Pensions

Budget 2016 The Chancellor will make his Budget 2016 speech on Wednesday 16th March 2016. This is when we expect to hear the outcome of the review of pensions incentives announced last March and followed by the Government’s consultation “Strengthening the Incentive to Save” in July 2015. As we approach Budget day lots of rumours… Read more

A brief history of the debate to date……. The government wants to make the state pension age 65 for men and women by 2018, and keep raising it after that. It means that some women who were preparing to retire in the next few years will have to wait longer. The campaign group Women Against State Pension Inequality… Read more

How is the current stock market turmoil affecting your investment or pension portfolio? Have you considered how your investment or pension portfolio is faring at the start of the new year? The start of 2016 has seen volatility (turmoil) in global stock markets. This can be attributed to the slowing down of the Chinese economy…. Read more

Have you considered what you will do with your pension in retirement? If I told you that the last thing you should do when you retire is start spending your pension fund you’d probably think I’d gone completely mad! And with the introduction of ‘Pension Freedom’, why shouldn’t you take advantage of your hard earned… Read more

Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) Exam Success The HGH Wealth Management Team are toasting exam success once more with Administration Manager Sharon Ward’s successful completion of her Chartered Insurance Institute (CII) exam in Financial Services, Regulation and Ethics. This exam and the Life Office Administration one which Sharon passed in 2014 sees her successfully completing her… Read more

You will probably have heard Nick Hewer advertising Workplace Pensions – ‘we’re all in’. The question is; what is it all about? New legal duties require employers to ‘automatically enrol’ their employees into a pension scheme. Even if you already offer pension arrangements for your employees, you may not have a qualifying scheme in place… Read more

Changes to your pension…what does it mean for you?   There are two big Pension Changes hitting the headlines… The first is the freedom of access to your pension plans from April 2015. This will affect you if you have any savings in a personal pension plan and/or some types of employer sponsored schemes. Secondly,… Read more

Pension Changes – “How to blow your pension”. On Monday evening, (12th January 2015)    Channel 4’s Dispatches current affairs programme was entitled “How to blow your pension”.  Michael  Buerk presented the results of various surveys which highlighted that most people who will have greater freedom of access to their pension funds in April this year,… Read more

Pension Planning Update Great news for pension planning! The government is to abolish the 55% pensions death tax charge with effect from April 2015! This means that if a person who dies is 75 or over, beneficiaries will only pay their marginal tax rate on drawdowns from the pension. At the moment the tax charge… Read more