and ultimately have a maturity date. Breaking down the numbers (a precarious exercise) results in AVIVA concluding that about ten million people do not check the value of their pensions.

So what?

Even if the numbers are vaguely correct, there are probably a variety of reasons why people do not check their pensions. Frankly it could be as simple as they lost them or didn’t know they even had them (from former employers). It might be the constant name changing of pension companies due to all the mergers and acquistions that have occurred over the last 20 years. It may be that they realise that the pots are so small that to check them seems rather trivial. Equally it may be that because they are small, few wish to be reminded of the reality of the pension provision.

Not always the ostrich

It isn’t as simple as dismissing ten million people as little more than the proverbial ostrich. The reasons can be rather more complex. In any event, whilst the ostrich is known for its head-in-the-sand behaviour, it does have a rather large nest-egg and of course, whilst flightless, is a very fast and powerful runner, even being raced…

One problem is the simple number of pensions to keep track of . The research found to be the main reason why people consolidated pensions (of those that did). Consolidating pensions can make a lot of sense, but it needs to be done very carefully – some older style pensions have various guarantees which may be worth keeping. Some may have very high penalties for transferring them to a different pension.

Making the best of things

Whatever the reason, being prepared for retirement and knowing what you are aiming for is important to us all…. ask any pensioner! As a financial planner, I work with what you have built up and then we figure out together what you need and how to best get there. May I urge you, if you are not a client to begin by downloading my free guide to regaining control of your pension. If you are a client, please share this information. Drifing into retirement will result in serious disappointment.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email info@solomonsifa.co.uk

Ten million don’t check pensionsDominic2023-12-01T12:20:04+00:00

Is your website useful?

Solomons-financial-advisor-guest-blogger-G-Jones

Is your website useful?

Sometimes when you land on a web page, it is hard to navigate or recognise what is important. That’s why many website owners focus their minds on web design – making sure that people are attracted to their website and can use it with ease.

However, the design is not the only issue that makes people have a good experience with a website. Indeed, there are several “user experience” issues that affect us subconsciously when we land on a web page. One of these, for instance, is the amount of material. When there is little information on a web page, we tend to have a reduced sense of trust with the information the page does carry.

Human beings “weigh by the pound” and when we see a web page that has loads of information, we trust it more. That is part of our experience of a web page. As users we want to trust what we are faced with, so subconsciously we assess the volume of information and it if is large, we rate our experience of that page as more positive.

There are plenty of other issues relating to our user experience of web pages that operate at a subconscious level. Now, though, researchers in technology user experience have provided a clue as to what makes us like some web pages more than others.

Tips for business owners - Graham Jones, the internet psychologist with tips for business owners with an online offering

Warning: It has nothing to do with design..!

The researchers from Tampere University in Finland found in their study that the most influential aspect of user experience was whether or not the technology was useful to the individual. It appears that usefulness overrides other considerations. It suggests that we persist with any minor niggles of using the technology, as long as we find it useful.

Facebook, for instance, is notorious for its technological issues. You can’t design things the way you want. You can’t really control groups and pages with any real degree of flexibility. Nor can you make changes to certain things because of the way Facebook works. Yet in spite of its technological issues (and there are plenty of them) more than a billion people are happy to use the site most days of the week because they find it extremely useful. The significant degree to which we find Facebook useful overcomes the technological issues.

So when people visit your website are they faced with technological issues, such as poor navigation, or are the met with wonderful, prize-winning design? Either way there could be a “user experience” issue for you.

If your navigation is naff, then people will have a negative experience. Equally, though, if your design is fantastic, but your site is of little use to people, then that too is a user experience issue. Their experience of your website is negative.

If you want more visitors, more business and more profits, you need to ensure your website is of practical use to people.

Graham Jones

http://www.grahamjones.co.uk/

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email info@solomonsifa.co.uk

Is your website useful?Dominic2023-12-01T12:20:05+00:00

Where there’s a Will – part 2

I asked Alex Truesdale for her thoughts on the ruling by the Court of Appeal and am thankful for her very valuable insight, here are her thoughts and observations.

The Court of Appeal’s judgment in this long-running dispute confirms that disinherited children are permitted by a 1975 statute to challenge their parents’ Wills if reasonable provision for their maintenance is not made. “Maintenance” means the child’s cost of daily living at whatever level is appropriate to them. The question of what is “reasonable” is dealt with by the court exercising its discretion to consider a number of factors laid down by statute, including the child’s needs and circumstances, the needs and circumstances of the beneficiary who has inherited instead, and the parent’s conduct. Here, Arden LJ endorses the lower court’s description of Melita Jackson’s conduct towards her daughter Heather Illot, since their 1978 estrangement, as “unreasonable, capricious and harsh”, before replacing the lower court’s £50,000 award with a sum of £163,000. This, Arden LJ reasoned, would allow Mrs Illot to purchase her house, receive a modest income, and potentially arrange a pension through equity release, all without compromising her state benefits.

This is not new Law

None of this is new law. But it is inevitable that this high profile victory for Heather Ilott – albeit one which sees her receiving just over 1/3 of her late mother’s estate – will encourage further challenges to Wills which seek to disinherit family members, particularly if there is no connection between a testator and the charity which has benefited from a windfall legacy. A costs order has yet to be made but will be considerable: Melita Jackson’s insistence that her executors defend to the hilt any attempt by her daughter to contest the Will will already have eroded the value of her estate, and so now the charities themselves face a smaller residual legacy and their own costs bill. There may be a further appeal to the Supreme Court, but I would suspect that the charities will take a view on the reputational as well as financial damage they risk in prolonging a dispute which has run since 2004 and, arguably, since the estrangement in 1978.

Where does this leave testamentary capacity? Much as it was before – the award made in this case turns on its own facts, and does not represent any further curtailment of one’s freedom to leave one’s estate as one pleases, so we should all still be making Wills.

Think ahead and think carefully

However, I would encourage those who do wish to exclude family members from their Wills to leave contemporaneous evidence of their reasoning not only to exclude a particular beneficiary, but also to favour other beneficiaries. This is particularly important if, in the case of charities, the testator has no connection with, or history of donations to, charity during their lifetime. I have been instructed on a number of cases where we have done just that by way of a side letter, to try to avoid the washing of too much dirty linen during probate, a process which makes Wills public. And those asked to act as executors should always check whether they are risking accepting a poisoned chalice that may compel their involvement in a protracted legal battle. As in this case, that may, sadly, become the testator’s most enduring legacy.

Alexandra Truesdale MIPW

Alex Truesdale Wills Limited | Registered in England and Wales no 7275445 | Registered office: 27 Mizen Close Cobham Surrey KT11 2RJ

Alex Truesdale Wills Limited is a member of the Institute of Professional Willwriters and complies with its Code of Practice

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email info@solomonsifa.co.uk

Where there’s a Will – part 2Dominic2023-12-01T12:20:06+00:00

Where there’s a Will…

Perhaps you know the saying.. “where there’s a Will, there’s a crowd”, well it seems that there may have been a landmark ruling in the Court of Appeal. This could impact anyone wishing to disinherit their own children.

The potential landmark ruling was handed down by Lady Justice Arden at the Court of Appeal on 27 July 2015 throws into question the “security” of a number of Wills.

Long story short – Heather Ilott challenged her late mother’s Will of 2002. The original Will made by her mother Melita Jackson, expressly prohibited her only daughter from any inheritance from her estate, leaving the entire estate to animal charities. This all stemmed from a family event in 1978 when Heather then 17, eloped with her boyfriend, who she later married. Mrs Jackson died in 2004 and the Will was initially challenged by her daughter and she was awarded £50,000 of the £486,000 estate. An appeal was initially denied, but this week was upheld by Lady Justice Arden. Heather Ilott was awarded £164,000 about a third of the estate.

“Unreasonable, capricious and harsh”

Lady Justice Arden, ruled that the exclusion of her daughter from an inheritance was unreasonable, capricious and harsh. Ruling that she should have a greater share of the estate.

Needless to say this prompts a few concerns and questions. Firstly it has taken 11 years to agree the terms of Probate and settle the Will. Secondly the original Will, despite being “crystal clear” was overturned, not completely, but essentially opening the way for more legal challenges to Executors. Of course, the animal charities have also lost a reasonable amount too – presumably having an impact on their planning somewhere.

The number of Wills challenged each year continues to rise which rather affirms the statement that where there’s a Will, there’s a crowd. Most people do not understand what is involved when someone dies, having little or no grasp of the lengthy delays that can occur. This case has been rolling on for 11 years!

You can see the ruling by clicking here.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email info@solomonsifa.co.uk

Where there’s a Will…Dominic2023-12-01T12:20:07+00:00

A Matter of Life and Death

A matter of life and death

It is one of the strangest aspects of conversations that I have with clients. It gets stranger and perhaps more difficult the older they become. We have to talk about a matter of life and death.

In essence, when all is said and done, financial planning is about trying to ensure that your money does not run out before you die. So we need to have a conversation about when that might be. We don’t know the answer. Death is a daily part of life, yet something that most of us manage to avoid talking about.

The motivation behind the question is obviously to attempt to make money last long enough, however it is also designed to prompt thoughts about what is life about, what do you want from it during this brief sojourn on this wonderful planet?

Thoughts may turn too quickly to estate planning and reducing inheritance tax, rather than considering the true inheritance that is being left…. the memory and impact of .. well…you!

I might (will) point to the financial impact of your loss to those dependant upon you, be they family or your business, but we all know that its much bigger and deeper than that don’t we. So good financial planning can take care of financial loss, but great financial planning will hopefully remind and inspire you to ensure that you make the most of the life you have now.

Another way to view death – acceptance

A dear friend of mine, who has had more than her fair share of grief drew my attention to this short video about death (and life). It combines images from various films and words of Alan Watts. It is worth taking the 3 minutes to watch it.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email info@solomonsifa.co.uk

A Matter of Life and DeathDominic2023-12-01T12:20:07+00:00

Taxing Reforms for Pensions

Taxing reforms for pensions

There has been considerable “chatter” about the prospect of pensions being reformed even further. In particular, the tax of pensions is very much up for debate, making the prospect of tax reforms for pensions a genuine possibility.

In brief the Chancellor has already made huge changes to the pension system, enabling a pension to be taken as a lump sum or as income without any requirement to buy an annuity. In addition, a pension can now be easily passed on to beneficiaries of your estate, rather than ceasing when you do.

Tax Overpayments

The new freedoms have already and will continue to mean that some people don’t do their sums properly and end up paying too much tax – unnecessarily, which of course is a good thing if you run HM Treasury… every little helps and all that.

In very simple terms, most people will currently find that whatever the size of their pension pot, they can take 25% of it as tax-free cash (these days “we” call it a pension commencement lump sum – or PCLS). The rest is taxed as income.

Reforming tax relief

At the moment, anyone that pays into a pension gets tax relief – either at 20%, 40% or even 45% depending on your rate of tax. Everyone gets 20% (from age 0 to 75). So an investment of £1000 actually costs £800 if you are a nil rate or basic rate taxpayer. If you pay more than 20% tax, you get to claim the balance back via your tax returns.

The Chancellor is reviewing this, because it costs the country a lot of money. The main problem being that employers make most of pension contributions each year and do so in part because it is treated as a deductible cost. If this were considerably altered, then most employers are likely to reduce or even stop (bar the minimum requirements of auto enrolment) their contributions. This would result in smaller pensions in retirement…

So he could simply reduce tax relief to a lower amount, in essence he has done this already for anyone earning over £150,00, who have their annual allowance restricted to just £10,000 (less than an ISA) if they earn over £250,000.

Tax relief provided in 2013/14 amounted to £34.3bn, whereas the tax on pensions generated £13.1bn a “cost” to the UK of £21.2bn. Most of which (2/3rds) is reclaimed by higher rate taxpayers… those paying 40% or more.

Shrinking the Pot

He has also reduced the amount that can be held in a pension (the Lifetime Allowance) which is set to reduce again from £1.25m to £1m next April. Anything above this will be subject to an excess tax charge of 55% as things stand at present. That’s what I call easy money for the Treasury and there isn’t that much that you can do about it, other than applying for protection where relevant.

Changing the Sweetener

Another option would be to make pensions tax-free in retirement instead of taxable. Whilst this sounds all well and good, the reality is that who would honestly trust any future Government not to change the rules later, when they realise that they need the income to be taxed.

Simplicity Seems Dead

I am of the opinion that pensions are going to change, how much and when, we simply do not know. However the Government wants to be seen not to help the “rich” which seems to include people paying 40% tax and everyone paying 45% tax. It would include anyone in the State Sector that has built up a long career – doctors, teachers, police, civil servants – all of whom seem to be the current “cat to kick”. It certainly includes anyone that has pension funds worth £1m or more. Though I would argue that £1m in a pension pot isn’t that huge (yes I know its relative) but in practice that provides at £40,000 a year income… not enough to pay higher rate tax. The worst case to my mind would be to create a “before and after” system – which we have had before, which only makes life more complicated.

If I were Chancellor?

People need an incentive to save for the long-term. I would abolish the Lifetime Allowance making all current and previous protections irrelevant. I would restrict tax relief to a % of salary, perhaps providing it directly as a 5% tax cut, say 20% tax becoming 15% if payments are made to a pension. That way HM Treasury collect taxes, people are incentivized to save and earn. I would scrap rules that enable people to pay into pensions for children, which is essentially something that only the wealthy can do, so that pensions are only for those aged 18. However I would continue to tax pension income as income…

Sadly, for younger generations the prospects of good pensions looks fragile… of course there is the prospect of the solution as outlined in Logan’s Run….. there’s just one catch..

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email info@solomonsifa.co.uk

Taxing Reforms for PensionsDominic2023-12-01T12:20:08+00:00

Gold and the ATM give away

Dominic Thomas
July 2015 • 3 min read

Gold and the ATM give away

The continued fall in the price of gold reminded me of a 4 years ago (Gold to Go). This was a short piece about the arrival of an ATM that dispenses gold bars, rather small ones! in exchange for cash..

At the moment gold is at its lowest price in 5 years. The World Gold Council who recently issued their Q2 report, acknowledges the continued decline in the price of gold this year, but point to their belief that this is in part due to a possible increase in interest rates in the US.

Gold is really part of a defensive portfolio, not being cash, bonds or equities and an asset class that investors return to in times of uncertainty – or at least that tends to be the view based upon historical data.

I tend to take the view, from experience, that when investment advice is dispensed freely by those who clearly don’t have the qualifications to provide it, then there are serious signs of a bubble. An ATM dispensing gold at a shopping centre, placed their in July 2011… well the price of gold peaked in August 2011 $1,821 per oz. At the moment its around $1,093 per oz.

The price of gold soared from $431.65 per oz in July 2005, had a wobble from March 2008 until September 2009 as it eventually broke through $1,000 per oz, climbing further until August 2011. The price has been in decline ever since and returning to the $1,000 per oz level, (no this is not a forecast) in part reflecting a higher degree of confidence in world economies.

Boutique Design

I’m not sure if the ATM is still at Westfield, but a quick online search suggests that there are a few in London, largely in International foreign Banks. Being a German machine (the Gold to Go one) it is incredibly reliable and prices are updated every 10 minutes, so the vending machine may easily provide you with a different price for your gold bar in-between coffee breaks.

Anyway, just so that you know, gold is fine as an element of a portfolio, but it really should not be too significant an element. Having all your investment in one asset class is very unwise – precisely why gold is one option of many. Here is the video of the Gold to Go ATM… please do not take this as advice to use the machine or indeed to buy gold, I am merely commenting on general principles and all investments ought to be made in consideration of your own context, plans, attitude to risk and capacity for loss.

BACK TO ALL BLOGS

Gold and the ATM give awayDominic2024-03-13T15:56:43+00:00

Lost your pension?

Many people have lost track with old pensions, frankly it is hardly surprising given the number of name changes, mergers and acquisitions of various pension companies over the last 40 years or so. Perhaps you have lost your pension too.

Consider the various jobs that you have had over the years, however small, perhaps there is an old pension lurking somewhere in the midst of your curriculum vitae.

Pension evolution…. perhaps revolution

Pensions have improved dramatically over the years and almost unrecognisable from those I first understood over 20 years ago. The evolution continues and something that adviser firms like ourselves spend a lot of time researching and reviewing. Cheap is not always best, but then neither is the most expensive.

The media, consumer groups and various politicians have regularly made statements about the charges on pensions, some of which are accurate, some are not. However, I imagine you would like to know if your old style pension could be brought up to date.

Free-report-How-to-regain-control-of-your-pension

Find your lost pension

The Pension Tracing Service (PTS) was set up to help find lost pensions. In essence everyone has a National Insurance number that is unique to them, this is the main tool used to search for lost old pensions. It is believed that there could around 50million dormant or lost pensions “in the system” by 2050 due to the growing number of small pensions (due to auto enrolment, or workplace pensions).

Once lost, now found

Last year the PTS was contacted over 145,000 times and we expect this to increase considerably. They aren’t always successful in tracing pensions, but last year managed to trace 87% of those believed to exist.

Regain control of your pension

So it would be advisable to check if you have any lost pensions and then check them (and any old pensions that you haven’t lost) to determine if they can be improved. I have put a free guide together about this, which I have called “Regaining Control of Your Pension”. You can download it for free (tell your friends and colleagues) simply by completing the online request below this item.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email info@solomonsifa.co.uk

Lost your pension?Dominic2023-12-01T12:20:09+00:00

Being Open – The Honesty Box

Perhaps you are a keen golfer? there are many pearls of wisdom that golf offers up as general advice for life. The Open finally finished yesterday, having been delayed by poor weather, something that I’m sure the English cricket team wished for.

Anyway it reminded me of a family holiday many years ago, which included playing at St Andrews and Gleneagles. My folks took my brothers and I to Perthshire to feed our growing interest in golf – mine has since faded into irrelevance over the years, although both brothers continue to play.

Scotland is full of lots of small beautiful courses, at the time “juniors” weren’t terribly welcome at English clubs, whereas the Scots seemed to positively encourage them. One of the things that struck me was the “honesty box”. I don’t know if they still exist, but back then, this acted as a place to make your payment for your green fees (the cost of playing a round of golf). I was impressed by the sense of trust and goodwill that this created and the impression stayed with me.

Marketing, Spam and Other Ills

As a small business, we have an advantage that we can adapt quickly. I have been working hard on many aspects of the business, one of them being the marketing. I’m of the opinion that this blog serves to provide relevant information, in a format that is hopefully engaging, enlightening and on occasion personally revealing. Ultimately I figure I want to work with people who I like and who like me enough to meet regularly and trust me with their life savings…. So it makes sense to me that this blog should give you a bit more insight into who I am, some of my values and what sort of person I am, rather than just glossy marketing.

It is possible that a round of golf could achieve the same thing, (but I know that golf isnt everyone’s cup of tea…). It has been said that much can be learned about someone over a game lasting 4-5 hours, that is partly competitive, but largely about competing with yourself… exposing strengths and weaknesses, but importantly, whether someone plays by the rules (and spirit) of the game.

Fore: What We Are Doing…

So in the interests of honest feedback we will be providing short weekly emails, providing useful information (I hope) to our clients (and those that are interested in what we do). I’m looking for your input into our honesty box – feedback that will make this blog more useful and more relevant. Ultimately I’d like to help as many people as I can, our financial planning clients have a highly involved service, but many can also be helped along their way with some useful information.

We won’t spam you, we never sell data to anyone else. However our information isn’t perfect and all databases need a regular clean up to ensure that the right people get the right information. So I will apologise in advance if we send now send you something that you don’t want. We have provided an opt-out (and it works). I guess that this is where you have to decide what you do about the honesty box… there’s no payment, but I’d certainly value feedback and help with getting the message out there, by sharing things you find helpful.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email info@solomonsifa.co.uk

Being Open – The Honesty BoxDominic2023-12-01T12:20:10+00:00

What is the tax free Savings Income band?

What is the tax free savings income band?

You may have heard about the new tax free savings income band – in that the first £5,000 of interest is tax free from April 2015. Well it is and it isn’t… sadly it is another example of something that is true, but not true for many…. or another example of smoke and mirrors exemplified in Budget announcements.

With effect from 6th April 2015 the 10% starting rate of tax for savings income was replaced by a new 0% rate and the band increased from £2,880 to £5,000. This means that, in 2015/16, those with a total income of less than £15,600 (£10,600 personal allowance for 2015/16 plus the new 0% starting rate band) will pay no tax on their savings (the total income figure is £15,660 for those born before 6th April 1938).

Here is the smoke and mirror bit…

Non-savings income (i.e. earned income and pension income) is always taxed before savings income so the new tax -free £5,000 starting rate band can only apply to those earning less than the total of their personal allowance and the 0% starting rate band. In short, if you have taxable income under £15,000 from all sources, then you gain this allowance, but not if you have earned income – which could come from a pension.

Reclaiming Forms

The rules around completion of form R85 are changing from 6th April so that any saver who is unlikely to be liable to tax on any of their savings income (until now it has been total income) in the tax year can complete an R85 (one form for each bank/building society) and register to receive interest without tax deducted – even if they pay tax on other (non-savings) income. Click here to see the R85 forms.

Where tax is likely to be due on some savings income (for example, earned income is £12,000 and savings income is £4,000 meaning that £400 of savings income is taxable) a form R85 can’t be completed. The overpaid tax (i.e. up to the overall £15,600 threshold) will have to be claimed back from HMRC using form R40 or under self-assessment. Click here for an R40 form.

Dominic Thomas
Solomons IFA

You can read more articles about Pensions, Wealth Management, Retirement, Investments, Financial Planning and Estate Planning on my blog which gets updated every week. If you would like to talk to me about your personal wealth planning and how we can make you stay wealthier for longer then please get in touch by calling 08000 736 273 or email info@solomonsifa.co.uk

What is the tax free Savings Income band?Dominic2023-12-01T12:20:11+00:00