News & Blog

News & Blog

Pensions, Investments and Covid 19

17 April 2020

Having all sat around now in lockdown for 3 weeks or more, whether you are retired or a long way from retirement, we inevitably take a sneak peek at our pension and investment values. We know it won’t be good news but it’s just one of those don’t look at the car crash type...

Mortgages - Never a better time to be prepared?

08 April 2020

In the last week (31st March) the BBC put out the following article: Coronavirus: UK mortgage market goes into partial lockdown This is at a time where there is confusion all around, nobody knows how long the social distancing restrictions will remain in place, we’re unsure when we c...

Guidance on Deferring or payment holidays on Commercial Property held within Pensions. (a view by AJ Bell)

01 April 2020

Deferring Rental Payments If the tenant is simply looking to defer the rental payment, with view of paying it back, then the product provider would generally need a comment from the accountant explaining what impact the current climate has had/will have on the business cash flow, and the...

Support for the Self Employed

27 March 2020

In the U.K. almost 15% of our workforce are self-employed or freelancers, this is a staggering 5 million of us, many of whom contribute valuable services and support throughout the country. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic many self-employed now face a huge challenge in being able to ...

Health, Wealth & Finance

18 December 2019

I’ve been out and about over the last few months so It’s a while since I put pen to paper! So here goes. I attended a presentation from one of the many companies that vie for business from us and he used a throw away statement on one of his slides which was the top three things t...

Is it time to check behind your toaster?

11 December 2019

With a yuletide general election looming and a conclusion to the Brexit question looking as far away as it’s ever been, you could be forgiven for imagining that all the uncertainty in the UK would be having an adverse effect in the housing market. Whilst we have noticed a slowing of sale...

A letter with the date of your death

09 September 2019

Imagine receiving a letter at some point in your life which gave you a date and the time of your death. Sad, I know, but we had a 10-minute discussion in the office about it the other day and it raised a few eyebrows. Would you live your life differently? I’m sure you would, but why? People ...

Bumper Stickers

14 August 2019

I was driving up the A1 the other day and passed a camper van with a bumper sticker that brought a smile to my face on a long journey.   “take it easy, life is short!”  It makes you think, life goes by in the blink of an eye, whic...

TRANSFER OF WEALTH - A CONUMDRUM

07 August 2019

The passing on of wealth down the generations is a complicated affair involving many considerations – it is a balancing act between the needs of the individual who holds the wealth and those of their offspring. It often involves multiple generations at once covering a wide range of demographic...

Financial Wellbeing – will your staff experience the lightbulb moment?

03 July 2019

It has been a while since I last put pen to paper venting my angst about the pension world. I don’t think much has happened since, has it? Brexit seems to have diverted the government away from pensions for a while. So, we are now seeing companies in the secondary auto-enrolment market, mean...