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Coping with life-changing events

Plan for tomorrow, live for today. Change is the only constant in life. It inevitably involves twists and turns, with some that are expected while others may be entirely unplanned. When this happens, it’s important to feel secure with the knowledge that you have the right contingency plan in place. None of us can predict exactly what a life-changing event will be or when it will occur, and many of them will take you by surprise, whether good or bad.

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How to trace multiple old pension pots

Over time, pension schemes close, merge or become renamed. Changed job? Moved house? It’s not always easy to keep track of a pension, especially if you’ve been in more than one scheme or have changed employers throughout your career. Over time, pension schemes close, merge or become renamed. So even if you remember the name of your scheme, it could now be called something else. With more of us changing jobs regularly throughout our working lives, it has become harder

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Preparing for the unexpected

Protection should be a core part of your financial plan. If you are worried illness or injury could leave you without enough to pay bills, there are solutions to help protect your income. While some people could rely on state benefits as a safety net if they experienced a sudden loss of income, for many the drop in income would be too severe to maintain their standard of living. Being able to keep paying the bills In many situations, families

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Build your own financial plan

Vision without action is merely a dream. Having a financial plan in place early on can make it easier to manage your money further down the line. It’s never too early to make a financial plan. The sooner you work out your goals and start following a plan to achieve them, the more likely you are to succeed. Here are three key questions to ask yourself when building a financial plan. 1. What are my goals? Building wealth takes time

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Top pension tips if you’re about to retire

Understanding your options and putting a plan in place. We spend our working lives building towards retirement. Choices we make today will have a big impact on the quality of our lives later on. If you only have a handful of years to go until you reach your retirement, it has never been more important to understand your options and put a plan in place – now could be a good time to re-evaluate your plans with us. The changes

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Making inheritance gifts from surplus income

Are you making use of this useful and much under-utilised exemption? If you want to make inheritance gifts from surplus or excess income, there is a useful and much under-utilised exemption that allows gifts over and above the value of £3,000 per annum to be made without these gifts forming part of your estate if you die within seven years of making them. The exemption comes under the heading of ‘Normal expenditure out of surplus income’. It is a particularly

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Inheritance Tax

Minimising the impact of inheritance tax on your estate. The latest Inheritance Tax (IHT) statistics show an additional 4% was added to HM Revenue & Customs receipts compared to the previous year[1]. IHT is a tax payable when you die. Whether your beneficiaries have to pay it, and how much they’ll pay, is based on the value of your estate. Your estate’s value is the value of the whole entirety of your assets. An asset is anything of value that

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Creating wealth for children

Investing isn’t just a luxury reserved for adults. Saving for a child today is a wonderful gift for their future. Whether you want to help them buy their first car, contribute to their first home or even set them up for a comfortable retirement, there is little more fulfilling than providing financial security for your children or grandchildren. It’s worrying to think about the expenses they will face as adults. So the earlier you can start investing money for your

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How to future-proof your finances as a parent

A momentous event that can change every aspect of your financial stability. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has had a shattering effect on the country. Future-proofing your finances can help you feel more secure about what lies ahead – whether that’s preparing for big life milestones, such as starting a family, or navigating difficult periods, such as unemployment or poor health. One of the areas that tends to cause some anxiety is managing household finances with the additional cost of each

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Plan for tomorrow, live for today

Helping you achieve your financial goals. The key steps toward financial security are to translate them into your own terms. What, exactly, are your personal financial goals? If you have trouble sorting them out, try classifying them as either wants or needs. Go a step further and add short-term, medium-term and long-term to the descriptions. Now you have some useful labels you can apply to your priorities. If you’re not sure where to start or what your goals should be,

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Mind the divorce gap

Women see incomes fall by 33% following divorce, compared to just 18% for men. Divorce is an emotionally charged event – and can be an expensive one. The financial impact of divorce can also last for decades and carry on into older age. Women are also often impacted harder financially by divorce, new research highlights. Many women are likely to see their household incomes fall by a third (33%) in the year following their divorce, almost twice as much as

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Reappraisal of urban living

3 million people in the UK aged over 50 considering relocating. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has lead to a reappraisal of urban living, with increasing numbers fleeing city confines in search of green space. 3 million people aged over 50 (12%) now plan to relocate in retirement, as a direct result of the pandemic. A year of lockdowns has led these over 50s to want to move closer to family and friends, pursue a better quality of life or even

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