If you need a ‘Back-up plan’, why not speak to us.  We can set this up for you using Unum, who are a perfectly good income protection provider, or with someone else if there is a better alternative for you.

Income Protection – ‘Because everyone needs a back-up plan’.

Visit Unum’s website

Heart Towns is a new scheme where communities come together to help beat heart disease.  Heart Towns benefit from a range of resources and education programmes, so that everyone can take practical steps to improve their heart health.  Heart Towns also host a wide range of events and activities, such as Heart Town rides, walks or runs.  For further details of this initiative, please see the British Heart Foundation website.

We are supporting the British Heart Foundation, as follows:

At Professional Wealthcare, we provide Critical illness Cover to provide you with a lump sum in the event of various serious illnesses, including heart related medical conditions.

We will be donating £50 to the British Heart Foundation for every critical illness plan set up during 2012 that comes to us via this article.  For your plan to qualify, simply quote ‘British Heart Foundation’ when you contact us.

We trust this will not only give you the financial protection you require, but also go some way towards combating the effects of heart disease.

Depending on your medical situation, an enhanced annuity could give you up to 40% higher income than a standard annuity, guaranteed for life.

When you are retiring and taking benefits from your pension scheme, you have some very important decisions to make.  Once you have set up an annuity, there is no going back.  The decisions you make will be irreversible, so you need to be sure to get it right.

There are many options available to you when it comes to choosing how to take your income.  If you have any history of ill health, then you should certainly consider the benefits of an enhanced annuity.

Speak to us.  We can guide you through your options.

However, it is important to remember one of the fundamental reasons why pensions should be the investment of choice for retirement planning.

When you contribute to a pension, everyone can receive basic rate tax relief – currently 20%.  Yes everyone!  Even a non-taxpayer, as long as the contribution is £3600 per year or less.  So you could for instance invest £100 per month into a pension scheme and your investment would be immediately enhanced to £125 per month.  There really is no other investment quite like this.  There are other investments that also have tax efficiency, but the position with pension contributions is truly unique and should not be overlooked.

For a high rate tax payer, the situation is even better.  An additional 20% can be reclaimed.  Therefore it will cost just £75 per month to invest £125 per month.  All high rate tax payers should see this as an extremely attractive deal.

Some high earners are now paying 50% tax.  Clearly the advantages to those are greater still.

There are limits on how much you can contribute to a pension.  Some of our clients use pensions to recover as much of their high rate tax as possible.  After all, why pay so much tax when you don’t need to.

We all need to finance our retirement somehow and this inevitably necessitates tying some money up until retirement.  Why not speak to us about a strategy for your retirement.

Please note that this article is based on current taxation and legislation.  Please be aware that funds can fall as well as rise in value.

The above is for guidance only and should not be construed as advice, as financial planning takes into account your personal circumstances.

For instance, more people have pet insurance than health insurance.  Read more

The above facts are accurate at September 2011.

You might be surprised to find that Statutory Sick Pay is only £81.60 a week.  These days, that’s just about enough to fill up the average family car.  Read more.

According to a survey conducted by Prudential, 35% of UK individuals who plan to retire in 2011 will have an income below the poverty line. The Joseph Roundtree Foundation estimates a single UK individual needs at least £14,000 a year to live; however, 35% of people aiming to retire in 2011 will have an income below this level.

Meanwhile 19% will retire on a meagre income of less than £10,000 a year. Women appear more likely to find themselves in straitened circumstances: 40% of women will find themselves below the poverty line, compared with 30% of men, while 26% of women will retire with less than £10,000 a year, compared with only 12% of men.

Unsurprisingly, relatively low earners are more likely to struggle with poverty in retirement, as they are less able to build up a nest egg to augment the state pension. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) says only 27% of women and 16% of men in full-time employment and earning less than £300 per week are in a pension scheme.

The ONS also warned that membership of private sector pension schemes has fallen. In 2010, 39% of male employees and 28% of female employees were in a private sector pension scheme, compared with 52% and 37% in 1997. However, participation by public sector employees remained unchanged for men over the same period, and actually increased for women.

A study undertaken by the Institute for Fiscal Studies found that pensioners – particularly pensioners who depend on state benefits – experience higher rates of inflation than non-pensioners. Rising costs for food and fuel are putting pensioners under pressure – meanwhile, an environment of low interest rates is squeezing many older people, who are more likely to be savers than borrowers.

The government has proposed a flat-rate pension of approximately £140 a week, to be paid to all pensioners; however, this has yet to be introduced and will not benefit those already in retirement. Meanwhile, according to a survey carried out by YouGov for the National Association of Pension Funds, approximately three million people aim to finance their eventual retirement with a lottery win. However, rather than gambling on your future, it is important to consider how you intend to finance your retirement as early as possible.

Please note that the above is for information only and does not constitute financial advice.

Source:  Marketing Hub

Contrast that with the nation’s savings levels, which saw the average household save just £996 over 2010 – or £2.73 a day. However, in an environment where it has become the norm – and, until recently, all too easy – for individuals to make purchases with debt, changing this ‘enjoy now, pay later’ mentality is going to be difficult.

You may be sure, however, that the coalition government is keen to encourage such a change. Work & Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has been quoted as saying: “We do not save enough in this country…it is appalling, and changing the culture is critical.” Right now, the main incentives to encourage such saving involve limiting the amount of tax you pay on certain savings products. Certainly, the Government needs to do more if they are going to generate the kind of interest that will push more people to act.

Yet, if there was ever a good reason to start changing our behaviour, it is surely the fact it costs the average household £2,500 a year in net income just to meet its interest payments. That is approximately 15% of the average net wage going to lenders that could otherwise be heading into our pockets. That fact really should be an incentive to start saving.

Please note that the above is for information only and does not constitute financial advice.

Source:  Marketing Hub