CONFERENCE TIME

Solomons-financial-advisor-wimbledon-blogger

Conference Time

I was on conference in Birmingham this week… no not for the Conservative party. A much more trustworthy bunch – “my institute” – the CISI or Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment. I have been attending this for a number of years now and always manage to find several useful and practical things that I can do to improve how we help clients, be that improved technical skills, evolving technology or “simply” better practice management.

This year I was particularly struck by some of the issues raised by Dr Moira Somers, a clinical neuropsychologist from Canada. In essence she helped explain why all of us are guilty of not doing things that are good for us. In this context why, clients do not do some of the things that we advise or require them to do so that we can help them better. Things in their interests but simply get put off again and again.

That Thing You Don’t Do…

Two things that readily came to my mind. Getting clients to draw up their Wills and Lasting Power of Attorney. Admittedly this is a fairly morbid subject. The professional advice and implementation costs are not insignificant. The importance of having these in place can never be overstated by anyone that has experienced not having them when required. Like everyone else, there are things in my life that I don’t get around to. We might call this self-defeating behaviour. Hopefully I now have some thoughts about new strategies I might employ to encourage “adherence” … but I guess time will tell if these are effective.

No Will, No Way

Dr Somers explained that In Canada, 70% of people do not have a Will (audience audible drawing of breath). Here in the UK I have little reason to believe that it is much better. After a quick bit of research, it would seem that in London 59% of adults do not have a Will. This is not as bad as Glasgow where the rate rises to 70%. As the life expectancy in Glasgow is far lower than it is in London, I would encourage Glaswegians to accept the challenge to beat London in this statistic alone.

Not Enough For A Boiler Room Scam

Basic money skills – such as budgeting and saving are at very poor levels in the UK. One statistic mentioned was put in stark terms. Most people in Britain do not have enough cash in their bank to replace their boiler, should it fail this winter. They would have to borrow and go into debt. The UK is not unique in this regard. Our clients are of course people who do save or have done so and are better at acting for their benefit (and that of their family). However, most of us could probably improve our handling of money, so that it is not wasted or simply frittered away. Every good financial plan starts with the end in mind, but also the reality of today, how money is spent and used now. The cost of lifestyle is vital to understand when attempting to maintain and protect 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

Email me to get in touch

CONFERENCE TIMEDominic2023-12-01T12:17:48+00:00

Conference Season

It is conference season and I my diary is suitably full of my selection of those that I believe merit attention. I’m not attending any of the political conferences and have recently returned from what might be best described as the Premier League of Financial Planners Conference – the annual CISI conference at Celtic Manor.

Yes Minister

Whilst being a non-political conference, clearly insight from the occasional politician or a former one can be valuable. Step forward Steve Webb, who was a LibDem MP and the Minister for Pensions in the Coalition Government, back in the day when politics offered some semblance of common sense.

The Autumn Budget – 22 November 2017

Whilst understandably providing various caveats to his talk, Mr Webb made clear that given the Queen’s Speech, the current Government have essentially given themselves a 2-year timeframe.

Not Enough Hours in the Day

He explained that due to the workings of Parliament, this means about 40 weeks in the year that is given over to Parliamentary work. However, 1 day a week is set aside for the Opposition to make their case and another is for MPs to actually work with their own constituents. Given the amount of time that Brexit will consume, there is precious little likelihood that anything significant will change, unless it is populist, garnering all-party support within the available 120 days a year.

Why Tax Rules Are Daft

Aas tax legislation does not have to go via the House of Lords, unlike other acts (for approval or sense check) much can be altered quickly, even with a tiny majority. He made the point that it is precisely because tax legislation bypasses the House of Lords, that so much of it is so complex and poorly thought through. So that in mind, what could the Government possibly muck around with?

What you can pay in

The Annual Allowance – could be reduced further from the current £40,000, despite acknowledging the complexity of the Tapered Annual Allowance, he thought it more likely that this would be extended rather than abolished, perhaps bringing it in for those earning £100,000 rather than £150,000.

What you can get out

Whilst the Lifetime Allowance has already been thrashed to £1m and is meant to now be linked to inflationary increases, he said that cutting it further is an option as “it passes the Daily Mail test – where people think a £1m pension fund is a lot”. He made the point that the Treasury appears to hate pensions (see all recent changes over the last 15 years) but love ISAs, for which they attempt to invent a new one almost each year now.

Employer’s beware

Whilst he thought it unlikely, he also proposed that the Government could apply employers National Insurance contributions to their pension contributions, which would effectively end salary sacrifice arrangements. He also felt it improbable that the tax-free cash lump sum from pensions would end or be reduced, due to the complexity it would create for those that have had, are having or due to have it and rules are difficult to apply retrospectively.

No F-Bombs

Without a single interruption from anyone handing in a P45 or the stage falling apart, the room of delegates was impressed with his delivery and rationale, but sanguine about the prospect of further pension meddling. Everyone I spoke with conceded that ISAs certainly seem to be the favoured investment vehicle for the Treasury as they only give up future tax revenue, rather than current tax revenues. However, reliance on any future Government to maintain promises about ISAs seems probably unwise.

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

Email me to get in touch

Conference SeasonDominic2023-12-01T12:18:23+00:00

Professional Adviser of the Year Awards 2017

Professional Adviser Awards 2017

I’m pleased to inform you that Solomons has been short-listed again as a finalist for the Professional Adviser Awards 2017 in the category for firm of the year – London. That’s now the fourth year in a row! Once again we are keeping some very good company with some of the best firms in London. Last year we were runner up (again) and once again I am not expecting to win – though of course I would love it if we did! This year’s short-list is also a little longer – twelve firms were short-listed.

As I have been asked in the past about how we were short-listed, in order to get this far a case study had to be submitted to the examiners. This year it was set by Jacqueline Lockie, who is the current Deputy Head of Financial Planning at CISI (Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment).

You can see the detail of the announcement here, should you wish to do so.

Professional Adviser is one of the better information services for UK-based regulated financial advisers, offering swift and comprehensive insight into developments in the financial services sector and aimed at those that generally advise “ordinary investors”. PA advise that the event is one of the industry’s best attended (and most respected) awards ceremonies every February.

Short-listed

The awards are broken into geographic regions; I have broken these down as best as I can from previous FCA information about the number of firms in each region. The FCA break the regions down a little further, with Yorkshire, West Midlands, East Midlands and Eastern all being separate categories. This is based on 5,718 firms in total throughout the UK. There are roughly 24,000 qualified advisers working at these firms.

LONDON – 899
SOUTH EAST – 598
SOUTH WEST – 768
MIDLANDS & EAST ANGLIA – 1,342
NORTH EAST – 645
NORTH WEST – 592
SCOTLAND & NORTHERN IRELAND – 641
WALES – 233

There is also an award for the overall firm of the year. Last year this was won by the firm that pushed us into second place. In all honesty, my view about awards is that they are largely a marketing gimmick, however, the PR and acknowledgement, even if somewhat questionable is welcome and hopefully conveys to our clients that we are well regarded within the field.

The award ceremony isn’t held until Thursday 9th February 2017.

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

Professional Adviser of the Year Awards 2017Dominic2023-12-01T12:18:59+00:00

Credit Crunched – 99 Homes

The Credit Crunch may well be one of the defining moments of a generation, it has certainly altered the way many view investment and retail banks. The institute of which I have been a member for a number of years (The Institute of Financial Planning) merged this month with CISI – the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment having been agreed in September.

One of the many good things about the IFP, who I regard(ed) as the best of the best, was the willingness of other members (in theory competitors) to share best practice. Indeed many have become valuable sources of wisdom for me (in what I hope is a two-way street) and have become professional friends. Understandably, many of us were surprised and perhaps concerned about the changes that the merger may bring about. After all, investment bankers were part of the problem that caused the credit crunch and haven’t we now just “got into bed with them”?

Ethics

In order to migrate my membership over to CISI I had to pass an ethics test. Being candid, it has always been something of a struggle to find and complete any CPD type stuff for the IFP on the topic of ethics – for which there is a required minimum of 2 hours a year (no that doesn’t mean being ethical for 2 hours a year, but demonstrating learning and application of the broad topic of ethical dilemmas).

I followed the online resource and was presented with a series of case studies, which I am pleased to say were interesting and based in the world of real life rather than a purely theoretical one. The overwhelming perspective being that if others follow the same path, I have had my faith and optimism significantly increased in the investment world, which if I’m being honest, I didn’t have before.

99 Homes

I have been greatly deflated and frustrated by the greed and bullying exhibited by large corporations and the relentless pursuit of gain without any thought of others. My opinion of the investment world, is almost certainly not that much different from yours. A recent film that captured this is called “99 Homes”. It stars Andrew Garfield, who you may have seen as Spiderman (perhaps not) or as Eduardo Saverin in The Social Network (the film about Facebook). Anyway, Garfield plays a character that has his home repossessed and, well… shall we say something of the gamekeeper turned poacher occurs. I found the film compelling and perfectly exposing the moral maze and ethical dilemma that people find themselves in. Here is the trailer…. seriously a good watch.

You can get the film on DVD 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

Credit Crunched – 99 HomesDominic2023-12-01T12:19:50+00:00