January 2012 - Page 3 of 3 - Financial Planning in Wimbledon

Divorcing Doctors or Teachers

1996: The First Wives Club – Wilson

If you are going through the experience of a divorce as either a member of the NHS pension scheme or Teachers pension scheme, be prepared for the process to take a little longer. Both the NHS and Teachers pension schemes are updating their systems which produce the valuation of pension rights that need to be considered in a divorce. This is known as the Cash Equivalent Transfer Value, essentially putting a financial figure on the pension benefits that you accrue.

The reason behind this is the changes that the Government announced in March last year and finally published towards the end of October. The pension administrators naturally want to get this rather important detail right and it has taken some time for systems to be assessed and updated. At the moment expect delays. Indeed if you have already had a CETV statement and it was dated before 26th October 2011 and had a 3 month guarantee and you submitted the request to transfer benefits, then this will be honoured provided the 3-month time-frame has not expired. This means that in practical terms there are about 2 weeks left for anyone that was in this position. If you are one of those, I suggest contacting the relevant pensions agency.

In addition anyone that is moving benefits from one State Employer to another (eg Local Government to Teacher) the same problem will persist. These Public Sector Club transfers are all delayed until the software works to permit the transfers.

We are a boutique firm of financial planners. We create financial plans designed to achieve a desired lifestyle. We will craft and implement your plan that will provide you with the greatest chance of accomplishing your unique goals based upon the values that you hold. Financial products are little more than the tools to achieve your required results
Call us today or visit our website for more information and to arrange a meeting

Divorcing Doctors or TeachersDominic2023-12-01T12:48:12+00:00

Online Fraud – Mystery Offshore Bank that is not a Bank

2010: Shutter Island – Martin Scorsese

The internet provides huge advantages as we all know, however caution needs to be exercised. Today the Isle of Man’s Financial Supervision Commission has issued a warning that they are aware of a bogus website calling itself the “The Irish Nationwide Bank” (www.irishnationwidebank.com). DO NOT VISIT THIS BOGUS SITE as the FSC believe that one of the frauds being committed is identity theft. This is completely different from the completely legitimate Irish Nationwide (I.O.M) which can be found at http://www.iniom.com/.

It would appear that the bogus website exists to extract data from users or money, either way financial fraud. If you or anyone you know has had dealings with this bogus site, please contact your local police or contact the FSC enforcement division on +44 1624 689311 or by e-mail to fsc@gov.im.

Whilst most people do not have offshore bank accounts, this is a timely reminder that you need to act with caution when providing personal and financial information. I suggest checking with the relevant regulator or even me. If in any doubt, don’t provide the information. Financial crime is huge business and we all need to be vigilant to curtail and hopefully prevent its activity. Here is a good document that may help remind you about some basics of protecting yourself against financial fraud and identity theft which reminded me of the Leonardo DiCaprio film, “Shutter Island” which explores themes of stolen identity, delusion and missing people.

We are a boutique firm of financial planners. We create financial plans designed to achieve a desired lifestyle. We will craft and implement your plan that will provide you with the greatest chance of accomplishing your unique goals based upon the values that you hold. Financial products are little more than the tools to achieve your required results
Call us today or visit our website for more information and to arrange a meeting

Online Fraud – Mystery Offshore Bank that is not a BankDominic2023-12-01T12:48:12+00:00

Child Benefit and the Parent Trap

1998: The Parent Trap – Nancy Meyers

I’m never really sure why the media suddenly latch onto a story in a rather herd-like mentality. The Government planned and announced changes to child benefit some months ago, in October 2010, yet today the media is awash with this information and the basic gripe that it is possible that a couple both earning just under the higher rate tax threshold will continue to receive the benefit, whereas a family with one earner, perhaps just breaching the higher rate tax threshold will see their child benefit stopped.

One would like to think that this was an easy process, after all, in order to claim child benefit claimants need to record their details accurately, including information about their partner and need to provide national insurance numbers – which are unique to each person and directly link to HMRC data about income. However, the new rules, do seem to be somewhat unfair on families that have lower combined income, but where one partner earns enough to pay higher rate tax – even if this is a very small element of actual income.

The Treasury spend £12bn a year on child benefit and these proposals are expected to save £1bn. The changes were scheduled to come into effect by 2013 however the anomaly of a couple earning £80,000 and being able to claim child benefit against a couple earning £45,000 and not being able to do so has made the possibility of an easy solution less workable. The Chancellor has a Budget on 21st March, so now has a few weeks to get his think-tank working on a solution.

As mentioned before, it is possible for some people to reduce their taxable income below the higher rate level by making charitable gifts or pension contributions.

We are a boutique firm of financial planners. We create financial plans designed to achieve a desired lifestyle. We will craft and implement your plan that will provide you with the greatest chance of accomplishing your unique goals based upon the values that you hold. Financial products are little more than the tools to achieve your required results
Call us today or visit our website for more information and to arrange a meeting

Child Benefit and the Parent TrapDominic2023-12-01T12:48:13+00:00

Lingerie Retail that went Bust

1951: Company She Keeps – Cromwell

The world of retail is a complicated one. La Senza, the UK lingerie retailer was placed into administration this week. A sign of poor trading conditions on the high street and perhaps a reminder that sometimes “niche marketing” is not always the right solution for every economic condition and where larger retailers such as Debenhams and Marks and Spencer have the advantage of a wider product line. That said, this is an “odd one” given today’s news that Tesco has had the worst Christmas for 20 years. This calls into question the management of retailers as it certainly does not seem as simple as product range (either narrow or broad) as John Lewis and Waitrose continue to demonstrate good business models and management. As for La Senza, KPMG the administrators have already sold La Senza to Alshaya UK originally from Kuwait and who manages many well known brands. Perhaps this is coincidental to the news last week that Saudi Arabia has finally permitted women to sell lingerie (previously only male retailers were able to perform this role). One might be left to wonder if retailers are changing the world or the consumer?

The apparent failure of La Senza is surprising. The UK lingerie market was worth nearly £3bn in 2010. Key Note published data in February last year suggesting that the market was overcrowded with too many retailers providing essentially the same thing. However they report continuous growth and the planned arrival of Victoria’s Secret to high streets in 2012, which they suggest will create further competition. Yet Victoria’s Secret are a part of the same American company Limited Brands whose share price has been on a steady rise since 2009. Limited Brands largely operate businesses on a franchise or license basis, La Senza is actually a Canadian company, it is just the British franchise that has gone into administration. The UK company was originally set up by Dragon’s Den Theo Paphitis who sold the company in 2006 for an estimated £100m to private equity company Lion Capital. Lion Capital have stakes in many other well known brands such as Wagamama, Jimmy Choo, Weetabix, Findus Group and Amerian Apparel to name a few. Mr Paphitis, who clearly as an eye for timing, now runs Boux Avenue (another lingerie company) amongst many other ventures.

Whatever your thoughts about retail, it is certainly a world where brands are clearly powerful. However, I suspect that many will not appreciate quite how complex and interwoven global retail really is. The British high street is no more British than anything else it would seem.

We are a boutique firm of financial planners. We create financial plans designed to achieve a desired lifestyle. We will craft and implement your plan that will provide you with the greatest chance of accomplishing your unique goals based upon the values that you hold. Financial products are little more than the tools to achieve your required results
Call us today or visit our website for more information and to arrange a meeting

Lingerie Retail that went BustDominic2023-12-01T12:48:13+00:00

The Importance of Portfolio Reviews

2011 was a rough year for investors. Data for the year to 31 December is now held within our website, within the news section. The monthly report shows some significant double-digit falls over the year. There is a word of caution reading such figures though, the returns shown are only relevant if you invested money at the end of 2010 (for the full 2011 results). Had you done this, over the year investment in the Dow Jones was one of the few rising indices, up 8.4%. Oil and Gold being the only assets to outperform over the same time, both if which have taken more heavy knocks of late. Generally figures for the overall year were considerably worsened in the second half of the year, which is evidenced in the six month figures. This is where the bulk of the poor returns lay for the year and was primarily due to the Euro crisis and the consequential paranoia. However for those that followed my advice in the Spring and Autumn, my views of the markets appear to have been endorsed by reality and losses were not as bad as suffered by most, which doesn’t mean to say that returns were good, but certainly not as bad as they might have been. Whilst I don’t have a crystal ball and clearly take a long-term view of investments, short-term positions can be useful when the world looks decidedly uncertain. I remain cautious, yet optimistic. I hope that this helps clarify why we review portfolios and why clients need to respond to advice to rebalance or make alterations to portfolios. Importantly I review asset allocations throughout the year, but set allocations each Spring and Autumn.

We are a boutique firm of financial planners. We create financial plans designed to achieve a desired lifestyle. We will craft and implement your plan that will provide you with the greatest chance of accomplishing your unique goals based upon the values that you hold. Financial products are little more than the tools to achieve your required results
Call us today or visit our website for more information and to arrange a meeting

The Importance of Portfolio ReviewsDominic2023-12-01T12:48:14+00:00

Repeat, Repeat, Repeat, Repeat?

2011: The Iron Lady – Phyllida Lloyd

There’s a touch of deja-vu about at the moment. I’m struck by the posters of the new “Iron Lady” film starring Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher and the general 1980’s fashion look on the streets of London. Add to this a couple of days of football “legends” returning to help their old teams progress in the FA Cup (a competition that has lost significant shine over the years). Throw in a few Unions threatening industrial action over a dispute about pensions, mining companies taking centre stage in the business news,a Labour party in opposition with an apparently unpopular leader and there is a general sense of… haven’t we seen all this before? Well yes we have… and no we haven’t (its still panto season).

Yes we have, in the sense that invariably we see the same repeating patterns in history, repeating because the basic human condition has altered very little. Of course, things are different – we don’t know what will happen, what the outcome will be is open to hours of discussion and phone-in (why?). We do know that people and nations are essentially self-serving, hence the repetition. Politicians may be talking about new capitalism, but talk is cheap (as are words on a blog). We are in new territory with the Euro in a mess and Europe on the brink of significant financial chaos. Britain in “splendid isolation“? only time will tell, but rest assured that I am reviewing portfolios in light of a current climate that looks bleak… though a glance back at the stock markets in the 1980’s may provide some reassurance in the big picture sense.

As we begin another new year and I meet with clients to plan for the future, there is often a sense of familiarity and comfort drawn from the fact that values don’t change and are embedded within a good financial plan. Goals may alter a little, sometimes a lot, due to changes that none of us can control, but the values that underpin a strategy do not. It is helpful to reclarify what these are and why they are important, uniquely to the client in question. A review meeting may at first glance appear to be a repeat, but in practice is a deeper refining of an outward looking plan.

We are a boutique firm of financial planners. We create financial plans designed to achieve a desired lifestyle. We will craft and implement your plan that will provide you with the greatest chance of accomplishing your unique goals based upon the values that you hold. Financial products are little more than the tools to achieve your required results
Call us today or visit our website for more information and to arrange a meeting

Repeat, Repeat, Repeat, Repeat?Dominic2023-12-01T12:48:14+00:00

Reality Check for Virgin

1994: Reality Bites – Ben Stiller

Virgin Money who took over Northern Rock have decided to charge for their current account. This will be at a rate of £5 a month. Virgin argue that there is no such thing as free banking. This is a marketing conundrum. Virgin are quite right of course that bank accounts have costs to the bank, but will the general public agree, when many other banks provide “free banking”. This is the nettle that most of us do not wish to grasp – a “something for nothing” world does not exist, yet it has been so long peddled in Britain that one wonders if the hallucinogenic has become so necessary to a credit addicted nation that few will pay the price for reality.

I’m for reality and am with Mr Branson, though with the million customers that Northern Rock have, if all stay with Virgin and have a current account, this would of course provide a nice return of £60m a year where previously Northern Rock had none. One might argue that this is what happens when you get someone with a business head running things. Those reluctant to pay for a current account do have options with other banks, not yet bold enough to charge.

However, whilst I do believe that a good business should be sustainable, in this instance, simply charging more whilst continuing higher charges on other bank products that has been used to cross-subsidise the cost of banking, must therefore be re-adjusted – namely the rate of interest charged. Retail Banks make money from “good customers” which really means those that have debt and maintain payments. Banks have a vested interest in selling debt (credit) to you and I, though sometimes you do wonder if even they appreciate this. So yes, let’s have a fair, sustainable banking system – but one that is a two-way street. Hopefully Virgin will offer fair and competitive rates of interest to both savers and borrowers, only time will tell.

We are a boutique firm of financial planners. We create financial plans designed to achieve a desired lifestyle. We will craft and implement your plan that will provide you with the greatest chance of accomplishing your unique goals based upon the values that you hold. Financial products are little more than the tools to achieve your required results
Call us today or visit our website for more information and to arrange a meeting

Reality Check for VirginDominic2023-12-01T12:48:15+00:00

The Old and New Year

2009: 2012 – Robert Emmerich

Well, after a week of catching up, I’m now able to grap a reflective moment. I hope that your Christmas break was enjoyable and that you are suitably refreshed for a challenging 2012. Taking a quick year end recap, the main market indicies closed 2011 in the following manner.

FTSE 100 closed at…………….. 5,572

FTSE Allshare closed at…………2,857

Nikkei 225 closed at……………. 8,455

Dow Jones closed at………….. 12,217

Shanghai closed at ……………….2,199

Hang Seng closed at …………..18,434

CAC 40 closed at ……………….3,159

Bank deposit rates didn’t move much at all in 2011, unless of course you were borrowing money as a European nation. The rest of us here in the UK can ponder inflation rates at around 5% whilst interest rates are well below this level, meaning that in real terms the value of savings reduced. The current “best deals” are as follows, again please remember that this is merely a guide, not advice, you should chekc the detail and as I have said on numerous occassions – check the terms and conditions. Please also heed the warning not to hold “too much” with any single bank – details about compensation and protections can be found at the FSCS website.

One Year Deposit

Online: Yorkshire Bank 3.60%

Bank: Santander 4.20%

Building Society: Barnsley 5.00%

Two Year Deposit

Online: Yorkshire Bank 4.01%

Bank: Yorkshire Bank 4.01%

Building Society: Dunfermline 3.90%

Instant Access

Online: Nationwide 3.12%

Bank: Santander 2.50%

Building Society: Nottingham 3.25%

Cash ISA – Fixed Rate

Online: Governor Money 4.50%

Bank: Halifax 4.40%

Building Society: Barnsley 5.00%

Cash ISA – Variable Rate

Online: AA Savings 3.05%

Bank: Santander 4.00%

Building Society: Newcastle 3.05%

Wishing you a prosperous 2012.

We are a boutique firm of financial planners. We create financial plans designed to achieve a desired lifestyle. We will craft and implement your plan that will provide you with the greatest chance of accomplishing your unique goals based upon the values that you hold. Financial products are little more than the tools to achieve your required results
Call us today or visit our website for more information and to arrange a meeting

The Old and New YearDominic2023-12-01T12:48:15+00:00