Blog

The Government is taking an increasing interest in where pension funds are investing – or not investing.    As March’s Spring Statement underlined, Government finances are in a tight and precarious position. Precisely where the line is drawn may become apparent by the time you read this, with the results of the latest three-year Spending […]

In June, HMRC begins sending out simple assessments. They will come as a surprise to many recipients. From June 2025, HMRC will begin to issue simple assessment letters to those who are not required to make full self assessment returns. As a rule, you will receive a simple assessment letter if you: owe income tax […]

Action Fraud is urging people to look out for rogue QR codes, after 784 reports of ‘quishing’ were made to Action Fraud between April 2024 and April 2025, with almost £3.5 million lost. A new alert has been issued by Action Fraud, warning about quishing, a form of phishing where a fraudulent QR code is […]

Investment planning is the process of matching your financial goals and objectives with your financial resources. Technology, such as artificial intelligence, investment opportunities and regulations all continue to evolve. But has your investment strategy kept pace? Investment planning and asset allocation is a multi-stage process. The actual execution of investment transactions is virtually instantaneous, but […]

Research has shown the lack of awareness about the next change to the State Pension Age (SPA). Changes to SPA have proved fertile grounds for controversy. The move to equalise women’s and men’s SPA at 65, completed in November 2018, is still a source of dispute. In March 2024, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman […]

Taxpayers relying on HMRC to sort out the tax due on interest are given a warning.  As had often been noted over the last few years, one of the strategies adopted by successive governments to increase tax revenue is the freezing of tax allowances and bands. As inflation increases income, the net result is generally […]