Article by Christina
End of year news from your local Certified Financial Planner:
- The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) received 133,000 complaints in the first six months of the year to 30th An increase of 40% on the same period the year before.
- 101,000 of those complaints were about credit cards and banking.
- Only 2,500 were about investments and advice from a local Certified Financial Planner. That’s less than 2% of the complaints.
- The national minimum wage will increase by 6.7% (way above inflation) to £12.20.
- In a survey Opinium found that only 47% of financial advisers thought that the Labour government had the competency to manage the economy, whilst only 10% of adviser’s clients thought Labour was better for business than the Conservatives.
- Did you know that 32.7 million people paid tax in the UK last year paying £222 billion in tax – and we’ve got a budget deficit!
- The Bank of England has cut base rate by 0.25% down to 4.75% (7/11/24)
- Unemployment rose from 4% to 4.3% in the 3 months to the end of October.
- Tax Advisers have calculated that in certain circumstances the changes to the taxation of pensions for Inheritance Tax will mean that some pensions will be taxed at a rate of 91%.
- 3 million people in the UK now hold a Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) with over £500 billion invested. That represents 20% of the UK pension market. However, over 60% of these SIPP’s are not supported by financial advice which is a concern for the FCA.
- It seems that no one is too big to fall victim to a scam. It’s been reported that a company has set up a clone website called Marks & Spencer Saver offering high returns on investments. This is a scam and NOT part of Marks & Spencer. Please be careful.
- Inflation rose to 2.3% by the end of October, well ahead of the Bank of England 2.0% target. The increase is being blamed on a 10% increase in energy prices. Further increases are expected.
- It seems that 60% of investors in the UK would be happy for Artificial Intelligence to be used to make their investment decisions. This is probably the future of more affordable advice for all, with people paying more for a personal face to face service from a local Certified Financial Planner.
- It’s reported that 12% of people in the UK now “own” some form of crypto “asset”, with the average “value” of £1,800. As any local Certified Financial Planner will tell you, only buy crypto if you can afford to lose all its value at any one time. That continues to be the view of the FCA. Despite that, 30% of people seem to think that there is some financial protection for crypto. There isn’t.
- According to the latest figures, mortgage payments account for 40% of borrowers salaries on average. 40% of mortgages also now extend well beyond the state retirement age.
- St James Place property fund is being closed down. It will take up to two years to close the fund valued at £1.8 billion with clients not able to withdraw their funds during that time.
- Life expectancy has fallen slightly since 2019. The average is now 79 for me and 83 for women.
- Tik Tok is set to be banned in the United States over concerns about its Chinese ownership.
- Inheritance Tax receipts are set to be over £8 billion this year. That’s a 40% rise over the last 3 years. Time to do something about it and talk to your local Certified Financial Planner?
- The UK economy shrank by 0.1% in October, on the back of a similar fall in September.
