Commentary & Insights
Our insights and ideas on managing money and understanding the markets.
Is Cash Really King?
Over the last year and a half, the Bank of England (BoE) has been aggressively raising interest rates to combat inflation. In June, the base rate reached 5%, the highest it has been for over 15 years. In response, the interest rates available on cash deposits have...
2023 Budget – Exploring the Changes to Pensions
The 2023 budget brought significant changes to both the annual pension allowance and the lifetime pension allowance (LTA), impacting individuals' retirement savings. These changes arose primarily from the concern that high-income individuals in the medical profession...
Not All Returns Are Created Equal
When discussing investment strategies with clients, we often map out what kind of long-term annualised investment return they will need to achieve their objectives. Whether this is 2%, 5% or even 10%, what can easily be overlooked is the fact that investment markets...
Are You Maximising Your State Pension?
The Opportunity There has been a lot of press recently about the opportunity to fill gaps in your National Insurance (NI) record back to 2006. This opportunity is available until 5 April 2023, so if you want to take advantage of it, you will need to act fast. The...
Economic and Investment Outlook Summary – 2023
At the start of each year, our investment team put aside time to read the investment outlooks from all the major banks and investment houses. Historically, these outlooks and forecasts rarely accurately predict the major events and subsequent investment performance...
Let’s not forget the positives
On balance, I have always been an optimistic person. Naturally, this leads me to look at the world through a certain lens and attribute more weight to positive events, rather than getting caught up in the doom and gloom of negative news. However, as you can imagine...
The Rise and Fall of the FTX Empire
The cryptocurrency market has been thrown into turmoil over the last few weeks as FTX, one of the largest exchanges, collapsed. Though relatively small compared to traditional asset classes, cryptocurrencies are quite widely held. At its peak last year, the global...
Cash Flow Modelling
What is it? Cash flow modelling has become an increasingly popular tool used to project and visually present clients’ potential investment futures. Typically, clients will fall into three categories; accrual – those who are actively adding to and building their...
Investing sustainably through the economic cycle
Whilst it has been possible to invest in sustainably-focused funds for a long time, in recent years these types of strategies have become increasingly popular. Not only is it topical in the light of current news headlines regarding sustainable energy and climate...
Registering Trusts with HMRC
We would like to draw your attention to new legislation which requires most trusts to be registered online with HMRC by 1 September 2022. If you are a trustee on a trust which was in existence on or after 6 October 2020, even if it has since been wound up, you may...
Inflation – 1970s Vs 2020s – what can we learn?
The latest readings for inflation in the UK, US and Europe are 9.0%, 8.6%, and 8.1% respectively. The last time inflation was this high in the UK, Margaret Thatcher was the Prime Minister and the likes of the Village People, Bee Gees, and The Police were number one in...
Investment considerations for FICs
Family Investment Companies (FICs) have become a popular alternative to trusts in recent years. They can be an effective and flexible means of using a well-known, tried-and-tested structure of a company to control, grow and distribute wealth on a generational basis....
Out of Practice
Traditionally, January is the time of year everyone signs up for a new gym membership or takes up running again to try and shift some of the excesses of the festive period. Though well intentioned, having usually done very little exercise for the best part of a month,...
How might the rise in Corporation Tax affect company pension planning?
Company pension contributions are a popular and tax-efficient way for business owners to extract profits from their business. One benefit is that company contributions are treated as a deductible business expense and can therefore be offset against a company’s...
Could the savings boom be key to the UK’s economic recovery?
With the UK in lockdown for large parts of the last year, savings per UK household shot up to record levels. This phenomenon also took place around the globe with the US and Europe exhibiting similar increases in household savings rates. Here in the UK, the savings...
Declaration of Trust – How Can You Take Advantage?
A Declaration of Trust is a relatively simple deed that, when deployed correctly, can add value in several wealth planning situations. In its simplest form, a Declaration of Trust allows an individual to declare that they hold an asset, or assets, on trust for the...
Entrepreneur Series: Jessica and Louella Alderson of So Syncd
As part of a new series, we are taking the opportunity to put a spotlight on successful businesses and interview the entrepreneurs who founded them. The first business we are highlighting is the personality-type dating app, So Syncd. So Syncd was founded in 2019 by...
March Madness – One Year On
This time last year, financial markets around the globe were experiencing one of the swiftest bear markets in history. Stock markets were in full panic mode as the global economy ground to a halt and governments raced to control the spread of COVID-19. Mainstream...
Retirement and the Marriage Allowance
The Marriage Allowance is just one of several different tax breaks available to potentially take advantage of. For example, there are various allowances for income, dividends, gains, pensions… the list goes on. Some allowances are means tested while others are not....
How to Make Your Money Last Through Retirement…and Beyond
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reports that the average life expectancy for a male is 85 and 87 for a female. With the length of time retired nearly equalling the length of our working lives, how do we ensure that our money lasts? Most importantly, and...
The US Election – What Just Happened and What is Coming Next?
Taylor Money’s Sam Chedzoy distils the US Election to date and discusses what happens next
Investing for Good Portfolios
"When you know better, you do better" Maya Angelou During the lockdown period we as a team have taken some time to delve deeper into our ethical portfolios. Whilst we have been happy with our existing Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) portfolios, we felt that this...
Taylor Money Investment Portfolios – 3 Year Anniversary
We recently celebrated the three year anniversary of our inhouse investment portfolios. These strategies, outlined below, form a major part of our clients' financial plans and aim to preserve and grow their wealth in line with their tolerance for risk and overall...
Coronavirus: A Catalyst for Change?
“What we do in the next ten years will profoundly impact the next few thousand” Sir David Attenborough This article, initially written a few months ago as the second in a series about ethical investments, set out to explain and reflect upon the varying messages around...