Vivian Slattery, Author at monetarysolutions

Tax implications

28 March 202222 August 2017 by Vivian Slattery

Tax implications on your investments

When looking at different types of investment, you also have to consider the tax implications. In fact, you could be entitled to allowances totalling over £30,000*. When deciding on the investment vehicles for your funds, it’s important to take these allowances into consideration.

So what are the main allowances?

Personal allowance

Firstly, we all have a personal allowance that we can offset against income, although this is reduced if you earn more than a certain level, and could even be reduced to zero. Even children have personal allowances, and it’s important to make full use of them.

Capital Gains allowance

We also have a tax-free Capital Gains allowance* of just over £11,000. If you aren’t using this – and you don’t have any personal allowance left – it could be very attractive to offset this against your investments.

Dividend allowance

There is now a £5,000 allowance* that you can offset against dividends. This can be attractive when looking for an investment to help top up your income.

Saving tax on interest

Most people earning less than £16,500 will not have to pay any tax on their saving interest, because they can use a £5,000* saving tax allowance which reduces by £1 for every pound of income earned above the personal allowance.

On top of this, every basic rate taxpayer can receive £1,000* interest on their savings without having to pay tax on it. A higher rate tax payer can receive £500* tax-free.

What to do

At Monetary Solutions Ltd, you can book a free initial consultation about any financial matters, so please call us on 020 8655 8488.

When you are looking at tax implications, we recommend you also seek advice from an accountant.

Allowances, limits and thresholds correct at the time of writing, but are subject to change in the future. Please confirm the current position before taking any action

Keeping your investments in tune

28 March 202214 June 2017 by Vivian Slattery

We recently rescued a piano, which was sadly rather out of tune. The piano tuner came today to tune it. To get it playing well and sounding beautiful, the strings need to be at the right tension and the hammers in good condition so they hit the strings well. It also needs to be easy to play, so the keys shouldn’t keep getting stuck. Once these things are sorted out, the piano also needs to be retuned again regularly to keep it up to scratch.

Unfortunately our poor piano was old and had been somewhat neglected and is now beyond repair, so we’ll have to send it to piano heaven and get a replacement.

Often our finances can be the same. It’s easy to leave the arrangements that we have made in the past, because they worked well when we bought them. Over the years, the investments held within our ISAs, bonds or pensions may be working less well, or there may now be a better way of doing what we were trying to achieve. We can now access many providers’ plans online, or at least consolidate a number of holdings into one place, making them far easier to administer.

Having someone retune your investments means that you can make sure that what you have is still the best way to reach your financial goals. It also means that if your existing setup is out of kilter with what you need, you can replace it with a more appropriate option, or just tweak some of the individual parts. Regular reviews can then make sure that it never gets too far out of tune again.

If you would like a review of your finances contact us today to arrange a free intial consultation.

Allowances, limits and thresholds correct at the time of writing, but are subject to change in the future. Please confirm the current position before taking any action

Making dreams come true

28 March 202219 April 2017 by Vivian Slattery

“When can I retire?”
“How much will I need?”
“Can I afford to help my kids onto the property ladder?”

As financial advisers, these are questions we often hear.

Unless you know how much money you need to achieve the lifestyle you want, how will you know when you’ve got it?

Might you find yourself working for longer than you have to?
Could you retire 5 years earlier?
Would you set aside more money for your future if you could be confident that it was the right amount and would really make a difference?
Many dreams are attainable – they just need to be planned and budgeted for. As Brian Tracy said: “People with clear written goals accomplish far more in a shorter period of time than people without goals could imagine”.

“People with clear written goals accomplish far more in a shorter period of time than people without goals could imagine”

Brian Tracy

At Monetary Solutions we help your dreams to become reality by mapping out your future financial security.

We start by exploring what will happen if you make no changes. This highlights whether there are any financial pot-holes in the road ahead. Once we know where the problems might be, we look at different solutions to see the impact that each would make, e.g. using a lump sum to reduce your mortgage versus putting it into your pension.

For some clients, this experience has revealed that they already have enough to afford the future they want, and can even spare some money now for their children.

By working through our process, you will receive answers to your questions and become more confident in the decisions you make. It’s also far easier to check your progress and make sure your plans are still on track (and to make appropriate course corrections if required).

I hope you can now see how financial advisers go beyond just giving financial advice – we help to enable people to have the lifestyle they want, and help make their dreams come true.

At Monetary Solutions Ltd, you can book a free initial consultation about any financial matters, so call us on 020 8655 8488 to book an appointment

Allowances, limits and thresholds correct at the time of writing, but are subject to change in the future. Please confirm the current position before taking any action

How can an IFA help a business?

5 January 202323 March 2017 by Vivian Slattery

A few years ago, I met someone who had recently joined a company where the sole director was left in a coma following an accident. No one had powers of attorney, so no decisions could be made and no bills could be paid for the business.

It brought home to me how important it is for a business to have an IFA, just as much as it is for an individual.

You might remember that I often say the most important thing an IFA offers is a sounding board to help you consider different scenarios. For example, when considering protection you have to look at cover for sickness as well as life insurance. In both cases, you need to consider the impact on the business-owner as well as on the firm.

A business owner needs to decide how they would replace their income if they fall sick, and should consider taking out:

Critical Illness insurance which will pay out a lump sum if they are diagnosed with a critical illness such as heart attack, stroke and some forms of cancer
Income Replacement insurance which is designed to replace income lost during illness or accident

The business needs to consider Key Man insurance to cover employees whose long- term sickness would affect the company’s bottom line. This not only helps to protect your business profit but could also allow time for another individual to be trained up.

Different issues need to be considered to protect the business against the death of an owner. Generally speaking, when a director or a partner dies, the value of their shares will pass to their estate. Often, the shares will then pass to a spouse or family member who might have no desire to be tied up in the business.

Shareholder or Partnership Protection is designed to pay out a lump sum equal to the value of the shares in the business. This enables the remaining directors/partners to buy back the deceased’s shares, which ensures the family gets the value they deserve whilst at the same time protecting the business. When planning this, you should also consult your solicitor because other legal agreements need to be in place to make this happen.

At Monetary Solutions Ltd, you can book a free initial consultation about any financial matters, so please call us on 020 8655 8488.

Allowances, limits and thresholds correct at the time of writing, but are subject to change in the future. Please confirm the current position before taking any action

Managing Your Savings

5 January 20237 March 2017 by Vivian Slattery

Do you know how much interest you’re getting on your savings? Do you know how much would be protected by the FSCS (Financial Services Compensation Scheme)?

Not long ago few people knew the answer to these questions. With interest rates at an all-time low and the realisation that banks and building societies can go bust, awareness has changed. Most of our clients with larger cash deposits could now answer these questions.

Managing your cash is time consuming. The FSCS limit increased in January 2017 to £85,000*. Good news, however you must be careful because one limit can cover more than one provider. For example, Saga, Halifax and Birmingham Midshires are all part of the Bank of Scotland Group, and share one £85,000 limit.

You may get better interest rates in fixed term accounts. But you have to remember maturity dates and research new options once they mature.

There used to be little that we as Financial Advisers could do to help. Managing cash was so time-consuming that the charges we would have to make would have outweighed the savings.

But all this has changed, because we now have software to help manage your cash. It helps us ensure you get competitive rates, but also checks you keep within the FSCS and alerts us to maturity dates.

It is a vital tool, not just for individuals but also for trustees whose funds have large cash holdings and obligations to the beneficiary to get competitive rates. We often see clients who do not want to tie up all their funds and we can now advise on cash deposits effectively.

* It’s also worth bearing in mind that some deposits are temporarily protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme for higher amounts. “Temporary High Balances” following life events such as (but not limited to) property sales, inheritance, redundancy and compensation payments are (since 3 July 2015) protected for six months up to a limit of £1 million (unlimited for personal injury claims). For more information see the FSCS website.

Allowances, limits and thresholds correct at the time of writing, but are subject to change in the future. Please confirm the current position before taking any action

Don’t get ripped off and lose your pension!

28 March 202218 January 2017 by Vivian Slattery

Did you see the Panorama programme shown on the BBC back in July 2016, called Pension Rip-Offs Exposed? It revealed how some people have been duped into losing their pension funds, thinking they were just taking advantage of the new rules that allow greater access to their pension.

The problem usually started with a ‘cold call’, i.e. someone ringing up out of the blue offering a ‘free pension review’. It often ended up with the pension being transferred to a scheme that sounded wonderful, but was actually too good to be true. Once transferred, the monies are potentially afforded no regulatory protection, including coverage from the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. This means that if things go wrong there is very little which can be done in terms of recourse, corrective action, and receiving any compensation for errors / mis-selling.

Petition
During 2016, an IFA friend of mine started a parliamentary petition to have the law changed to ban cold-calling and in the Autumn statement the Government pledged to tackle this.

However, just making cold-calling illegal won’t stop all the calls, and some people still risk being taken in.

Be aware
You need to be aware that a reputable IFA would never simply ring you out of the blue, although many will offer a free initial review of your pensions if you ask. If you receive a cold call, there’s no need to discuss or argue, simply Hang Up.

Further resources

The Pensions Regulator booklet about how to avoid being taken in by pension scams
http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/docs/pension-scams-booklet-members.pdf
10-step guide to protecting yourself from scams
http://www.thepensionsregulator.gov.uk/individuals/dangers-of-pension-scams.aspx
Parliamentary petition to ban cold calling about pensions, as mentioned above
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/166980

At Monetary Solutions Ltd, you can book a free initial consultation about any financial matters, so please call us on 020 8655 8488.

Allowances, limits and thresholds correct at the time of writing, but are subject to change in the future. Please confirm the current position before taking any action

020 8760 9940

Tax implications

Keeping your investments in tune

Making dreams come true

How can an IFA help a business?

Managing Your Savings

Don’t get ripped off and lose your pension!

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