We are also pleased to confirm that Alchemy’s existing Practice Manager, Georgia White, has joined our team in The Historic Dockyard, Chatham, Kent and will continue to provide the high level of service that all of our Clients have come to expect. 

The additional staffing capacity means that Buryfield Grange is now providing a complete mortgage service, something that we have not done directly for many, many years. The launch of our new mortgage service coincides with a considerable loosening of lending criteria and at a time when interest rates are incredibly low. There has never been a better time to check the competitiveness of your mortgage arrangement! Please do get in touch if you would like to speak about a remortgage, new mortgage, buy to let, or equity release arrangement.

Slowly and surely, more and more good news is starting to filter through about company profitability, the recession ending, companies cutting expenditure and of course mergers and acquisition. This week alone has seen a bid come through for that great British company Cadbury which pushed their share price some 40% higher in one day. In addition the housing market, on which the UK economy is very reliant, is starting to show signs of recovery with mortgage lending increasing and properties starting to sell again (provided people are realistic about the asking price). The general consensus of opinion with the “experts” now seems to be that the UK economy will see a return to growth (and will therefore be out of recession) by the spring of 2010.

There are never any guarantees in life, but hopefully we are over the worst. Some sectors and some parts of the country will lag behind in the recovery and no doubt there will be the occasional fall back and news shock, but we generally now see much more stability across all sectors and asset classes. Stability and house sales is what we need.

Banks have also slowly and surely been rebuilding their balance sheets and I believe we will see some very significant increases in bank profits coming through 2010 and 2011. There are however a couple of threats to this. A general election and international attempts at capping bank pay bonuses. I personally cannot see how any UK Government can practically achieve controlling private sector pay, my guess is that there will be loads of talk on this, a target will be set, some new rules proposed and then absolutely nothing will happen! It is just not possible for a UK Government to dictate how much someone is paid, the only influence they can have is over taxation and increasing this further would be very, very difficult politically. Capping pay, is in my opinion, a red herring and will achieve nothing. As for an election, well, a change is as good as a rest………………………….

We will help you understand how the change affects you and how you can make the most of your pension.

The over 65’s in Britain are, on average, worse off than their counterparts in Romania, Poland and France.

The research, which compared relative poverty in the 27 member states, showed nearly one in three UK over-65s were at risk of poverty – the same proportion as in Lithuania (30 per cent).

Only pensioners in Cyprus (51 per cent), Latvia (33 per cent), and Estonia (33 per cent) came out worse. The EU average was 19 per cent.

The figures came ahead of the work and pension committee’s review of government efforts to tackle pensioner poverty, which is due to be published on Thursday.

Michelle Mitchell, charity director for Age Concern and Help the Aged, said the report demonstrated that many older people were being left behind.

“In a country where the richest have incomes five times higher than the poorest, older people are disproportionately bearing the burden of this inequality,” she said.

Steve Webb, the Liberal Democrat Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, blamed the Labour Party for failing to address poverty in old age. He said: “The basic state pension is simply too little to live on for the millions of pensioners who have no other income. Labour’s complex and undignified system of means-tested benefits has meant that many pensioners do not even claim the extra help that they are entitled to.

“We need a more generous, universal pension based on citizenship that would give pensioners a sense of dignity and a stable income in retirement.”

The EU study found pensioners in the Czech Republic were least likely to be living in poverty, with 5per cent below the threshold of an income of 60per cent of the national median.

 Tollers has calculated the shock figure for the town to raise awareness of the issue.

Solicitor Lindsay Webster from Tollers said: “It’s terrifying how many Northampton people are leaving nothing but a legal nightmare for their families when they die.

“Most people think the law will automatically provide for their loved ones. But actually the law hasn’t changed since the turn of the 20th century.

“Without a will you lose control of who gets what, and what happens to your children. The rules do not look after co-habitees, step children or children who have been adopted out of the family.

“That means if you are not married, potentially your partner could have to go to court to fight for guardianship of their own children.”

The firm calculated the Northampton figures based on data from the National Consumer Council (now Consumer Direct), which revealed 27 million people in the UK do not have a valid will.

Lindsay added: “Even if you have no close family you should make a will, perhaps leaving everything to a favourite charity.

“If you have no immediate family, you could find up a third of your estate wasted on things such as genealogists’ reports, tracking down members of your family you never knew to give them a few hundred pounds.

“I can’t imagine many people would wish their money to be wasted in that way after they die.”

‘It is difficult to justify how a quarter of all the money the country spends on pensions tax relief goes, as now, to the top 1½ per cent of pension savers. So from April 2011, I will restrict pension tax relief for those with incomes over £150,000 so it is gradually tapered to the same 20 per cent rate the majority of people receive. We will consult on implementation. I am introducing measures from today to prevent forestalling.’

With these words the chancellor, has added considerable complexity to the process of obtaining tax relief on pension contributions.

There are two main issues:

• The future plans to withdraw higher rate tax relief for those with incomes above £150,000 with effect from 6 April 2011.

The only detail we have on how this will work is that it will be gradually withdrawn on a tapered basis so that, by the time incomes reach £180,000, relief will be worth 20% the same as that for a basic rate tax-payer. We do not yet have enough information to know whether affected individuals will get a mixture of basic rate and higher rate relief on their contributions, or basic rate only, or whether individuals could use devices such as salary sacrifice as a means of reducing income below £150,000 so that full higher rate relief is preserved. There will be prior consultation on the introduction of this restricted tax relief, and when more detail emerges we will produce a further note.

• The immediate impact of the chancellor’s ‘anti-forestalling’ measures. These take effect from Budget day 22 April 2009 and will continue until 5 April 2011.

The intention of these measures is to prevent individuals gaining any advantage by increasing contributions before 6 April 2011. In-depth guidance has already been published by HMRC. This note focuses on these measures and the key points that clients and advisers need to consider in relation to existing and future pension planning.

Anti-forestalling – who’s not affected?

Any individual with income less than £150,000 in the current and previous two tax years

Any individual with current or future total contributions/accrual to all pension arrangements of less than £20,000 per annum.

Any individual with current regular contributions/accrual greater than £20,000 per annum, that are paid quarterly or more frequently, and are not increased before 6 April 2011.

Further details on the new rules can be found at HMRC

If you are going to be caught by the new rules then putting in place the appropriate planning to maximise allowances and minimise your tax burden is vital. Please contact us to find out how this can be achieved

Indeed, many people don’t make that choice. A recent Financial Planning Association/Ameriprise Financial survey showed that many people try to go it alone when it comes to a financial plan and they suffer considerably worse performance in their investment and savings goals over time than those who do.

The Pension Protection Fund (PPF), which charges schemes an annual levy partly based on how well each scheme is funded, said its 2010/11 levy would be 700 million pounds ($1.15 billion) plus inflation, in line with the commitment it made in 2007 to keep its levy stable for three years.

The inflation component will be known later this year.

PPF chief executive, Alan Rubenstein, a former Lehman Brothers banker recruited earlier this year, said: “Despite the economic climate deteriorating considerably since last year, we believe it’s important to stick to our commitment made in 2007.”

“But it is important for us to again make clear that, while we want to relieve some of the burden faced by employers and schemes during the recession, we will consider in the future raising the amount of levy we collect above the rate of inflation, if necessary, to meet our commitments.”

The PPF currently has assets of almost 3 billion pounds.

“With average compensation at 4,000 pounds a year per member, it has more than enough money to make compensation payments,” the agency said in a statement.

One of the most commonly encountered difficulties with such unfunded government schemes has been the ‘income gap’, ie the differing ages at which the parties will receive their pension benefit.  This has occurred where a husband, for example, is aged 55 and in receipt of his army pension and the wife, is also aged 55, finds that a pension sharing order in her favour will not result in benefits being paid to her until she is aged 65.  Therefore, if the pension sharing order is made now, not only does the wife have to wait 10 years to receive benefits under the scheme, the husband’s income in the meantime is depleted by the amount of the pension credit which is made to the wife.  Whilst it has been possible to agree to adjourn the issue of pension sharing until the wife is old enough to receive the benefits applicable, this has been an entirely unsatisfactory solution.  It has therefore come as very welcome news that this problem is being addressed, albeit in a piecemeal fashion across the various government schemes.

The first step has been the amendment to previous Pension Sharing Regulations via the Occupational, Personal and Stakeholder (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2009 which came into force on 6^th April 2009.  Pension Scheme providers are now able to pay pension credit members (ie those spouses benefiting from a pension sharing order) their pension benefits from the normal minimum retirement age which is currently age 50 but which will extend to 55 from April 2010.  Although it should be noted that there is no obligation on scheme providers to pay the pension credits early, it does seem that some of the major schemes are choosing to do so.

Most notably, the Armed Forces Pension Scheme etc (Amendment) Order 2009 has reduced the age at which pension credit members are entitled to their pension from 65 to 55, provided that the pension sharing order is made after 6^th April 2009.  Furthermore, for those orders made before this date, it is now open to them to receive early payments of their pension from age 55, although this will be subject to an actuarial reduction.  Therefore, if we have assisted clients in the past to receive a pension sharing order from an armed forces pension scheme, it may be worth contacting them to let them know that they are able to receive benefits earlier than had been anticipated, albeit at a reduced level.

 The National Health Service Pension Scheme and Injury Benefits (Amendment) Regulations 2009 which also came into force on 6^th April 2009 similarly provides that a pension credit member shall be entitled to the payment of benefits from the normal minimum retirement age, again with an actuarial reduction.

It has yet to be seen whether other schemes will follow suit, although it is understood that many intend to do so.  Where the new regulations have yet to be adopted by a scheme, it may unfortunately remain necessary to adjourn the pension sharing application until the position has become clear in respect of that scheme.  However, it is promising that some of the major providers have already taken steps to implement the regulations and it is hoped that this will allow practitioners to provide fairer solutions for their client and avoid revisiting the pensions point many years after separation.