Everyday frustrations and challenges are a part of life.  Maybe it’s a commute where you never get a seat no matter how tired you are, an annoying colleague or a day just not working out how it was supposed to.  If these irritations only happen from time to time, there may be little you can do about them.  If however, they start to impact your overall quality of life, then you may need to take action and you certainly need to think about how to protect yourself against life’s major challenges such as loss of employment, serious illness and death.  With that in mind, here are some points to consider. Having a cash cushion can buy you time to think and act Cash cushions serve much the same purpose as physical cushions, they provide a certain degree of padding against hard bumps.  They may be all you need to deal with minor issues (like having to pay for a taxi because your train is delayed and you cannot afford to be late) but it may not be anything like enough to see you through the major ones (like an extended period of illness).  It may, however, be enough to give you time to think about your next move (for example in a redundancy situation) or to take action (for example by gaining new qualifications). Minimising debt and non-essential contracts can give you more room to manoeuvre Basically, the less of your income you have to dedicate to non-negotiable expenses such as debt repayments and other contractual obligations, the more you will have available to use for your needs (and ideally wants) at the time.  As a rule of thumb, you want to target high-interest debt first, as this gives the biggest scope for savings.  Once you’ve cleared the balance completely, think about whether or not you still need the product and if not then it’s advisable to take steps to close it completely.  Not only does this remove one source of potential temptation, it takes the product off your credit record and also helps to limit the extent to which you may be at risk of identity theft. When it comes to contracts, there is more nuance.  Sometimes it does make sense to enter into a long-term contract.  For example, you may know for sure that you will need the product or service over the lifetime of the contract and that the contract will give you a better deal than you would have been able to achieve on a more flexible basis.  The key here is to think about whether or not you really need the product or service at all and if so whether you are sure you are going to need it for the lifetime of the contract and if so whether or not the contract really does offer a great deal compared to paying as you go.  (Read the small print).  Basically, if you’re thinking about entering into a long-term contract, take the decision carefully. Make sure you have the right insurance cover When thinking about insurance cover, you may find it helpful to start by making a list of what really matters to you and then look at your options for protecting it.  For example, if you start with your home, then buildings and contents insurance may be obvious necessities, but if you’re paying a mortgage then your ability to keep your home will depend on your ability to keep paying your mortgage, hence Income Protection insurance could be good purchases.  Similarly, when thinking about protecting people, remember the contribution made by homemakers.  It may be very advisable to ensure they are covered by-products such as Life Insurance or Critical Illness cover, in fact, it may even be worth having Critical Illness cover for children as a child’s illness can lead to illness for adults.  Similarly, Pet Insurance can protect both children and adults against losing a much-loved friend due to being unable to pay for the treatment they need. For General insurance, Accident sickness and unemployment insurance (ASU) and pet insurance, we act as introducers only.

Death is inevitable, taxes can often be managed to some extent.  Using relevant life policies instead of life insurance can be an astute way to help those who are left behind after a bereavement without incurring a hefty tax burden. Relevant Life policies versus Life Insurance - the basics A Relevant Life policy can only be taken out by a company on behalf of one of its employees (including directors).  Relevant Life policies work on a similar basis to Life Insurance policies, however, if they meet certain, specific criteria, they are an allowable business expense, meaning that they can be set against profits for the purposes of calculating Corporation Tax.  This fact can significantly lower the tax burden on both the employer and the employee. Criteria to qualify as a business expense At current time 2019/2020 these are the main criteria for relevant life cover to qualify as a business expense.  It is strongly advisable to double-check that a policy complies with them before purchasing it. The policy must only provide a lump sum benefit on death (or diagnosis of terminal illness) payable before the age of 75.  It must not include any element of critical illness cover or have any surrender value. The policy must only benefit an individual (or a trust set up on behalf of an individual) or a charity. The main purpose of the policy should not be for the avoidance of tax. Tax treatment of qualifying relevant life plans While it is important to note that the use of Relevant Life plans should not be mainly for the avoidance of tax, they can offer significant tax benefits for both employer and employee. From an employer’s perspective, they can be set against profits for the calculation of Corporation Tax (provided that the premiums are wholly and exclusively for the purposes of the business) and as they are business expenses rather than employee benefits, they are also ignored for the purposes of calculating the employer’s National Insurance contributions. From an employee’s perspective, the fact that the policy payments are business expenses rather than benefits not only means that they are ignored for the purposes of calculating income tax and national insurance, but it also means that they are ignored for the purposes of calculating annual and/or lifetime pensions allowances. To put this another way, if a company buys Relevant Life policies for its employees, let’s say at £200 each, they can set this cost against profits, thus reducing their Corporation Tax bill by £38 per employee (Corporation Tax is currently set at 19%).  In other words, the effective cost of the cover would be £162 per employee. If an employee buys a Life Insurance policy at £200, they have to pay for this out of their post-tax income.  What this means in practice will depend on the employee’s salary, but assuming a 40% Income Tax rate and a 2% National Insurance rate, the actual cost of the cover would be £344.83.  In other words, the insurer would get £200 (minus tax) and the government would get £144.83.  The differential would be even greater for employees on higher tax bands, such as directors. A quick note about other death-related insurance Relevant Life policies are for the benefit of the employee’s loved ones rather than the business.  If, however, the employee in question is key to the continued success of the business, then it may be worth taking out Key Person insurance for them.  If they are a shareholder, you may also want to look at Shareholder Protection Insurance, which could make it easier for the company to buy the shares from the beneficiaries of the deceased’s estate. For Tax planning, we act as introducers only.

There is really nothing new about the concept of companies needing to protect themselves against the threat of being targeted by malicious actors.  It is, however, fair to say, that the nature of these threats changes over the course of time.  With that in mind, here are some points to consider regarding protecting your company from 21st-century threats. Physical threats Never underestimate the importance of good physical security, in particular, good access controls.  Not only can this help prevent unauthorised people gaining access to your building, but they can also make it easier to investigate any incidents which occur within it.  Basically, the fewer people who have access to a specific area within your building, the fewer people could be involved with anything which occurs in it.  This goes as much for your own employees as for members of the public. Companies may also want to think seriously about protecting themselves from legal claims by investing in public liability insurance. Digital threats When looking at digital threats, companies may wish to ask themselves two questions. What training do my employees need to keep themselves and the company safe online? What support does my IT team need to keep the company safe in cyberspace? Each of these questions will need to be answered on an individual basis, however, it is strongly recommended to give them both serious consideration, especially since missteps here could have serious legal consequences.  GDPR, for example, does allow for prison sentences. In short, if companies need to take a cold, hard look at their ability to safeguard their data and their brand against cyberthreats and decide if they have the necessary expertise to do so themselves or if they need to get external help.  Companies may also want to think about investing in insurance against the consequences of cyberattacks. Reputational threats Companies may wish to give guidance to their staff regarding referencing the company in any way on social media.  They may also wish to set policies regarding the use of social media in company time and/or from company equipment and these policies may need to be split between staff who use social media for work purposes and those who do not.  In fact, the category of staff who use social media for work purposes may then need to be split between those who use it for research only and those who use it to communicate on behalf of the company.  There is no insurance policy in the world can protect a company from the reputation consequences of poor social media management.  It is therefore absolutely imperative that companies think about everything they post and avoid any temptation to give knee-jerk responses to any issue raised with them, not even if it seems minor and especially not if it appears to be serious. The threat of losing key staff Admittedly this threat is not unique to the 21st century, but it remains a very real threat in the modern age and hence deserves to be treated as such.  In addition to doing whatever you reasonably can to keep staff happy in their posts, you may wish to give serious consideration to the question of how your company would manage if a key staff member were to die in service.  If their unexpected departure would cause serious issues for the company, then it might be worth purchasing Key Person insurance for them.  Companies might also wish to look at buying Shareholder Protection Insurance to assist them with buying shares from the estate of a deceased shareholder.  This could both provide funds for their loved ones and ensure that control of a company remains where the company would like it to be. For public liability insurance we act as introducers only.

Times change but sometimes it can take a while for established systems to catch up with this fact. For example, it took until 2015 for the law to recognise that using a pension pot to buy an annuity was not necessarily the right approach for everyone and to make it possible for people to use their pensions savings in a more flexible manner.  For some people, this may be a huge step forward, but for others, an annuity may still be the best option. The development of pensions The basic concept of a pension is that a person saves during their working years and then uses the savings to generate an income for their post-work years.  Governments used (and continue to use) tax breaks as a means of encouraging people to save for their later years but, up until 2015, the price of accepting these tax breaks was that the majority of the money saved into a pension pot had to be used to buy an annuity by the time of the individual's 75th birthday.  This ensured that the funds saved were used to produce an income for the individual right up to their death (although the government had no control over how the income would be spent).  In 2015 the government removed the requirement to spend pension savings on an annuity and thus introduced a new era of pensions freedoms. The new pensions landscape Those with pensions savings are still at perfect liberty to use all or part of them on an annuity if they so wish. Alternatively, they may opt to cash out their pension pot in its entirety, (although there will be a hefty tax penalty for this). Last but by no means least, they may opt to keep their pension pot wholly or mostly invested and use it to generate an income to keep them in retirement. Annuities versus pensions freedoms - pros, cons and tax treatment An annuity is simply a guaranteed income for life and the income from annuities is hence subject to income tax.  The straightforward nature of annuities may be a pro or a con depending on your point of view.  People who value stability and simplicity may be perfectly happy to buy an annuity which gives them a guaranteed, fixed income until the end of their days, even if they think they could have achieved better returns through the stock market.  By contrast, people who consider themselves capable investors might chafe at the fact that annuities do not necessarily provide the sort of returns they could potentially have achieved themselves. Pension freedoms, by contrast, can largely mean whatever the holder of the pension pot wants them to mean so the income generated from the pension fund will be taxed according to its nature, for example if it is used to generate dividend income then it will be subject to dividend tax. A point which may be important to some people is that, in principle, pension pots can now be passed on from one generation to another and as such it can be wise to include them as part of the estate-planning process in order to maximize the funds which go to the individual’s chosen heirs rather than HMRC. As with annuities, the flexibility of pensions freedoms may be a pro or a con depending on your point of view.  If you are the sort of person who relishes a challenge, then you might be very happy to take your chances as an investor and aim to achieve better returns than you would have received from an annuity, particularly if you are still a younger retiree and may have decades still to live. For Pensions we act as introducers only

People are a company’s most important asset.  It may be one of the greatest cliches in the business world, but it is also true.  The main reason for this is that people can’t simply be replaced the way many business assets can.  You can’t just swap out a person the way you can swap out a computer, but you can acknowledge the fact that staff are inevitably going to depart the company and sometimes it will happen at very short notice (and possibly in very painful circumstances) and that you should, therefore, be prepared for this. You can’t prevent all the bad things in life, but you can insure against their consequences If a key member of staff departs the company unexpectedly you will need to look at managing their workload and, ultimately, replacing their expertise, ideally as soon as you possibly can.  Key Person insurance can give you the funds you need to move on with this process. If that key member of staff is a shareholder and they die, then their shares will become part of their estate, which means that the beneficiaries of their will can dispose of them as they see fit.  Shareholder Protection Insurance can make it possible for the company to buy back the shares and prevent control, or at least influence, from falling into unwelcome hands. In addition to these two forms of insurance, businesses may also want to look at Business Loan Protection. It may be helpful to insure general staff, visitors and members of the public as well While the previous comments related to key members of staff such as senior technical staff, senior managers and directors, it’s advisable to think about insuring against any mishaps happening to any of your staff, anyone who visits your premises (including any premises you use temporarily, such as pop-up stores) and basically anyone who interacts with your company in any way, including electronically. By this point in time, all businesses should be well aware both of their responsibilities under GDPR and of the importance of cybersecurity.  To this might be added the fact that no business should ever consider itself too large or too small to be a target for cybercriminals or the fact that falling victim to such an attack can have devastating consequences.  With this in mind, today’s businesses may want to think about taking out insurance against cyberattacks. Remember that insurance is a concept as well as a product The best way to protect yourself against the consequences of negative events is to stop them from happening in the first place.  Now, obviously, this is not always possible, for example, death and illness are just a reality of life, although accidents and injuries may be preventable.  It may, however, still be possible to find ways to mitigate against at least the worst of their consequences. For example, companies could protect themselves against loss of access to their main premises by keeping the data in their IT systems backed up offsite and having a system whereby employees can connect to company systems from remote locations.  Obviously this would not necessarily mean that everyone could keep working uninterrupted, but it could potentially facilitate some degree of business continuity. Carrying this concept over to people, the business should typically do everything they can to ensure that as much relevant knowledge as possible is documented so it can be accessed even if the person is not available.  In this context “relevant information” can be anything from product knowledge to telephone numbers.  Basically, if it’s important to the running of the business, it should probably be documented in some way. For General Insurance we act as introducers only.

All employers will understand the challenge of attracting and retaining employees without overspending.  The good news is that headline salary, although obviously important, is only one of a range of factors which employees consider when deciding whether or not a job is the right one for them (or whether they wish to stay with a particular employer).  Add-on benefits such as relevant life cover can boost the value of a job offer in a very cost-effective way, partly because employers can often negotiate good deals and partly because it is very tax-efficient. Personal cover in a corporate setting. Relevant Life Cover is essentially term life insurance taken out by an employer on behalf of a specific employee.  To all intents and purposes, it works in exactly the same way as regular life insurance but its tax treatment is very different and much more favourable to both the employee and the employer as it is discounted for the purposes of Income Tax and National Insurance and instead treated as an allowable business expense. A worked example  Let’s assume that an insurance company charges £200 per month for either personal Life Insurance Cover or Relevant Life Cover and focus purely on the tax situation. If the employee buys their own personal Life Insurance Cover, then they will have to pay for it out of their net salary, in other words, they will need to earn not just the cost of the insurance, but the cost of the insurance plus the Income Tax and National Insurance payable on their income.  If we assume that an employee is in the 40% tax bracket and pays National Insurance at the extra 2% rate, then the effective cost of the cover is actually £344.83 (in other words, the government gets almost as much as the insurance company). If, however, the employer pays for Relevant Life Cover then this is ignored for the purposes of Income Tax and National Insurance, in other words, it is not classed as a taxable benefit, quite the reverse, it is actually classed as an allowable business expense and hence can be set against profits for the purposes of calculating Corporation Tax.  This is currently at 19%, making the effective cost of the cover only £162. Life cover isn’t just a benefit for older employees Although life cover is generally regarded as essential for anyone who has a mortgage and/or children, it can be appreciated by people in all walks of life including younger adults in their child-free stage of life who might well feel happier knowing that they could leave something to help parents and or siblings.  While “the bank of mum and dad” has become something of a cliche (albeit one grounded in reality), it’s worth noting that older people can be helped financially by their children (or grandchildren). A note on Key Man Cover Relevant Life Cover is really a benefit for your employees, although it can, of course, help the business from the point of view of retaining and recruiting staff.  Should the policy need to be called upon, the payment will be made to the employee’s chosen beneficiary to assist them in moving on with their life, it will not help the company manage the practicalities of losing a valued colleague.  With that in mind, employers may wish to look at Key Man Cover, which is essentially a form of Life Insurance in which the beneficiary is the business itself.  Just like Life Insurance, Key Man Cover can be used to help the business move on from its loss, for example by paying for temporary staff until a long-term replacement is found.  It is not a substitute for proper succession planning, but can be a useful add-on to it. For insurnace, we act as introducers only

Although the highs and lows of the stock market can make for great entertainment, in reality, being up one minute and down the next can be enough to make the average person feel seasick, if not worse.  Investment tends to be about incremental progress over time and the principle of diversification is often taken very seriously precisely because it helps to protect against losing everything.  Let's say, however, that the worst did strike and that you lost everything but had to find a way to get back on your feet again.  How might you go about doing it? The difference insurance can make Your road to recovery could be made hugely easier if you have solid insurance cover in place.  Depending on your circumstances, products such as Income Protection Insurance and Critical Illness Cover could all help to tide you over (comfortably) while you were getting back on your feet. Replacing your income Your first priority would probably be to replace your income.  If you didn't have insurance cover in place, you might still be able to get help from the benefits system, but it is not known for its generosity so you would probably want to find an alternative as quickly as possible.  How quickly this might be would depend on your ability to monetize your existing skills and/or to learn new ones. Finding a market for your skills Having skills is all very well but you need to be able to turn them into cash in order to pay your bills.  Social media can be great for this and you should never underestimate the value of a solid social media presence, but equally, you should never underestimate the value of real-world connections.  In fact, if you are starting the ball rolling right from scratch, you may actually find it easier to make connections in the real world than in the online one.  The reason for this is that the digital world is now so crowded that it can take a very long time to make a real impact, although it is certainly worth trying.  It's also worth noting that people you know in the real world may become online followers while people you know online may appreciate the opportunity to connect with you in the real world, at least from time to time. Maximizing your income In the beginning, you may have to focus on earning active income, which is basically to say swapping your time directly for cash.  Often, however, you will want to start developing passive income streams, which is to say selling the same amount of your time more than once, for example by giving group classes or by making digital products which only need to be created once but which can be resold an infinite number of times.  This sets up a virtuous circle of giving you more income which allows you to reduce the amount of active work you do and so leave you with more free time to focus on creating more passive income. Getting back into investment Once you have some disposable income again, you can start to get back into investment.  While your funds are still limited, you may want to play safe and stick to the likes of blue-chip stocks, but as you start to have more money available, you may be prepared to look at taking a bit of a gamble on some high-growth stocks to help get you back where you were before. In short  While nobody wants to lose everything, thinking about what might happen if you did can be a useful way of working out where you should be focusing your resources in the present. For Investments we act as introducers only.

According to the Global Wealth Report (GWR), women now hold about 40% of the world’s wealth.  In other words, they are tantalisingly close to achieving wealth equality with men.  While this is, of course, cause for celebration, there are two key points to remember.  The first is that in the GWR included non-financial assets, so it is probably safe to assume that at least some portion of this wealth relates to co-owned property, such as real estate.  The second is that there can be huge variations in the level of wealth equality achieved by women in different parts of the world, even within different parts of the same country. Economic and technological changes, may, currently, be working in favour of women Even though 2008 is now, literally, over a decade ago, it still appears to be sending ripples through the global economy and those ripples may be helping to address the wealth inequality which has previously been standard in human society.  In short, the effects of the crash have been felt very keenly in both finance and construction (and their related industries), both of which have long been male-dominated sectors.  It has had less of an effect in areas such as education, health care, and administration (both public and private), all of which have typically been more female-dominated at least on the lower pay-grades.  It will be interesting to see what impact, if any, the development of artificial intelligence will have on the industry in general and on the gender-difference in particular.  On the one hand, industries which are very process-based should, in theory, be prime targets for automation, the only question would be when rather than if, but industries where there is a strong “human” element, for example, a need for traits such as empathy, would be very hard, if not impossible, to automate. While women are wealthier they still appear to be saving and investing less than men HMRC recently released figures regarding ISA usage by men and women.  The figures revealed in  (2016-17) found that not only did men have more money in ISAs than women (an average of £3,611 or 14%) but they also tended to put their money into stocks and shares ISAs, whereas women were more likely to use cash ISAs.  While the difference in the amount of money held in an ISA could simply reflect the fact that, on average, men still earn more than women (as demonstrated by the gender pay gap), the choice of ISA cannot necessarily be put down entirely to this, although it may be a factor as those on lower incomes may have a higher degree of concern about their ability to access their money quickly if they need to.  One alternative explanation is that the fact that the financial-services industry is male-dominated (particularly at the higher grades) means that men have more of an opportunity to learn about the ins and outs of financial products than women do.  Even if they do not work in the industry themselves, they may have a higher chance of knowing someone who does or of coming across content which is focused on meaningful saving and investing rather than just household budgeting.  One way to test this theory would be for the financial services industry not only to try to recruit more women into its ranks (and particularly its senior ranks) but also to reach out to the mainstream press and social media influencers to try to educate women on the importance of both saving and investing for their future lives and goals and on the specific benefits of doing so in a tax-friendly manner such as within an ISA. For Investments We Act As Introducers Only On clicking the above link, you will leave the regulated site of Property Asset Finance. NeitherProperty Asset Finance, nor Sesame Ltd, is responsible for the accuracy of the information contained within the linked site.

Although previous Prime Minister, Theresa May famously commented on the need for “strong and stable government”, something we most certainly do not have at the time of writing! However, the fact still remains that the UK is currently navigating its way through extremely choppy political waters and the stock market is reacting accordingly. In fact, ever since the “Leave” result was announced, the stock market has been a fairly accurate reflection of the market’s feelings about the state of the Brexit negotiation. Although the issue of Brexit may be unique to the UK (and possibly the EU as well, depending on your point of view), there are plenty of other countries experiencing their own issues – and corresponding volatility in their stock markets. With this in mind, here are three tips on how to deal with market volatility. Accept them as a reality Volatility happens, it really is that simple. It’s nothing personal, it’s nothing you’ve done wrong, it’s just the way markets work and that means that, as an investor, it is very likely that, at some point in your life, you are just going to have to take a decision on how you’re going to deal with it. The good news is that not only is it possible for investors to navigate volatile markets, but it’s also possible to make good profits in them. Recognise that volatility has its advantages Market volatility can potentially offer two major advantages to serious investors. Firstly, it can reduce competition from other investors. The more cautious may prefer to “sit out” periods of volatility and focus instead on other assets such as cash, near-cash and property. Secondly, it can provide opportunities to pick up equities at bargain prices. Just as a rising tide floats all boats, so a falling tide can drag down even the best boats – over the short term. At least, it can drag down the prices at which they sell. Robust companies, however, will still be able to perform, even in a market downturn. For example, younger companies will still be able to show growth and more mature companies will still be able to produce dividends. The growth and/or dividends may be more restrained than usual, but the price-to-earnings ratio could still be very attractive, thanks to the overall downturn. Likewise, a market downturn could provide you with an opportunity to fine-tune the diversification of your investment portfolio (and possibly your assets in general), again, taking advantage of the fact that you are in a buyer’s market. Keep a steady course yourself Of course, your investment strategy will need to be updated as your life changes. In fact, this is one of the main arguments for taking professional advice on a regular basis. A financial professional can specifically prompt you to think about (potential) changes you might otherwise have overlooked until it was too late and hence put you in a position to take action about them. They can also make suggestions as to how to prepare for the situation and again, since they are professionals, they may be able to suggest changes you might otherwise have overlooked. You do not, however, want to allow yourself to be panicked into making changes due to short-term market conditions. The keywords here, are “panicked” and “short-term”. It may be perfectly reasonable for you to adjust your investment portfolio in response to short-term circumstances if you believe that their impact is significant enough to warrant it. Similarly, it can make sense to adjust your portfolio in response to a change which you believe is likely to have a long-term impact. In either case, however, you want to act mindfully, knowing not just what you are doing, but why you are doing it and what outcome you expect to achieve. For Investments, We Act As Introducers Only

If you look at a long-term graph of any stock market, especially ones in mature markets, then you’ll probably see a long-term upward trend.  Look a little closer, however, and you’ll see that the nice upward line is actually a bit jagged, showing quite obvious dips here and there.  Zoom in closer still and you’ll see parts of the line where the stock market has been up one moment and down the next and then back up again and then back down again and so on.  That’s volatility and while investors may dislike it (just as sailors may prefer to avoid choppy seas), it’s a fact of investing life and it has three, main causes. Politics While Brexit may be dominating the headlines in the UK, the truth of the matter is that politics has long had the ability to influence the stock market.  What’s more, now that even small companies (and the investors who back them) can now operate on a genuinely global basis, it’s become increasingly common for political issues in one country to influence the stock market in another.  Volatility can happen when investors feel uncertain about what actions politicians will take on issues such as government spending, international trade agreements and their corollaries taxes and tariffs.  This may be because the government of the day has not been clear and consistent in their approach.  Alternatively, it may be because the market does not know what government is going to be in power for the foreseeable future (e.g. it’s election time). Economics Similar comments apply to economics, in fact, there is often a close link between politics and economics, which makes sense given that politician’s play a key role in the economic growth of a country (or lack thereof).  They are, however, not the only influence over the state of the economy.  There are many other factors at play and there are varying degrees to which politicians can influence them.  For example, politicians can use their legislative and regulatory power to encourage or discourage investors from acting in certain ways.  The UK government’s use of stamp duty is a case in point, it is charged at different rates depending on whether the purchaser is an investor, someone moving into their second or subsequent residential home or a first-time buyer.  Politicians cannot, however, influence factors such as the weather, which can be a major factor in the economic health of a country, especially for industries such as agriculture and transport. Social changes This may seem an odd factor to quote, but at the end of the day, stock markets are made up of companies and companies exist to serve their customers who are people.  So when society goes through meaningful changes, as it periodically does, companies have to work out what they are going to do about it.  The performance of individual companies may therefore be rather variable depending on how well they are managing to cope with the changes and if multiple companies are all dealing with the same process of change at the same time, then the result may be general volatility.  In fact, even if only a small number of companies are going through this process, the size of these companies may lead to ripples of volatility being spread through the stock market as a whole.  One example of this is the situation with the Gillette brand, which seems to be finding it a challenge to position itself so it is viewed favourably by a younger audience without sacrificing its existing user base.  Gillette’s recent advertising campaigns have been somewhat controversial and rather hit-and-miss, hence its stock price has been rather up and down. For Investments, We Act As Introducers Only

These days it’s arguably more important than ever for landlords to do their sums properly in order to be confident that their investments will bring in net returns which justify the risk involved in holding them.  While landlords may, understandably, be focused on legalities such as tax-management and practicalities such as setting rents at a level which will cover all costs (since it is now illegal to charge tenants for anything other than charges set out on a government “whitelist”), it is also very much recommended to think about which financial products are best suited to your situation. Mortgages For landlords, possibly the single, biggest question to answer is whether or not they would prefer a repayment mortgage or an interest-only mortgage.  Both are feasible in the buy-to-let market so landlords looking for an interest-only mortgage should still find a decent selection from which to choose.  When making a decision, a landlord will need to consider whether it is more important to them to build up equity in a tangible asset (i.e. a property) or to maximize affordability and, hence, yield.  Those who wish to build up equity will need to look at a repayment mortgage.  Those who wish to focus on affordability and yield are likely to be best served by an interest-only mortgage.  Investors who are still undecided are recommended to consider the fact that “portfolio landlords” are now subject to more stringent affordability criteria.  That being so, if you are interested in building a more extensive property portfolio, then you may find it easier to meet these criteria by using interest-only mortgages (on at least some of your properties). Landlord’s insurance Possibly the most obvious purpose of landlord’s insurance is to protect the landlord against issues caused by tenants, such as rent defaults and damage to property.  Insurance can certainly fulfil a valuable purpose here.  Another valuable purpose it can fulfil is to protect landlords against unforeseen (and unforeseeable) circumstances which can have a negative impact on both them and their tenants.  Let’s put this another way.  As a householder, you have to think about catastrophes such as fire and flood, which could render your home uninhabitable even if only (hopefully) on a temporary basis.  As a landlord, you have to think about how such events could impact both you and your tenants.  Having insurance cover in place could be a huge safeguard against events which might otherwise destroy your livelihood. A general point on financial products for landlords For the sake of total clarity, we’d like to point out that if you are looking for financial products to use as a landlord, then it’s important that you only look at financial products which are designed for landlords.  Resist any temptation to use products intended for residential homeowners.  You will not be covered and may be committing fraud. Personal insurance This may seem like an odd suggestion, but if you are at all actively involved in managing your property portfolio and/or are contributing in any way to the financing of it, then you might well want to think seriously about making sure that you have insurance in place to allow you to get the help you need to maintain your property portfolio, even if you are incapacitated.  Taking this a step further, if you are, in turn, dependent on another party to support you so that you can keep going with your responsibilities as a landlord, then it may be very wise to take out personal cover for them too.  For example, if your partner is a homemaker and takes care of the children while you take care of bringing in an income, then insuring them can help with the cost of childcare should they become unable to provide it. Your property may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage. For general insurance, we act as introducers only.

There’s no such thing as a free lunch and you can’t have your cake and eat it. You can, however, make use of tax breaks to reduce the amount of money you hand over to the government and, hence, increase the amount of money you have available for your own use. In some cases, there are conditions attached to the government’s generosity. For example, the reason why the government gives tax relief on pensions contributions is, of course, to encourage people to make provision for later life and, hence, to reduce the likelihood that you will need to rely on the state in later life. This reality does not, however, alter the fact that the tax relief on pensions can be massively useful, especially if you can combine them with pension contributions from an employer. Understanding tax relief on pensions If you have a total taxable income of up to £150,000 per annum, any contributions you make to a pension are free of tax, up to a maximum of your earnings, or £40,000, whichever is the less. For every £2 of total taxable income over £150,000, your entitlement to relief on pension contributions will be reduced by £1. So basically, if your total taxable income is £230,000 or more, then you will lose your pension relief in its entirety. For the sake of clarity, total taxable income means salary, dividends, rental income and savings interest plus the value of any employer pension contributions. Understanding employer contributions If you are in paid employment and qualify for auto-enrolment, then your employer is legally obliged to make contributions into a pension fund for you, unless you choose to decline them, which is generally known as “opting out”. The reason for accepting these contributions is obvious. There is, however, a very valid potential reason for declining them. This is that the auto-enrolment scheme, as it stands, requires contributions from both the employer and the employee. The employee contributions are taken out of your gross salary, which means that you will pay less tax on your earnings. You will, however, see your take-home pay slightly reduced. If this is a major issue for you, for example, if you are in a situation where you really need every penny of your pay, then you may wish to ask your employer if you can opt-out of the auto-enrolment scheme, but have them pay their contributions into a private pension scheme on your behalf. They are not obliged to do this but may choose to do so to promote employee satisfaction. Be aware, however, that employers are unlikely to appreciate people chopping and changing arrangements and so will probably appreciate you picking one option and sticking to it for as long as you reasonably can. It’s also worth remembering that even if you opt-out of a workplace pension scheme now, your employer is legally obliged to allow you to enrol at a later date, hence enrolment is something you could work towards. Keeping track of workplace pensions Saving into a workplace pension is all well and good, but it’s only going to benefit you if you are able to access the funds upon retirement, which means remembering where they are. The government operates a Pensions Tracing Service, which can help to reunite you with old employers, or, at least, those in charge of their pension schemes. Given the importance of pension saving, however, it is very advisable to take a “belt-and-braces” approach to keeping tabs on old pensions and, in particular, to keep accurate records of your employment history along with the relevant pensions contacts. It’s also highly recommended to make sure to update the necessary people when your contact details change. For Pensions We Act As Introducers Only