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The Cold Shoulder?

Daniel Liddicott
May 2023  •  3 min read

Call me (or rather, don’t)

Public service announcement: News broke yesterday of the Government’s plan to ban all cold calling related to the sale of financial products. This measure was already in place on any sales cold calling related to pension products, however the government is now due to extend the ban to cover any unsolicited calls of this kind.

The idea is that when this measure is put into place, anyone receiving an unexpected sales call regarding anything from insurance to investments will know that the call is not genuine and is indeed an attempted scam.

You might say that this is a case of better late than never. The government stated that “fraud costs the UK nearly £7bn per year”. Financial scams have the potential to be hugely damaging and significantly life-changing.

Back in our Spring 2021 edition of Spotlight, we published an article about Emmeline Hartley, who was happy to share her story of being the victim of such a scam (see page 10!).

So, in light of this, you can rest assured that should you receive a cold call of this nature, hanging up the phone immediately is a perfectly justified course of action. Or should you have the time and inclination, you could take the would-be fraudster on a wild goose chase for the details that they will never obtain from you. Or you could try putting them on hold. Just a couple of ideas.

The Cold Shoulder?2023-12-01T12:12:33+00:00

Sweet charity

Alex Truesdale - sweet charity

Alex Truesdale 
April 2023  •  10 min read

Sweet Charity

Will writer Alex Truesdale has championed the inclusion of charitable giving in Wills since joining the “Remember a Charity in your Will” campaign in 2011. Alex prepared a Will for veteran stuntman Rocky Taylor, including a gift to the Variety Club of Great Britain, which he signed shortly before recreating an infamous stunt involving jumping off a 40 foot high inferno at Battersea Power Station.

Ten years later, the devastating impact of COVID upon the third sector means that it is ever more reliant on charitable donations – of which legacy giving makes up 16%. Thankfully HMRC recognises the importance of charitable giving, allowing an unlimited inheritance tax (“IHT”) exemption on gifts to UK registered charities – saving 40% IHT.

We asked Alex for her top tips when considering including legacies to charity in your Will:  

  • Remember to check that your chosen charity has been officially recognised and has a Registered Charity Number or “RCN” – this also helps with the identification of the recipient organisation if there has been a name change or an amalgamation;
  • If you wish to donate internationally, contact the charity – it may be possible to make the donation through a UK local branch or recipient charity in order to qualify for the IHT exemption;
  • Consider a Letter of Wishes to specify how you would like your donation to be applied by the recipient charity – you may wish to specify that it is directed to “charitable purposes” only, or to support a particular campaign or project, instead of covering administrative and staff costs;
  • Donations of 10% or more of your overall estate will not only qualify for an IHT exemption but, if drafted correctly, can also entitle your estate to a discounted rate of IHT of 36% on non exempt gifts, effectively bringing the estate’s tax bill down by 10%. You can consider capping the gift in the interests of certainty but remember this might cause the loss of the discounted IHT rate if your estate value rose by the time of your death;
  • If you are considering a donation of a percentage of your total estate, ramping this up from single digit percentages to 10% can result in a win-win whereby the charity (and in certain circumstances, your remaining beneficiaries!) all receive more at the expense of HMRC;
  • And finally…never leave your executors in the invidious position of having to decide which charitable beneficiaries should benefit in your Will. Once Wills are admitted to probate they are public documents – this can lead to a flood of “begging letters” by charities keen to press their case.

For further details or to order a copy of Alex Truesdale Wills Limited’s brand new 36-page Client Guide please contact Alex on 07887 946557 or alex@alextruesdalewills.com

*Please note that this content has been taken from our Autumn 2021 Spotlight edition, facts & figures may have altered*

Sweet charity2023-12-01T12:12:34+00:00

THE BIG ‘FIVE – OH’!

TODAY’S BLOG

THE BIG ‘FIVE – OH’! 

In our last edition of Spotlight (our client magazine), we had a loose theme of ‘milestones’ and some of our wonderful clients wrote about their own personal challenges and celebrations, so I’m sure that some of the content will have resonated with you.

During our planning sessions for the magazine, it was interesting to note that we talked less about ‘when’ and more about ‘what’ our own (and clients’) milestones looked like.

Whilst we make a point of celebrating ‘big’ birthdays and ‘big’ anniversaries, these aren’t necessarily the momentous occasions that mean the most to us.

For many, the milestones are educational, or career-based, or ‘stage of life’ – buying your first home, getting married, having your first child (or grandchild), clearing your mortgage, retiring, receiving care or going into a care home and of course the deaths of important loved ones.

These are the moments in our lives when we often consider all the effort it took to get there and the (often emotional) rollercoaster as we look ahead to our new ‘normal’.

That’s not to say that the traditional milestones aren’t important anymore – as one who is facing the big ‘five-oh’ later on this year, I find myself strangely serene about the aging process.

Ten years ago, the thought of becoming ‘middle-aged’ filled me with dread … but now that I’m comfortably there (!) it doesn’t bother me in the slightest.

As I reflect on my almost 50 years on this planet, I count my blessings often – my family, my health, a roof over my head, a great career. The future looks bright and I’m looking forward to doing more, seeing more and learning more.

My personal milestones are many and varied and I relish the fact that I have so many more to look forward to.

We have an ongoing conundrum here at Solomon’s – whenever we talk about ‘life is short’ there is an immediate contrast that ‘life is long’ too!

We advise clients for many decades (and often look after two or three generations of the same family) and yet through loss and grief, we know that our time here is not guaranteed. So there is always an element to our work of planning for longevity but accounting for brevity.

We cannot plan for every eventuality – our future milestones aren’t guaranteed – but we must surely seek to achieve as many of them as we can while we can.

And when I turn 50, I’ll be sure to celebrate all that I have achieved in my life to this point and embrace hope and expectation for a long and well-lived future.

Debbie Harris
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

GET IN TOUCH

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The Old Bakery, 2D Edna Road, Raynes Park, London, SW20 8BT

Email – info@solomonsifa.co.uk 
Call – 020 8542 8084

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Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Bakery, 2D Edna Road, Raynes Park, London, SW20 8BT

Email – info@solomonsifa.co.uk    Call – 020 8542 8084

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

Take Survey

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THE BIG ‘FIVE – OH’!2023-12-01T12:12:45+00:00

INHERITANCE TAX IS EASY MONEY FOR HMRC

TODAY’S BLOG

INHERITANCE TAX IS EASY MONEY FOR HMRC

Few weekends go by without one of the main newspapers doing a story on inheritance tax. I imagine that is because inheritance tax is often cited as the most loathed tax. The general view being that Government gets taxes whilst you are alive and the final indignity is to take more upon death. A 2015 YouGov report indicated its unpopularity.

If you have been reading any of my blogs over the years, you will know that I am rather sceptical of surveys and their results being understood to represent an entire population. The survey in question had a sample size of 1,975 adults. Not enormous out of a population of 66million. There are all sorts of problems with sampling data – but I digress, it is from my anecdotal experience of 3 decades, unpopular.

In March, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) projected 15% growth in inheritance tax (IHT) receipts from £5.2bn in 2020/21 to £6bn for 2021/22. They projected this sum to rise to £7.1bn in IHT receipts in 2024/25, after allowing for indexation of the bands which had been due to start in April 2021.

Frozen IHT

FROZEN – LET IT GO?

As you know, (page 12 of our client magazine Spotlight) the Chancellor elected to freeze all allowances in the last Budget. At the time, due in part to lower house prices the reprojection was £1bn less by 2024/25. However, it is clear that house prices have continued to defy logic by rising.  If the rise in IHT receipts continue at the same rate as that experienced over April, May and June this year the 2021 total yield will likely exceed £6bn, rather more than anticipated (easy money eh?).

It’s always surprising that only around 25,000 estates bear IHT each year, but this year it could exceed 30,000. The nil rate bands (£325,0000) frozen until the end of 2025/26, then, unless values fall materially, this trajectory will continue.

And while on the subject of IHT, let’s not forget:

  • There are two Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) reports on IHT reform that have, substantially, not been acted upon by the Government
  • There have been a number of calls for wider reform of IHT from the likes of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Inheritance and Intergenerational Fairness.
  • A 2015 YouGov report found that IHT was the most disliked of all the personal taxes

If you are married (or are a widow/er), own your own home and have children, your nil rate band may well be £1m. However, if your estate is too large the additional main residence relief is reduced potentially to nothing.

If you are single and have no children, HMRC treat you as worthy of no favours, you have the standard nil rate band of £325,000 and no more.

SOLUTIONS? CLICK HERE!

Of course! there are solutions that may be helpful to you – so get in touch.

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

GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Bakery, 2D Edna Road, Raynes Park, London, SW20 8BT

Email – info@solomonsifa.co.uk 
Call – 020 8542 8084

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

Take Survey

PRIVACY POLICY  |  DATA PROTECTION

GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Bakery, 2D Edna Road, Raynes Park, London, SW20 8BT

Email – info@solomonsifa.co.uk    Call – 020 8542 8084

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

Take Survey

PRIVACY POLICY  |  DATA PROTECTION

INHERITANCE TAX IS EASY MONEY FOR HMRC2023-12-01T12:12:57+00:00

THE WRONG KIND OF GREEN

TODAY’S BLOG

THE WRONG KIND OF GREEN

I appreciate that we are now in the throes of an election campaign, I am not referring to the Green Party. You may think that I’m also about to embark on another piece about the green stuff we all know as money and how quantitative easing (QE) hasn’t worked for the right people, merely inflated markets and the balance sheets of the richest. Frances Coppola has a very good book on this topic (“The People’s Case for Quantitative Easing”).

Today is Halloween 2019. It was only a few days ago that Good Money Week concluded. This is a noble attempt to broaden the knowledge of investors about sustainable and ethical investments, these days called ESG investing.

Failing to understand the investment world whilst holding cash in a miserly deposit accounts and having a heart to do good makes for a dangerous mix. Green or ethical investment is mainstream these days. We have always offered ethical investment screening and I have recently reviewed selections within our portfolios, making some changes. As mentioned, I was also challenged to have ESG as the default portfolio for clients, having an opt out rather than an opt in approach.

WOOD FOR THE TREES

Life savings gone

About a year ago a friend of a friend got in touch about an investment that she had made. She had invested all her life savings into what she thought was a fund that invested in renewable energy. Sadly, it was a scam and scams require the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) to get involved.

Seeing the wood for the trees

Today a similar story reached my desk. Yesterday the SFO made an arrest at Gatwick airport of one Omari Bowers who together with Andrew Skeene was a Director of Global Forestry Investments (GFI). The SFO have been investigating them and their company for alleged frauds between August 2010 and December 2015. According to the report Bowers has failed to attend two Court appearances over the summer. On Monday Mr Skeene appeared at Southwark Crown Court where he has been charged with three offences of conspiracy to defraud, four counts of forgery and one of misconduct in the course of winding up.

GFI had been promoted as a safe, ethical investment in Brazilian teak plantations, with investors offered to buy land and harvest steady profits. Now pause. Read that again. Think of what we “know” about the trees in Brazil.

Cutting it down to size…

Maria Thedoulou of law firm Stokoe writes “GFI was one of two schemes run by the former directors promoting two teak investment schemes in Brazil. The Insolvency Service found GFI received £20,146,631 from the sale of plots in the Belem Sky Project and £3,863,185 from plots sold in the Para Sky Project. In respect of Belem Sky, investors were offered the chance to invest a minimum of £5,000 in the teak plantation for promised returns of “10-20%” per annum. While investors who contributed to the £24 million plus pot in fact saw little or no returns, over £13 million arising from the sale of the plots went into the bank accounts of Bowers and Skeene.”

How can rogues access your funds?

I’m sure that you will appreciate that there are rogues “out there” attempting to part you from your money. In practice the UK is tightly regulated, so by and large it isn’t easy to buy a scam investment, though adverts of Facebook and the internet generally make this possible. Most scams of this nature are done through your pension – a SIPP. Eh? Don’t I have one of those? Well probably if you are a client of ours. In the same way that you probably own a car. There is nothing wrong with a SIPP, its simply a self-invested personal pension. When used properly it is a brilliant pension. If you fill it with dross (because you can) then it will turn toxic on you very quickly. The same being true of attempting to fill your car up with chocolate. It won’t work. Yet there are “advisers” (for which I mean liars and con men) that will not only assist but promote such ludicrous schemes. One such advisory firm being “Emerald Knight” – do google them. This stuff is awful. People like Angela Brooks will be a source of some comfort as she continues to fight the good fight against these sorts of scams, which happen all the time (Angela appears in our magazine Spotlight- October 2019).

Hard wood, soft wood – would that it were so simple

I understand that the stock market may be confusing and perhaps scary. Companies go bust, we regularly hear about billions being wiped off the markets. Yet the truth is rather different. You never, ever hear “billions were wiped onto the markets today”. You rarely hear that these are actual businesses, employing people and solving problems. You simply hear about those that dodge tax. If you buy a market tracking type of fund, you own all of the companies, “good” and “bad”. These are traded in highly regulated markets every second of the day. Market fraud leads to prison. Certainly investing is not for everyone. If you have enough money in the bank to provide you with all your needs, allowing for inflation until your death, you probably do not need to invest. The rest of us do. Get proper advice about how to do this. You can apply ethical / SRI or ESG criteria to your investments, but above all use an adviser that is not promoting dross and saying things you want to hear, but deep down there are alarm bells ringing that something is desperately wrong.

If you know someone that is comtemplating investing in this sort of stuff or has mentioned “a great investment opportunity” to you please tread carefully, give them my details and tell them to get in touch before their investments go up in a cloud of smoke.

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

GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Bakery, 2D Edna Road, Raynes Park, London, SW20 8BT

Email – info@solomonsifa.co.uk 
Call – 020 8542 8084

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

Take Survey

PRIVACY POLICY  |  DATA PROTECTION

GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Bakery, 2D Edna Road, Raynes Park, London, SW20 8BT

Email – info@solomonsifa.co.uk    Call – 020 8542 8084

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

Take Survey

PRIVACY POLICY  |  DATA PROTECTION

THE WRONG KIND OF GREEN2023-12-01T12:17:08+00:00

SPOTLIGHT OCTOBER 2019

TODAY’S BLOG

SPOTLIGHT – OCTOBER 2019

By now as a client you should have received a copy of Spotlight. This is our own in-house publication. This issue has the broad theme of “power”. As you will have gathered, assuming that our politicians remain on course, we are now entering the election period and it will be interesting to see various manifestos. There may well be a change at number 10 Downing Street.

In the client magazine you will find an interview with several clients – Mike, Chris, Corinna and James. Alexandra Truesdale provided a piece about Will Power and the importance of a Will. Iona Bain considered some of the issues that face young people when attempting to save for their future. I also asked Angela Brooks to write a piece about the dreadful frauds and scams that she helps to rectify. There is the ususal piece “Cops and Robbers” which looks at other scams and issues that the regulators has been contending with including the Woodford funds and the London Capital & Finance Mini Bonds.

I also review the first 6 months of 2019 from an investment performance perspective, highlighting where the growth and returns came from. If you didn’t receive a hard copy and would like one, please get in touch. Click here for a digital version.

Spotlight October 2019

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

GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Bakery, 2D Edna Road, Raynes Park, London, SW20 8BT

Email – info@solomonsifa.co.uk 
Call – 020 8542 8084

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

Take Survey

PRIVACY POLICY  |  DATA PROTECTION

GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Bakery, 2D Edna Road, Raynes Park, London, SW20 8BT

Email – info@solomonsifa.co.uk    Call – 020 8542 8084

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

Take Survey

PRIVACY POLICY  |  DATA PROTECTION

SPOTLIGHT OCTOBER 20192023-12-01T12:17:09+00:00

SPOTLIGHT

TODAY’S BLOG

SPOTLIGHT – MARCH 2019

I’m delighted to announce that copies of our new client magazine are on the way to you. Please let me know what you think about the magazine. We have put a lot of effort into creating something that is hopefully educational, interesting and informative. We have some extra copies if you have a friend that might like to see some of the work that we have done, just ask and we can either send you another or pop one in the post to someone else.

I am genuinely seeking some feedback – what works, what you would like to see more of. One of the many advantages of being a small service business is that we can adapt things to suit fairly easily. The magazine is really the result of client feedback and input. Hopefully we have got the tone about right, but we always want to improve. My assumption is that we will do better.

Spotlight March 2019

CONTENTS

  • What we’ve been working on
  • Barn 6
  • Review of 2018
  • Espresso Marketing
  • Making Tax Digital
  • Now we are happily retired
  • Revealed Travel
  • Sarah walks her own path
  • The Open banking revolution
  • What’s ahead for 2019
  • Cops and Robbers

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

GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Bakery, 2D Edna Road, Raynes Park, London, SW20 8BT

Email – info@solomonsifa.co.uk 
Call – 020 8542 8084

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

Take Survey

PRIVACY POLICY  |  DATA PROTECTION

GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Bakery, 2D Edna Road, Raynes Park, London, SW20 8BT

Email – info@solomonsifa.co.uk    Call – 020 8542 8084

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

Take Survey

PRIVACY POLICY  |  DATA PROTECTION

SPOTLIGHT2023-12-01T12:17:29+00:00

So where are our blindspots?

So where are our blind spots?

The new movie Spotlight is both horrific and brilliant. It is in the same genre as “All The President’s Men” but is about the story of a local community that ignored the child abuse in their midst at the hands of the local catholic church. The collective blind spot on many levels in all walks of life.

Whilst the story is fascinating and a triumph of investigative journalism, the subject matter is of course alarming. Yet whilst we may be disturbed by the, frankly deliberate corruption, there isn’t the typical easy solution of laying the blame squarely at one person or institution. There is very much a sense of collective failure to act on the seemingly obvious.

Don’t misunderstand me, clearly the perpetrators are responsible for their horrendous actions, but the film also exposes the problems of a culture that doesn’t wish to rock the boat if “best interests” are to be served.

A Painful Truth

The great sadness of the film is the damage that is done by the abusers, who largely appear to continue their unrepentant behaviour. Yet of course, whilst this is set in Boston, the uncomfortable truth is that most abuse does not happen in the church, it happens in homes, across the country in alarming numbers…. in our own villages, towns and streets. Yet, I imagine that few of us are confronted by this reality, perhaps I’m wrong.

The truth is often painful which is of course why we generally wish to avoid it. It is easier to believe that abusers damage a small number of people and get caught. The truth is perhaps rather different. The issue of child abuse is of course incredibly delicate, but the mechanics of our ability to see or confront the truth applies to all aspects of life. Our relationship with immigrants, our foreign policy, our sale of weapons to hideous regimes, our spending habits and addictions.

Having a financial plan that is based around your own values will to some degree reflect your ability to face and handle the “truth”. Financial planners are not magicians, we cannot make pain go away, we can help identify your values and goals and build a plan around them, but we cannot cheat death or illness or disaster. We can insure against them. I wonder sometimes if some people do not have a financial plan, because of a reluctance to hear or see the truth of their current situation as any decent planner will be suggesting some changes to behaviours, which may be uncomfortable. The truth is that we all feel like this at times, but at some point, recognise that the truth is far better than denial.

The movie is now out here in the UK and has some great performances, here is the official trailer.

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

So where are our blindspots?2023-12-01T12:19:29+00:00

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