Investors aged over 50 on 6th October 2009 have an advance opportunity to invest up to £10,200 after that date and counting in  the current tax year.

With stock markets showing signs of recovery and some confidence returning now is a good time to consider investing and making the most of the increased allowance.

For more information and for a free no obligation conversation or meeting please call 0845 30 50 222

We all know that there is a looming pension crisis in this country and all the major political parties agree that pension reform is essential. In the past decade we have had various initiatives to try and stimulate more pension contributions such as Stakeholder pensions and the 2006 Pension Tax Simplification reforms. There have also been reforms introduced to the State Pension schemes with more to follow.

However, perhaps the biggest and most important reform is just around the corner. The above mentioned initiatives have largely failed to encourage the Great British public to contribute to a pension scheme and so the Government are going to the next obvious step. From April 2012, pension contributions will be compulsory for all employees and employers. For employees who do not have an employer’s pension scheme available to them, a new scheme (largely based on the existing personal pension rules) called Personal Accounts will be introduced to accept their pension contributions. A new body has been formed, PADA (Personal Accounts Delivery Authority), and they will be responsible for delivering this new scheme. However, whilst the topic of Personal Accounts has been the source of most discussion over recent months, I believe that it will be Auto Enrolment that should and will focus most Employers minds.

Under Auto Enrolment rules, employees will be automatically enrolled into a pension plan – it will not matter whether that scheme is a Personal Account, a personal pension or a group personal pension. If the employee does not want to join a pension scheme they will have to elect to ‘opt out’ of pension contributions (this decision will be reviewed periodically with the objective to ultimately auto enrol all employees). If an employee does not elect to opt out the employer will also have to make a pension contribution. It will be the employers’ responsibility to deduct contributions from their employees and make sure the contributions go to the relevant pension scheme and it will also be Employers who are saddled with the task of ensuring that their employees are enrolled or opted out. Not only will they have to find extra revenue to make an employer pension contribution to their employees pension fund, they will also face the prospect of fines and even the threat of a prison sentence if they or their employees breach the rules.

Many employers and business owners will not be aware of any of this, and as these rules will be with us with in 3 years it will have a major impact on their business plans.

If there’s any moral to the tale of Auto Enrolment, it’s seek advice at the earliest opportunity.

Please call us on 0845 30 50 222

Why not start 2009 by taking full advantage of the tax breaks available to you? Whether your priority is capital preservation, or taking advantage of uncertainty in the markets, now is a good time to think about Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs). You can use your ISA to save cash or invest in stocks and shares. Save cash in an ISA and the interest will be tax freeInvest in shares or funds in an ISA – any capital growth will be tax free and there is no further tax to pay on any dividends you receive. Whatever your views on the market, we will be able to assist you in making the right investment decisions and ensure you make the most of the tax breaks open to you. ISAs are an important part of this as any income or capital gains are completely tax free.

Use it or lose it

The end of the tax year is fast approaching, which means there’s limited time left to use your ISA allowance for 2008/09. You can invest the whole ISA allowance of £7,200 in a Stocks and Shares ISA, or you can split it between a Cash ISA and a Stocks and Shares ISA – for example: £3,600 in a cash ISA and £3,600 in a Stocks and shares ISA. You can’t carry your allowance forward, so if you haven’t made the most of it now is the time to do so.

For the remainder of this tax year Lansdown Place are recommending a number of ISA options which are available to Investors via the Lansdown Place WRAP. This is a new facility that Lansdown Place are delighted to be able to offer to our clients, at its most simple it is a system for enabling you to hold all of your investments in one place, but yet diversifying your holdings between over 1600 collective investment funds. All the funds are available with discounted charges and the WRAP system has the added benefit of requiring minimal paperwork from you to establish your ISA account.

In order to assist you in making a decision of where to place this years ISA allowance I have highlighted some funds and options below, which I hope you will find of interest. We hope that this summary is of interest to you, if you would like to discuss making an ISA contribution in the current tax year then all we ask you to do is to get in touch with us, in order we can organise the investment for you and forward our essential paperwork for your signature and return.

Please note that the stated funds and ISA options below are not recommendations to you; all ISA contracts placed in the current tax year will be done after full consultation with our clients and one of our independent financial advisers