What Would Clooney Do?

Dominic Thomas
Dec 2025  •  2 min read

What Would Clooney Do?

In our latest edition of Spotlight, three clients outlined a little about their initial experiences of retirement – each rather different, but possessing some commonality.  By way of another example (ok a bit of a stretch) the new film Jay Kelly starring George Clooney is a fairly stark look at the choices a hugely successful actor has made in his four decade career.

Those of you who know the Directorial work of Noah Baumbach will not be surprised to see a reasonable amount of self-disclosure in the plot. Kelly is hugely successful but has probably reached the twilight of his career (never a clear case for actors). He finds himself in the empty nest syndrome and reflecting on his life choices following a meeting with a former fellow student. Their careers took very different paths. Kelly is left clutching awards and accolades, but chasing a sense of connection as he chases his daughter around Europe.

It’s not about right or wrong, but promotes a thoughtful approach to the choices that Kelly makes, selecting his career over the alternatives. To some extent we all have similar choices, or have had them, rarely are they easy; most of us haven’t really had the luxury of seven figure (or more) short-term projects like a Hollywood actor, but rather more mundane – paying the mortgage, holidays, school fees and so on. It’s not always easy to remember that these are also choices – and who is to say whether they are right or wrong; the point is surely that we make them thoughtfully and consciously.

As we enter another new year, the one certainty is that time evaporates and all of us become increasingly aware of its preciousness and that it slips through our fingers; before long we all find ourselves at a point wondering about our choices. At your next planning meeting, you may want to check in with us to ensure we have really grasped your values, the lifestyle that you have worked for and wish to retain. Assumptions are rarely accurate and invariably disappointing, and our mission is to help you verbalise yours and help you achieve the peace of mind that comes from a clear, robust plan.

I enjoyed the film, which is currently on the Netflix platform and it’s had mixed reviews, but hey, that’s the joy of art. Anyway, Mr Clooney turns 65 this May and would still have to wait until 2028 to collect his State Pension if he were a UK resident. He may find himself waiting a little longer for a third Oscar, but he rarely has to wait long for a coffee or a compliment. Devilishly handsome and seemingly a thoroughly decent American.

Here’s the official trailer for Jay Kelly:

What Would Clooney Do?2025-12-17T14:11:36+00:00

What month would you be in if life were a year?

Dominic Thomas
Aug 2025  •  3 min read

What month would you be in if life were a year?

One of the most difficult aspects of my work is approaching the subject of death. We covered some practical elements of this in our last edition of Spotlight (Spring 2025). It’s a very difficult topic, one of the last taboos. Most of us would prefer to avoid the discussion, in fact I have even met a couple of people who told me not to talk about it because it would hasten their death, which is one of the more strange responses I have had.

Most of us grow up with the expectation that life will be long, we will reach old age and have a lengthy, good retirement. We all come to experience loss; some of us at a very early age. We are often shocked by the news of someone young, or relatively young who has died. It feels as though their lives have been cut short.

The purpose of raising the subject is not to be the voice of doom, but to enable you to really do two things. Firstly, prepare for your death, which means getting your legal documents in place and ensuring that your beneficiaries are properly taken care of. Secondly, it is a reminder that life is brief, none of us know when it is our time, so we ought to be attempting to live a full life, one that doesn’t have too much deferred into the future, but feels very fulfilling here and now in the present.

You may have seen all sorts of data showing the average life expectancy of a man or woman in the UK. There is even a “death clock” which takes your age now and calculates the expected day of your death based on your health, outlook and country of residence. This of course is an informed guess based on international averages. The reality is that if you have a financial planner, you have money.  And if you have money, you probably have the ability to access better healthcare and make better dietary/fitness choices. You probably (not necessarily) have a lower level of stress. As a result, you are likely to outlive the average.

However, most of us rarely think about this and go about our lives with the expectation of a fairly long and healthy future ahead of us still. We tend to think life will stretch out ahead of us, there will be ample time. However, if life was a calendar year, I wonder what month you would be in?

If we were to consider each month representing eight years of our lifetime, then life expectancy would be 96. Turning 56 means it’s July with the expectation of a few summer months. At 72 you have reached October. I wonder if thinking about life this way might encourage us to take each day a little more thankfully – and thoughtfully. The average person would have each month represent seven years, so at 56 it’s August already.

It’s a bit alarming and perhaps morbid, but surely an important reminder that life is very brief indeed. We don’t know what the future holds, but ask yourself, do you really want to be spending a significant proportion of it worrying about money or attempting to manage it? Ultimately, that is the point of delegating your financial planning to us, so that you can go and do the important things that you value most.

Sadly, I regularly meet people with diagnosed conditions that shorten their lives; and whilst we all know that money cannot buy time, actually you can create more time to do the things that you value because of the backdrop of a great financial plan based on what’s important to you. It is never about you spending valuable time managing your own investments.

References:

Death Clock: https://www.death-clock.org/

ONS mortality tables: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths

What month would you be in if life were a year?2025-08-21T15:39:46+01:00

Solomon’s bucket list

Jemima Thomas
June 2025  •  2 min read

Solomon’s bucket list

Our latest Spotlight edition is due to be arriving with you all shortly and whilst we appreciate the theme is a little ‘heavier’ than usual, it is an important topic that we mustn’t be afraid to talk about. Death and bereavement can often bring to light how we feel about the way we are living our own lives at the time; an opportunity for reflection and something of a re-set if you like.

Am I living authentically?

Is the life I’ve made for myself enough?

Am I “happy”, content or fulfilled?

If you’ve been a client of ours for any length of time, these questions won’t be new to you.  Our priority is always to ensure that your financial plan is aligned with your values, goals, needs, desires, sense of purpose – or your “why?” so of course you will have been encouraged to think about your long-term aspirations (financial and otherwise).

We sometimes feature holiday and travel destinations in Spotlight and in our blog, largely to inspire you with places we know are on many a bucket list, but for various reasons travelling is not always possible or easy to navigate particularly the older we get.  In our opinion, when ‘travel’ is no longer feasible, it is important to continue to have meaningful experiences that bring pleasure to you (and your loved ones) and create memories that you can look back on fondly.

We thought it might be interesting to give you a very small taste of some simple-pleasure-bucket-list ideas from the team here at Solomon’s. These are all largely doable experiences that we wish to complete this year (or in our lifetimes!).

All of these things give each of us a real sense of joy, which after all is what we’re all really looking for.  Life is for living.

We would love it if any of you would be willing to share things that are on your bucket list that are a bit ‘out of the ordinary’ – there may be things we haven’t even considered!  Please email jemima@solomonsifa.co.uk with details!

Live is for living
Live is for living

Solomon’s bucket list2025-06-05T16:04:39+01:00

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?2025-01-21T15:39:12+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 charity2025-01-28T10:04:52+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

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Mill Cobham Park Road, COBHAM Surrey, KT11 3NE

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

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Mill Cobham Park Road, COBHAM Surrey, KT11 3NE

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

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

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

Inheritance tax is easy money for HMRC

Dominic Thomas
Jan 2022  •  1 min read

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.

Inheritance tax is easy money for HMRC2025-10-06T12:06:09+01:00

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 Mill Cobham Park Road, COBHAM Surrey, KT11 3NE

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

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Mill Cobham Park Road, COBHAM Surrey, KT11 3NE

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

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

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 Mill Cobham Park Road, COBHAM Surrey, KT11 3NE

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

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Mill Cobham Park Road, COBHAM Surrey, KT11 3NE

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

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

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 Mill Cobham Park Road, COBHAM Surrey, KT11 3NE

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

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

GET IN TOUCH

Solomon’s Independent Financial Advisers
The Old Mill Cobham Park Road, COBHAM Surrey, KT11 3NE

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

7 QUESTIONS, NO WAFFLE

Are we a good fit for you?

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