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Archive for the ‘Bond’ Category

Changes to Charging Arrangements for Residential Care

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

The Department of Health is currently consulting on the Charging Arrangements for Residential Care. The consultation, which ends on 23 April 2010, is limited to four main areas:

  • The treatment of personal injury compensation
  • The treatment of single premium investment bonds
  • The introduction of a new disregard for pre-paid funeral plans
  • Deferred self top-ups during the 12 week property disregard

The issue of treatment of single premium investment bonds will be of interest to many of our blog readers and clients. Currently where the bond is written as a life insurance policy, then the value of the bond (even though it may have a surrender value) must be disregarded in the financial assessment. It is proposed that the regulations are changed so that bonds taken out as savings or investment vehicles after the date any change to regulations comes into force, are included in the financial assessment. This presents an obvious window of opportunity for our clients who have concerns in this area, although the rules on deliberate deprivation will need to be borne in mind.

If you wish to talk in more detail about this article contact your financial adviser on 0800 435648 or email admin@lyndhurstfm.co.uk

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London Stock Exchange Launches Retail Bond Market

Monday, February 1st, 2010

LSE today launched a bond market for retail investors. This has previously been a corporate market with minimum investments of £50,000. The launch to retail customers now means individuals can buy bonds in companies such as BT and Tesco for a minimum as low as £1,000. This market is quite small at sent but is expected to grow. This should help savers who are currently losing money against inflation on cash deposits, invest in low risk bond funds for greater returns. Savers should be aware of the greater risk investing in bond funds although this is typically lower than investing in stocks and shares.

If you are looking to increase your return on cash deposits in the retail bond market or by means of  corporate bond funds which are managed by fund managers, please speak to your financial adviser or call us on 0800 435648 if you are not already a client.

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Offshore Bonds – Thinking of Retiring Abroad?

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

Research by Clerical Medical and others suggests that up to one in three UK residents are considering retiring abroad.  While the current recession may mean that people will have to wait a little longer before they can escape to the sun, this may still represent a significant proportion of our clients.  A little advance planning using an offshore bond can allow you to avoid paying any tax on your savings in the UK and minimise the tax that you pay when they move abroad. Unlike other tax wrappers such as pensions or ISAs where your tax treatment is based on the wrapper and is independent of the product provider, this is not the case with offshore bonds.  Where a UK resident moves abroad with an offshore bond (especially to Europe) the tax treatment they experience in their new country is hugely dependent on the location and structure of the offshore bond provider.   

 

We are working with Global Pension Options partnered with Irish Life International who have optimised their structure to generate maximum advantage for UK residents who move abroad.  Relative to other offshore bond providers in the UK market we believe that the Irish Life International product offers our clients who are considering moving abroad very significant tax saving opportunities. 

 

Attached is a document produced by Global Pension Options, “Why Offshore Bond” it covers the generic reasons why an offshore bond would be attractive for a UK resident thinking of moving abroad. 

 

If you are interested in discussing any of the above in more detail please contact us.

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Even cautious investors could have greater returns!

Friday, August 14th, 2009

A frustration of mine is visiting new clients who have been invested in funds that could have been performing better. This is often the case when their adviser or bank is not reviewing their portfolios on a regular basis and recommending fund switches. In some instances the adviser is reviewing the portfolio however the product does not offer an open architecture fund choice therefore the panel of funds available to recommend are not always the best performing funds.

 

Example;

Investec Cautious Managed Fund has outperformed Halifax Cautious Managed Fund by 10% in the last year!

Investec Cautious Managed Fund Fact Sheet - Halifax Cautious Managed Fund Fact Sheet

 

Quite often I am able to either recommend a switch still maintaining the clients investment risk profile, or recommend a new product with greater fund choice often at no extra cost to the client.

 

Working for Lyndhurst all my investment clients are reviewed at least annually and more frequently if requested. If you would like any of your Pension, ISA, Unit Trust or Bonds reviewed please do not hesitate to contact me. As always our initial consultation is free.

 

Clive Gadsden

Financial Adviser

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