Article by Phil
Here’s some of latest the independent financial adviser news from March 2026 from Christina Clegg Financial Planning Services your local IFA.
- Did you know that over 1,000 young people under the age of 30 earned more than £1 million last year. That’s according to HMRC. (Mainly in sports and entertainment). In total 31,000 people in the UK earned over £1 million last year.
- Assets held on platforms looked after by a local IFA topped £1.3 trillion. That’s a lot of trust.
- Investing Insiders found that 80% of pensions had not performed as well as the FTSE 100 index over the last 5 years. The FTSE has grown by almost 85% over that period. Using a local IFA would help you to find the best performing pension funds for your future.
- Do you want the good news about tax? Sorry, there isn’t any. The number of tax payers is up by 6 million since thresholds were frozen back in 2021/22. The number of higher rate taxpayers have increased from 2.5 million to 7 million and a massive 8.7 million pensioners are now paying tax. Thank goodness public services are so good!
- The government may be about to make football clubs become authorised by the FCA in connection with their credit broking businesses.
- The Chancellor made her Spring statement in which she made no announcements. Depending on your outlook, she confirmed that growth was slower than predicted, inflation higher and unemployment higher than predicted. But everything will be better by 2027.
- According to Origo the average pension transfer time is now only 10 days. But this is only the time to move the funds once everything else is in place. The actual process from initial letters of authority still takes far too long, sometimes months on end.
- SIPP investors in failed holiday apartment company The Resort Group could be charged tax on their failed investments by HMRC according to FT Adviser. That would be a kick in the teeth on top their losses but shows that overseas investments can be risky, and you should be wary.
- According to HMRC over 5,000 people now hold over £1 million in their ISA’s. On top of this almost 3,000 people have between £900,000 and £1 million with nearly 5,000 holding between £800,000 and £900,000. All tax free of course and showing that maximising ISA investments is a good idea.
- 91% of clients say that the advice they receive is either good or excellent and 97% say that they are getting value for money from their local IFA, according to Next Wealth.
- The economy didn’t grow at all in January. Making growth just 0.2% in the last three months. Makes you wonder where the Chancellors optimism for growth next year which will solve all her debt problems is coming from doesn’t it. These figures don’t factor in the Iran conflict either.
- Research has found that financial fraud has a longer lasting impact on women than men. Causing ongoing stress in 45% of cases.
- It’s all well and good cracking down on rogue landlords and introducing legislation to protect tenants, but now we find that £30 million in fines hasn’t been collected, only £7.5 million has been banked so far.
- The Bank of England held the base rate at 3.75% for the second month running.
- Online investment giant AJ Bell earns almost half of its revenue from interest on holding clients money. The firm pays clients different rates from 0.75% on low balances up to 3.15% on balances over £100,000.
- It’s not just AJ bell of course. 60% of savings accounts pay less than the base rate according to Moneyfacts.
- Overall taxes received by HMRC rose by – wait for it – an extra £72 billion between April 25 and February 2026. The total tax collected was £860 billion. What are we spending that amount of money on?
- Some of that money is being paid by the 1.3 million people who submitted their tax returns late and have paid £135 million in penalty interest so far this year. This is only going to get worse for people as the government requires quarterly tax returns for the self-employed from April.
- Crypto is also in the taxman’s grip, with over 100,000 letters now sent out to recover Capital Gains Tax. But this is only scratching the surface and crypto holders should be aware that tax is due on disposal of the asset.
- Inflation remained at 3.0% in February.
- Platform provider Parmenion have come out top in the latest Defaqto survey for service provision they are very much our platform of choice for that reason.
- Growth in the last quarter of 2025 was 0.1% the same as growth in the preceding 3 months. So 0.2% in six months. You wouldn’t think so if you heard the government talking up their growth strategy. The reality is always the proof of the pudding.
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If you are looking for an Independent Financial Adviser or a local IFA then why not contact Christina today. She offers a free initial meeting to discuss your requirements and explain how our service works. You are under no obligation to use us after that if you don’t want to and we won’t pester you.
So why not call us today on 01282 614444 or e mail us enquiries@ccfps.co.uk or use our contact form online.
