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The role of risk recommending investment products. From buying a house to booking a holiday, and a wide range of other examples in between, most decisions we make contain varying degrees of risk.  Take COVID-19, for example. Some people refused to entertain the idea of wearing a mask from the start of the pandemic, while others continue to wear masks even though it’s no longer mandatory.

The three main types and muddied waters. Many workers find self-employment to be a liberating change of pace from the grind of working for someone else. There are a great number of challenges involved with being your own boss, however, one of them being pensions. 

Stamp duty land tax holiday fuelled equity release spike Homeowners released £1.17 billion of property wealth between April and June 2021, said the Equity Release Council (ERC).  Tax savings on offer from the stamp duty holiday are thought to have spurred on over-55s to help their children get onto the property ladder. 

Ways to release some of that pent-up demand. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, official statistics show that total household savings have increased pretty much across the board.  That’s not much of a surprise considering most people have been saving cash working from home, while the three lockdowns we’ve had in the UK removed spending options to eat out, go to a pub, or holiday abroad. 

The tax breaks that become available when you wed. It’s wedding season and as the chime of church bells becomes more common again after months of lockdown, married couples will be pleased to learn that there’s more than just love in the air when you get married.

Lower stamp duty land tax threshold in place until October The stamp duty land tax-free threshold in England and Northern Ireland reduced last month, as the tax holiday introduced in July 2020 began to be phased out. 

Tax-efficient insurance for business owners.  Arranging relevant life cover can save money for business owners and their staff. As an employer, you want to ensure your employees have the benefits needed to incentivise them to join your business and stay, and there is arguably no benefit more important than a good life cover p

Low interest rates fuel spike in demand. After more than a year of COVID-19 restrictions, many people have more disposable income than they’re used to. But with the Bank of England’s base rate of interest at a record low of 0.1% offering paltry incentives for saving in cash, increasing numbers of savers are turning towards investing in ISAs in search of better returns. 

Home movers fuel spike in mortgage borrowing as prices rise A record proportion of mortgage borrowing in the first three months of the year was fuelled by home movers as the ‘race for space’ hotted up.  The Financial Conduct Authority said this group accounted for 42% of total mortgage lending – the highest proportion since records began in 2007. 

The full costs of raising children surprise many.  Moving out of your parents’ home for the first time, stepping onto the property ladder, getting married, and deciding to start a family are each big life events.  You’ll likely crunch some numbers when considering any of them but when it comes to starting a family, it’s more opaque, more emotive and more expensive.

How might the big freeze affect you? Most people get nowhere near breaching the pensions lifetime allowance, but that’s likely to change over the next five years.  The lifetime allowance is currently £1,073,100. This is a limit on the amount of pension benefits you can withdraw from all of your pension schemes – whether as lump sums or retirement income – without triggering an extra tax charge of up to 55%. 

UK homeowners borrowed a record £11.8 billion more on mortgages than they repaid in March 2021. Figures from the Bank of England showed the net-borrowing level was the highest of any comparable month since records began in April 1993.  The previous record of £10.4bn was set in October 2006.