PPI Bogus Claims Companies

2000: The Claim – Winterbottom

As a financial planner determined to cut through the nonsense and provide a high quality service to clients, it saddens me to continually read about further scandals. The financial services industry is certainly well short of perfect and the most recent mis-selling scandal was for Payment Protection Insurance (PPI). You probably will not be surprised to learn that I have never been a fan of PPI – preferring (by a country mile) proper Income Protection cover – if necessary. The vast majority of the sale of PPI was conducted by Banks and Lenders to those applying for credit. In principle the theory was (and still is) perfectly sound – insure against your inability to meet your liability, however, with the case of PPI, often the cover was poor (at best) and in many cases would not have paid a claim. In addition some people did not even know they were paying extra for this benefit. Finally this sorry tale was corrected by agreement of fault and large compensation claims now headed towards the guilty parties.

So what? well perhaps if you have access to more than 5 television channels and the occasional newspaper or surf the web, you will almost certainly have come across “claims companies” the equivalent to the proverbial ambulance chaser, invariably suggesting that they work for free to help you get money back, which of course to anyone with a modicum of intelligence is complete nonsense. Adverts often state that a firm is regulated by the Ministry of Justice, which all sounds rather grand and reassuring, but isn‘t. In fact the Ministry of Justice has closed around 20% of claim firms in the last year and had to double its staff to deal with the increased investigation of claim firms, many of which are completely bogus. The investigation is ongoing following the floodgate moment of approval for legitimate claims. Perhaps you have been emailed or even phoned – I have (several times). To my mind, it seems that claims companies appear to be breaching the data protection act by contacting you in any event, let alone making false promises. Typically 40% to 50% of claims being received for PPI are invalid. This is a huge waste of time and resources that ultimately will cost us all much more.

Legitimate claims for compensation should be properly settled, it is not difficult to complete any required paperwork by yourself (only 20% of people do) and you don’t need a specialist claims company (which 80% currently “employ”). The very existence of such organisations makes my spirit sink as we become an increasingly more litigious society that grows to be more like the US with a culture of blame and failing to take responsibility. The Ministry of Justice have a very good fact sheet on this topic.

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

PPI Bogus Claims CompaniesDominic2017-01-06T14:40:04+00:00

What is great financial planning?

Solomons-financial-advisor-wimbledon-blogger

What is great Financial Planning?

Financial planning is something that I have a real passion for. It is my belief and assertion that when done well, proper financial planning is akin to a light bulb moment or a bit of an epiphany. In essence as a financial planner I address the fundamental question that clients ask (even when it isn’t verbalised)… will I run out of money?

Living Deliberately

A financial plan is essentially your lifetime goals, perhaps aspirations, but clear, well defined and thought-through goals. This process can take some time to get right – not because the process is difficult, but because most people simply don’t know what they want out of life. American life coaches probably call this “living deliberately” rather than “living by accident”. In other words – if you don’t have a lifeplan, how can you make good decisions.

Treasure the questions

The questions can be fairly straight-forward – “Can I afford to buy this house and pay off a mortgage, run it and still afford to live in it when I retire?” or perhaps “I’d like to retire from my job at 60 not 65, but can I afford to do so with all of my commitments?” or “I have worked hard to build my business, what I need to know is what is the sale price I must achieve to do all the things I am working for?”.

Sometimes the questions are less clear – “Can I afford to start giving money away to my children or will I need it later?” “Can I really afford to spend all this money in my retirement? will it run out?”… “What investment return must my savings and investments achieve as a minimum?”

Yes there are lots of assumptions, proper financial planning will involve use of some type of cash flow modelling – certainly assumptions about the future, but these are reasoned, reasonable and reviewed.

Seeing is believing… take it from a doubting Thomas

A great financial plan, will provide answers to the questions that you have thought of and hopefully quite a number that you didn’t. Seeing this graphically represented is a very powerful and profound experience, something that enables you to make better decisions and understand why a financial planner is no more interested in financial products than you are – we are interested in solutions.

What’s your passion? your dream?

“Salmon Fishing In the Yemen” is a really great “little” British film which seems to capture an aspect of current times. I won’t give the plot away, (its well worth seeing with a fantastic cast and director) but in essence stereotyped cultural barriers need to be crossed in order to achieve an ambition… a vision, which sometimes means going against the flow.

Vision is more than eyes to see

To some, what on the surface seems daft, ludicrous or mad really poses the question – do you understand the vision? not just the “head-stuff” but the “heart-stuff” too? Great financial planning must connect with what’s in your heart, not just in your head, after all, we’re talking about your life, not a hypothetical one. As one of my favourite dance bands “Faithless” suggest “you don’t need eyes to see, you need vision” (Reverence track from the 1996 album of the same name).

Here is the trailer for Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, a movie that I really enjoyed.

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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 great financial planning?Dominic2017-01-06T14:40:06+00:00

A New Start

Love Wins – Rob Bell

Whilst today is the start of the new 2012/13 tax year, it is also Good Friday. Today the staff of Solomon’s will be observing this day by closing the office. We shall open again once the Easter weekend is over on Tuesday 10th April 2012. To Christians Easter is a time of reflection and celebration at the opportunity of a new start, a new day, another chance (again). There is clearly much division of opinion about the significance and of accuracy of reporting and subsequent representation of the life of Christ, or Jesus. It is not easy to come to the Easter story without considerable “baggage” collected over the years from a variety of unhelpful experiences and sources. One thing is certainly undeniable – that this is a story that has lasted over 2,000 years and if the claims made are accurate, surely they are worth investigation. One book that I have found to be rather more accessible and not loaded with dogma is simply called “Love Wins”. As with most controversial books it has had its critics. For the record, I wouldn’t presume to tell you what to believe, however at some point, we may all have to wrestle with the big question – what’s it all about? and financial planning by virtue of taking a look at your life ahead in the time remaining, poses this question, amongst others too. Perhaps this book will help those wishing to explore the question. Happy Easter.

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

A New StartDominic2017-01-06T14:40:06+00:00

It Figures…

April 2012 – Market Report

The latest numbers for global markets are now available within the news section of the website. These reveal that to the end of March 2012 (Q1) the investment world was looking pretty positive. The FTSE All-Share returning 15%, even the Nikkei 225 put on 15.9%. Gold being one of the more obvious single digit commodities at 5.7%. The Dow Jones up 8.8% only a bit better than the MSCI European index at 8.0%. You can read all the numbers here. But please don’t read too much into them… doing so is like attempting to read tea leaves. Markets have weakened in the last few days, for a number of reasons – but the mention of Spanish Bonds and the price of iron ore would only add to the volume of speculation. The housing markets here and in the US are improving, but I remain very concerned about America when I watch supposed experts talk on Bloomberg about how difficult it is to get a mortgage because people have to complete some paperwork. Given the recent history of US lenders giving away money to people that didn’t have any (Ninja’s) – No Income No Jobs and a culture where you can return the keys without recourse, I remain deeply concerned that the bluff and thunder of the American property market is entirely misplaced. Let us hope that they think carefully and learn some lessons about wise borrowing…and that we do too.

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

It Figures…Dominic2017-01-06T14:40:06+00:00

As Clear As Fog? The New Jargon

1936: A Face in the Fog – Robert Hill

Finally, today that FSA have begun the process of telling the public what is happening to financial advisers from January 1st 2013. To clients this will not be news, to regular readers it will be not terribly new information, but for those of you that have recently found my blog, this may come as a surprise.

As a forward-thinking financial planner, I have operated on a proper fee system since setting the company up in 1999. What this has meant is that clients have clear fees for the advice they receive and clear implementation costs. This was quite radical at the time. Since 1999 we have improved our services and frankly, become an awful lot better at delivering them. So you would think that I’m pleased that the regulator is making everyone operate on the same basis. Well, not entirely. In the “good old days” (they weren’t) advisers were either Tied or Independent – which meant that they either sold you products from just one company or could search for the best from the entire market. This should have been better and probably was in 90% of cases, but as providers paid different levels of commission for the same product or vastly different amounts for the same investment but into different types of product, frankly the whole thing was open to abuse. So then came Multi-Tie to muddy the waters – a third approach, with you guessed it, the ability to sell products from a limited number of companies (typically 3 or 4). The next step was to say that to call yourself independent, the adviser must offer products from the whole of the market and offer the option of paying a fee instead of commission.

The new rules go a bit further – the adviser has to agree the cost or fee with the client (you) in advance. This can be paid from the product or directly, but importantly is not determined by the company that provide or “manufacture” the product. The implication being that Product Providers cannot sway what products they want to promote or “entice” new business. This fee agreement rule applies to all advisers. They also all have to have the same minimum (enhanced) level of qualifications. However, to be termed independent, they must offer advice from a broader range of investment products – which include unregulated ones, (called Unregulated Collective Investment Schemes) which can result in huge losses to clients. UCIS cannot be promoted to the general public. It is these products that are suitable for very few “normal clients” (by the FSA’s own admission) that are causing me and many fellow forward thinking advisers some concern. Basically a lot of them (but not all) are rubbish and not relevant to 99.9% of people. Yet in theory we are supposed to consider them for all clients, by researching, assessing and then ruling them out (or not) in order to remain able to use the term independent. In the majority of cases this will be a huge waste of time and client money. Simply saying we won’t or don’t do it, means we can only use the term “restricted adviser” – which applies to an adviser that does everything but UCIS or one that simply sells one type of product. To assume that the general public will appreciate the differences once the marketing teams have “had a go” is in my opinion somewhat naive. I welcome your thoughts.

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

As Clear As Fog? The New JargonDominic2017-01-06T14:40:06+00:00

House Prices Begin A Nervous Recovery

1945: House of Fear – Roy William Neill

Perhaps your major asset – your home is on the increase in value (finally). The average house price last month was £163,803 (yes I know – where is this house? there certainly isn’t an average house in London worth this amount!) in July, last summer the average price was £163,765. You will notice that there is little real difference, but this comes after data that had previously revealed month on month price falls, this trend was bucked in March (according to Halifax) by a 2.20% rise in prices. No doubt the mathematicians amongst you will appreciate that in real terms property prices are therefore falling behind inflation. One also has to question… so what? if you live in the house, its short-term market price is hardly an issue – its only when you want to sell that it becomes a problem – unless you are a landlord. Property price rises may give rise to questions about possible capital gains tax bubbles and when/if to sell or let the property. The truth is that property is not very liquid, the buying and selling process is fairly protracted. Another property truism – is that its all about location, location, location.

Good financial planning will involve considering your options with respect to your home. Some people will find that their home provides a useful form of capital – either by downsizing and releasing equity or by taking out a loan against the value of the property. Invariably this is done to provide income to meet expenses. I would counsel a great deal of caution if you are considering taking a loan against your home. This can end badly and needs expert counsel to avoid considerable distress that many have suffered when they understand that their debt compounds with interest and can result in nothing being left – which might be suitable to some people, but on the proviso that they have understood the mechanics of the loan – which few seem to do. Great financial planning will help identify stress points in your future cash flow and provide advance warning as well as possible solutions. The art in financial planning is knowing what questions to ask.

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

House Prices Begin A Nervous RecoveryDominic2017-01-06T14:40:06+00:00

Deadline Looming

2011: In Time – Andrew Niccol

Its has been a very busy few days in the run up to the end of the 2011-12 tax year. Last minute applications for ISAs and Pensions, together with all the associated work ensuring that those to whom it applies, have applied for the new HMRC Fixed Protection safeguarding the £1.8m Lifetime Allowance. For those that are really leaving it to the last 48 hours, we can arrange payments using your debit card or provide relevant details so that you can make an online or CHAPS payment from your own Bank. This requires some work on your part to have the relevant information and on ours – to provide the unique reference number for the associated transaction.

The new tax year begins on Good Friday when we shall be closed to observe Easter. The new ISA allowance for 2012/13 is £11,280 in total, of which up to £5,640 can be within a Cash ISA, the balance can be used for your stocks and shares (investment ISA).

The Lifetime Allowance reduces to £1.5m for pensions not protected by Fixed Protection, Enhanced or Primary Protection.

The Annual Allowance (contributions towards pensions) remains capped at £50,000 but you can use up the previous 3 tax years worth of unused allowances, up to £50,000 for each of the tax years concerned (assuming that there is sufficient “room”).

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

Deadline LoomingDominic2017-01-06T14:40:06+00:00