Newsletter – July 2019

The BBC’s decision to scrap universal free TV licences for the over-75s is part of the larger debate about our growing ageing population. 

Free TV licences for the over-75s were introduced by Gordon Brown in his 2000 Budget. It was a classic rabbit-out-the-hat Budget measure, designed to please at a relatively modest initial cost. 

Wind forward to 2015 and a government looking to ease spending cuts discovered a neat way to deal with the rising cost of free TV licences: it passed the problem onto the BBC. In exchange for government agreement on a financing deal that provided an index-linked licence fee and closed loopholes on catch-up TV, Auntie accepted the poisoned chalice of responsibility for the free licence scheme from 2020. 

While the BBC’s recent announcement has been met with predictable political outcries, it always looked as if the broadcaster would be forced to drop the universality of the over 75 free licences. As the corporation has pointed out, maintaining the status quo would cost £745m – a fifth of its total budget.

A look at population numbers casts an interesting light on the problem. National Statistics data and projections show:

• In 2000 the UK had 4.37m people aged 75 and over.
• By 2020 the corresponding figure is projected to be 5.84m – an increase of 1.47m or about one third.
• The overall population is projected to have grown by about a seventh over the same period – less than half the pace of the growth in over-75s. 

Simply on the basis of the growth in the over-75 population and the increase in licence fee, the cost in 2020 would be double that of 2000. So the argument around free TV licences is a microcosm of the much larger issue of an ageing population and intergenerational fairness. It is also a reminder of the dangers of relying on the government to fund a comfortable retirement. Private pension provision is a must…if only to fund later life TV viewing.

The value of your investment can go down as well as up and you may not get back the full amount you invested. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

The recent problems with the suspension of dealings in a heavily promoted UK equity income fund have exposed the blurred line between advice and guidance.    

According to the Investment Association (IA), there are around 3,500 funds on sale in the UK. The IA sorts these into over 30 individual investment sectors, although about 10% are listed as being in the unclassified sector. Faced with such a large choice, understandably many private investors want some help in making their fund selections. The assistance they receive has come under the spotlight following the recent suspension of trading in the Woodford Equity Income Fund (WEIF). 

WEIF’s manager, Neil Woodford, established a strong track record with Invesco Perpetual before leaving the group in 2014 to set up his own fund management business. Unsurprisingly, a large amount of money followed him to his new company. He was helped by a common feature of today’s fund marketplace: favoured fund lists. These typically consist of 50 –100 funds, spread across those 30+ IA sectors, chosen by firms whose main business is marketing funds to the public. The criteria for selection are not always specified, but there is often a heavy reliance on past performance. However, there is one aspect that is clear: if you pick a fund from the list, then it is you who are making the choice. 

Favoured fund lists do not constitute personal financial advice, even if many investors think that is what they are receiving. At best they are a form of general guidance, attempting to sort some of the wheat from a large volume of chaff. A select list only supplies the selector’s opinion at the time. It does not offer you a recommendation based on your personal circumstances, including consideration of the other investments you hold, whether held directly or indirectly, e.g. via pensions. Nor does the provider of the list offer any ongoing support, an important factor in current market conditions.

There is a role for recommended fund lists, but there is no substitute for personal, regularly reviewed advice on your investments. 

The value of your investment can go down as well as up and you may not get back the full amount you invested. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Investing in shares should be regarded as a long-term investment and should fit in with your overall attitude to risk and financial circumstances.

A paper presented to the Labour Party has suggested the abolition of inheritance tax (IHT).

Labour Party proposals to kill off inheritance tax (IHT) and replace it with a gifts tax were reported across several newspapers last month. The coverage was somewhat creative, as the idea was plucked from a paper prepared for the Labour Party primarily focused on reforming the taxation of land. The gifts tax section covered just half a page and did little more than regurgitate a structure proposed over a year ago by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR). 

These proposals are not yet Labour Party policy –they will only be considered when the party prepares its manifesto for the next election, which could be as far away as 2022. However, it’s worth considering how IHT might be transformed into a gifts tax.

The major change proposed is that liability would shift to the recipient of a gift or legacy, not the person making the gift or bequest. This approach is common in other countries which levy estate taxes. The IPPR framework would make gifts and bequests totalling £125,000 (indexed to inflation) over a lifetime free of tax. Beyond that threshold, any amount received would be treated as income and taxed accordingly. The new tax would apparently raise almost three times as much as IHT. The paper on land tax reform added one tweak to the IPPR proposals: a new tax on equity release which it described as a “key means of avoiding inheritance tax”. 

IHT is generally regarded as the UK’s most hated tax, despite the relatively few estates that end up paying it. However, IHT is much easier to sidestep than a lifetime gifts tax would be. Under IHT, the general principle is that outright gifts only enter the IHT calculation if they are made within seven years of death.   

If the impact of IHT on what your family or other beneficiaries will receive concerns you, now could be a good time to discuss with us the ways in which you can take advantage of the generous treatment of lifetime gifts…while it lasts. ν

The value of tax reliefs depends on your individual circumstances. Tax laws can change. The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate tax advice.

A government-commissioned report has proposed significant changes to the funding of university students in England.  

Students resident in England (different rules apply in other parts of the UK) pay a maximum university tuition fee of £9,250 per year, financed by a student loan. Further loans to cover maintenance plus interest at RPI+3% mean that at the end of a three-year course graduates can start working life with £50,000 of debt. That debt is currently written off after 30 years, but until then repayments must be made at the rate of 9% of income above a threshold presently set at £25,725. 

At the time of the last General Election, the Labour Party’s manifesto proposed scrapping future tuition fees at an estimated cost of £11.2bn a year – the party’s most expensive single measure.  The idea was predictably popular in many university towns and may have been enough to swing the vote in some of them. After the election the government responded by setting up an independent review of 18+ education in England.

That review, headed by Philip Augar, published its report in June. There was a long list of recommendations, including:

• Reducing the maximum tuition fee to £7,250;
• Cutting the earnings threshold for repayments by £2,000;
• Introducing means-tested maintenance grants of up to £3,000;
• Reducing the interest rate to match inflation during the period of study; 
• Capping total loan repayments at 120% of the loans drawn, revalued in line with inflation; and
• Extending the loan repayment period to 40 years. 

The proposals have one consequence which has raised a few eyebrows: they would reduce the total outlay for the highest earning graduates while increasing it significantly for middle earners.

Whether or not these ideas are adopted, they are a reminder of the eye-watering expense of higher education, both for students and the government. If you have children or grandchildren heading to university, the sooner you start planning for that cost, the better.

The value of your investment can go down as well as up and you may not get back the full amount you invested. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

Divorce is always a sad and challenging time, made worse by the need to deal with family assets like the marital home. Much of the focus is quite rightly on making the best possible arrangements for any children involved. This often necessitates dealing with the family home, assessing its worth and apportioning its value.

Today, pensions can also represent a major financial asset that needs to be apportioned fairly between the couple. New research¹ shows that women can lose out when it comes to sharing pension wealth on divorce. Apparently, women who divorce can end up with less than a third of the average pension wealth, with the average divorced woman over 50 owning pension wealth of £131,000 compared with £454,000 held in pensions by the average married couple. 

Getting the right advice 

Pensions can often be overlooked when dividing wealth on divorce. Many people think a pension solely belongs to the party who is named on the policy, but that’s not the case. A pension has to be considered in the division of the couple’s finances. Pension assets can be apportioned in various ways, by: 

• dividing the pension fund into two separate pensions
• offsetting the value of one spouse’s fund by transferring a lump sum, or other assets, to the other spouse 
• arranging that when a pension comes to be paid, a portion goes to the other spouse. 

Calculating the value of a pension can be complex, so it makes sense for women going through divorce to seek financial advice to ensure that they aren’t missing out on a fair share of what can be a very valuable asset. 

1 Royal London, 2019

Scammers are targeting pension pots of all sizes. Make sure you know how to spot the warning signs and how to keep your pension safe.

Pension scams can be hard to spot. Scammers can be articulate and financially knowledgeable, with credible websites, testimonials and materials that are hard to distinguish from the real thing.

How pension scams work

Scammers usually contact people out of the blue via phone, email or text, or even advertise online.

Scammers design attractive offers to persuade you to transfer your pension pot to them (or to release funds from it). It is often then:

• invested in unusual and high-risk investments like overseas property, renewable energy bonds, forestry, storage units;
• invested in more conventional products, but within an unnecessarily complex structure which hides multiple fees and high charges; or
• simply stolen outright.

The warning signs

Scam offers often include:

• Free pension reviews
• Higher returns – guarantees they can get you better returns on your pension savings
• Help to release cash from your pension, even though you’re under 55 (an offer to release funds before age 55 is highly likely to be a scam).
• High pressure sales tactics – the scammers may try to pressure you with ‘time limited offers’ or even send a courier to your door to wait while you sign documents.
• Unusual investments – which tend to be unregulated and high risk, and may be difficult to sell if you need access to your money.
• Complicated structures where it isn’t clear where your money will end up.
• Long-term pension investments – which mean it could be several years before you realise something is wrong.

4 simple steps to protect yourself from pension scams

Step 1 – Reject unexpected offers

If you’re contacted out of the blue about a pension opportunity, chances are it’s high risk or a scam. If you get a cold call about your pension, the safest thing to do is to hang up – it’s illegal and probably a scam.

Be wary of offers of free pension reviews. Professional advice on pensions is not free – a free offer out of the blue from a company you have not dealt with before is probably a scam.

And don’t be talked into something by someone you know. They could be getting scammed, so check everything yourself.

Step 2 – Check who you’re dealing with

• Check the Financial Services Register to make sure that anyone offering you advice or other financial services is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and they are permitted to provide those services in relation to pensions. If you need any help checking, call the FCA Consumer Helpline on 0800 111 6768.
• Check they are not a clone – a common scam is to pretend to be a genuine FCA authorised firm (called a ‘clone firm’). Always use the contact details on the Register, not the details the firm gives you. 

Step 3 – Don’t be rushed or pressured

Take your time to make all the checks you need – even if this means turning down an ‘amazing deal’. Be wary of promised returns that sound too good to be true and don’t be rushed or pressured into making a decision.

Step 4 – Get impartial information or advice

You should seriously consider seeking financial guidance or advice before changing your pension arrangements.

• The Pensions Advisory Service – provide free independent and impartial information and guidance.
• Pension Wise – If you’re over 50 and have a defined contribution pension, Pension Wise offers pre-booked appointments to talk through your retirement options.
• Financial advisers – It’s important you make the best decision for your own personal circumstances so you should seriously consider using the services of a financial adviser. If you do opt for an adviser, be sure to use an adviser that is regulated by the FCA and never take advice from the company that contacted you or from someone they recommend, as this may be part of the scam.

If you suspect a scam, report it

• Report to Action Fraud – If you suspect a scam you should report it to Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or at www.actionfraud.police.uk.
• If you’ve agreed to transfer your pension and now suspect a scam, contact your pension provider straight away. They may be able to stop a transfer that hasn’t taken place yet. If you are unsure of what to do contact The Pensions Advisory Service for help on 0800 011 3797.

Be ScamSmart with your pension. To find out more, visit www.fca.org.uk/scamsmart

By clicking on one of these links you are departing from the regulatory site of Polestar. Neither Polestar nor Positive Solutions is responsible for the accuracy of the information contained within the linked site.