THE RECENT SELL OFF IN CHINESE MARKETS FOLLOWED BY THE SHARP FALLS AROUND THE WORLD ON MONDAY SEEMS LIKE AN APPROPRIATE TIME TO MAKE A COMMENT OR TWO. Every so often we break from our usual weekly (roughly) routine because events take over.The recent sell off in Chinese markets followed...

With new readers to our blog it doesn’t do any harm to highlight the importance of good financial advice. Often we speak to people who do not quite understand the value of financial advice. At the end of the day Independent Financial Advisers can access pretty much the same “products” as...

Its not often I find myself agreeing with Paul Lewis from Radio 4s Money Box. Some of his opinions on the advice sector have been less than complimentary, however this week I am going to agree with him. He wrote an article last week in Money Marketing titled Paul Lewis: Unfair FSCS (Fina...

I though would write a short technical brief after the issue of pension death benefits and trusts was raised at our weekly adviser meeting on Monday. Lump sum pension death benefits paid from registered pension schemes on death after age 75 are taxed at 45% in 2015-16. It was expected th...

I HAD HOPED BY THIS POINT IN JULY TO BE WRITING THE BLOG FROM A BALMY GLASGOW CITY CENTRE WITH THE SUN BEATING DOWN ON ME WITH A NICE COLD DRINK IN MY HAND. Unfortunately this has not come to pass……..yet.Instead we are in the office getting on with one of the most important pieces of work...

WELL THERE WE HAVE IT THE FIRST EVER SUMMER BUDGET! I SEEM TO BE WRITING ABOUT BUDGETS FAR TOO OFTEN SO I WILL GET THROUGH THE MAIN POINTS, MAKE SOME COMMENT THEN I AM DEFINITELY NOT GOING TO WRITE ABOUT THE GOVERNMENT FOR A WHILE. There are 2 themes I want to touch on, the specifics th...

The Greek question We don’t often talk about the specific’s around your investment’s, as in the main we let the fund managers do their jobs and we monitor them behind the scenes. However when something that is global news comes up that may affect you we like you to know we are on top of ...

We did manage a little culture too, for those who haven’t been I can highly recommend Park Guell to see some of Guidis house alongside some of his finest work and some of the best views of the city. My plan was to get something done before heading off but things have been rather busy at M...

Before you read on Please watch this short video I made (my first for a while), as it is the least I could do seeing as I am asking for your help. We have lots of ideas on how the delivery of financial services can be improved and there are a number of things we can work on both from a ...