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

Whether it’s appropriate to coin some additional revenue from those with more valuable houses or, indeed, persons with a phone line is hotly debated across the country. The point is more whether the beleaguered UK citizen is suitably prepared in their financial affairs generally, which makes a rise elsewhere easier to absorb.

There is a wealth of information on the web available to DIY-your-finances, but it is often inconsistent or not specific enough to an individuals circumstances.

With Pension reforms around the corner employers and employees alike would be wise to have a Financial “Healthcheck”. You may be surprised how much better off you can be and how quickly you can feel those benefits.

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