About You
When the Future Catches Up
Have you ever really thought about your path to financial security? It could incorporate many things such as; your property, your investments in stocks and shares, your pension, your reliance on With Profit Schemes and your tax liability.
It's a minefield and you’ve heard it all before: shortfall on pensions; good investment leads to heavy tax burden; non-performing investments; inheritance tax nightmares and more besides. One minute the papers tell you to do one thing, and then it's something else and always when it's a little too late.
No wonder investors today are confused. It’s like playing Russian roulette with your money. Property is in fashion, then it's out. The stock market is good, then it's not. Several hundred changes in pension legislation since 1961, 90% of which have occurred in the last 20 odd years. Taxes increasingly difficult to understand and taking more than a fair share of your money. The whole overhaul of pensions legislation in 2006 led to further major changes. So it goes on.
Advice Isn’t Always Good Advice
Stockbrokers may tell you where to invest, but will you get the best advice about tax savings from them?
Likewise, financial advisors tend to fall between two stools. There are those who are only interested in selling. They’ll take the line of least resistance, often mis-sell, collect the commission and run. Others reduce commission, but leave your tax affairs in a mess.
In the past problems were easier to handle…
It was the stock market that crashed, but the rest of our investments stayed up.
Or property prices slowed down but all else held up. The results? We became blasé.
In the early years of the millennium it has been different, Stock Markets, Pensions and ‘With Profits Schemes’ all suffered at the same time.
In times of difficulties there are two things you can do.
- Ignore it and hope the problem will go away.
- Take positive action. Face up to the reality and do something about it.
Not surprisingly, the view at Alan Steel Asset Management is to face up to your situation.
