Changing landscape for UK financial retail clients

Changing landscape for UK financial retail clients

Changing landscape for UK financial retail clients

Young high earners turn to 'lifetime Isa' to dodge 55% pension tax

After the Chancellor Rishi Sunak froze the lifetime allowance in the government's recent Budget, experts are saying the Lifetime ISA might provide some tax-efficient refuge for those under 55 in danger of breaking the allowance, writes The Telegraph

"For those who qualify," says AJ Bell's Tom Selby in the article, "the Lifetime ISA will be an obvious starting point as it benefits from a 25pc bonus and tax-free withdrawals for a first home worth £450,000 or less, or from age 60."

Hargreaves Landsdown's Nathan Long adds: "You may see some using LISAs to avoid accumulating pensions that are too large. This will happen among high paid public sector workers who will use it to supplement their final salary schemes."

Want a greener world? Don't dump oil stocks

What companies should be included in an ethical, sustainable or simply 'ESG' fund will continue to be an individual and personal opinion for many years to come, but the Financial Times's Merryn Somerset-Webb in this article argues that divesting from stocks ones does not like achieves nothing.

Instead, she writes that one should take on impact investing. Using shareholder power to push companies towards achieving more ethical, sustainable or impactful, policies and business is more useful than divesting and allowing someone else to buy cheaper shares who does not have the same views, she argues.

"What we want, then," she explains, "is not no oil, no tin and no copper, but more carefully produced oil, tin and copper. How do you get that? Probably not by making a show of flouncing off in a huff."

Peer-to-peer lockdown: investors fear cash will be trapped for years

Peer-to-peer lending platforms, which saw a boom in recent years, are meant to offer savers the chance to lend cash to small businesses and other individuals but, writes The Telegraph, have turned sour. 

The newspaper reports that some providers are charging investors negative interest rates while cash has also been "diverted into lifeboat funds." 

The Financial Conduct Authority provided a warning to consumers at the turn of the year saying the lenders were high risk and unsuitable for most and there are fears customers will be unable to access their money.

Source: Professional Advisor