Throughout your lifetime, you will have a variety of savings and investment requirements. Whether you need to build up savings for a later date or you have existing capital to invest, you will need an investment approach to suit your financial objectives from a qualified and experienced Independent Financial Adviser.
Helping you strike the right balance between investment returns and long-term security through asset allocation, is a key factor for me as an independent financial adviser with Lighthouse Temple. Another key factor is to help make you aware of how important it is to have sufficient capital funds available immediately or at short notice with which to meet any unforeseeable emergency.
As an experienced Independent Financial Adviser based in Solihull I relate each client’s investment strategy (including ethical investment concerns) to their individual objectives, priorities and assessed attitude to investment risk. Taking this into consideration, I research and develop a tax-efficient investment portfolio incorporating a variety of products including cash ISAs, stocks and shares ISAs, Investment Bonds, Unit Trusts, Open Ended Investment Companies (OEICs) and pensions.
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It’s ISA Season - Use it or Lose it!
Are you taking advantage of your ISA allowance?
Introduced in 1999 by the government, an Individual Savings Account (ISA) is an investment that protects your savings from income and capital gains tax. With a standard bank or building society account, taxpayers are usually liable to pay tax on interest received. Similarly, income and profits from stock-market investments (whether they are directly held or through collective schemes) are also expected to pay tax.
ISAs protect your savings by acting as a kind of wrapper. This allows individuals to invest money every year (up to the annual ISA allowance limit) and pay no personal tax on the profit and/or income received. As an added benefit, you do not even need to declare ISAs on your annual tax return. If you are looking to invest for the first time, or if you already hold them it is likely that you will benefit from impartial ISA advice to find out if you are receiving the best ISA rate for your money.
ISA’s Have Changed!
In an attempt to simplify the ISA structure, the following changes took place from 6 April 2008:
- New subscription limits– A temporary ISA allowance increase from £7,000 to £7,200 per year has now been increased to £10,200 following the 2009 budget announcement. It was implemented from 6 October 2009 for anyone aged 50 or over and from 6 April 2010 for anybody else who is eligible for an ISA. Similar to the previous ISA structure, each person's ISA allowance incorporates upto £5,100 into a cash ISA and the remaining into a stocks and shares ISA.
- Removing Mini / Maxi distinction – This simplifies the ISA structure by having one ISA made of cash and stocks and shares elements. If you have an existing Mini or Maxi ISA, your investment company should contact you to provide further details of the transfer.
- Allowing cash ISAs to be transferred to stocks and shares ISAs – This was intended to encourage share ownership for individuals. It also provides increased flexibility for both new and existing investors.
- Bringing PEPs within an ISA wrapper – Personal Equity Plans (PEPs) ceased to exist and were transferred into a new or existing stocks and shares ISA.
Investment Bonds
There are other ways of investing to provide capital growth or income, with one of the most popular types being an Investment Bond. One of the main attractions of an Investment Bond is the ‘5% rule’ which allows you to withdraw up to 5% of the value of your initial investment amount per year tax free. As long as you are not a higher rate taxpayer when the investment bond matures or is surrendered, you are able to withdraw your original capital after 20 years with no further tax to pay. If you take more than 5% per year of the amount you personally invest into the investment bond you may have a tax liability.
Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) currently allows unused 5% allowances to be accrued over the term of the bond. If you decide to fully surrender your bond or any of its policy segments, your 5% cumulative allowance will be taken into account to determine whether a tax liability arises.
The implications of the recent changes to Capital Gains Tax (CGT) has caused some concern about the long term benefits of investment bonds when compared with unit trusts, open ended investment companies (OEICs) and investment trusts. However, the most suitable recommendation will always depend on each persons circumstances, financial objectives and assessed attitude to investment risk.
If your investment portfolio already includes one or more investment bonds (including with-profits bonds) and has not been reviewed for a number of years, or if you have any concerns about the long-term prospect of your investments, you are likely to benefit with an investment bond review from an Independent Financial Adviser.
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