PERSONAL FINANCE NEWS June 15, 2011 BLOWING THE PENSION ON FAST CARS According to research from Prudential, 8 in 10 pensioners with company and private funds are taking lump sums averaging £21,500. They report that the average withdrawal is down 11 per cent on 2008, but an increasing number are blowing the cash on holidays, cars and DIY – potentially reducing [...]
Standing out from the crowd in a new market January 27, 2013 CROWDFUNDING started in the 1990s and aimed to bring together people with similar interests to fund a project or business. Since 2008, however, following the decline in bank lending to small businesses, it has found a new face. Large numbers of private investors are linking up through online platforms to companies – usually early stage [...]
PERSONAL FINANCE NEWS June 8, 2011 DISTRESSING FINANCES According to R3, the trade body for insolvency professionals, the number of people experiencing financial distress has increased to the highest level recorded. 8m people are due to go into their overdraft this month, with 2m believing that they will go into an unauthorised overdraft position. The findings also show that 6m people [...]
A French scheme that could boost British innovation December 9, 2012 TODAY the UK government will lay before Parliament its future strategy for UK life sciences. It will rightly highlight the success of the Biocatalyst Fund, an initiative which is already helping bioscience small businesses to accelerate the development of future therapies. But existing government support is not enough. That is why we are calling for [...]
Think tank wants pension tax cuts September 16, 2012 The government must slash the taxfree pension lump sum in order to spread taxes more fairly across the population, liberal think tank CentreForum said yesterday. Currently pensioners face numerous benefits and tax breaks, including the ability to take up to a quarter of their pension or £375,000 – whichever is lowest – as a tax-free [...]
Our at-a-glance guide to Osborne’s mini-Budget December 5, 2012 THE UK ECONOMIC OUTLOOK ■ The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) has revised down its forecast for UK growth and revised up its forecast for public sector borrowing. It says the government is no longer likely to meet its target of reducing debt as a proportion of GDP in 2015-16, breaking its supplementary fiscal rule. [...]
Paying for advice is due for a radical overhaul November 11, 2012 EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, GEKKO THE swathe of people who have already retired, or who are about to retire in the next few years – the so-called post war baby boomers – relied heavily upon independent financial advisers (IFAs) to take care of their mortgage, life insurance, savings and investment needs. They built strong personal relationships with [...]
Give someone Opportunity this Christmas November 14, 2012 BEATRICE and her family are among the many that were helped by the money raised from the appeal last year. Full Name: Beatrice Boaten Gender: Female Age: 60 City, Country: Kumasi, Ghana Children: five aged 18 to 34 Husband: David, age 72 What type of business do you operate? I own a three acre cocoa [...]
Fewer SMEs turning to credit September 4, 2012 Fewer small British companies (SMEs) are turning to external financing, according to a survey released this morning, while four in 10 respondents report personally funding their SMEs. In the second quarter of this year only 43 per cent of SMEs told BDRC Continental that they were currently using external finance – down eight percentage points [...]
What the other papers say this morning November 21, 2012 FINANCIAL TIMES Man Group gains from prototype Man Group, the world’s second largest hedge fund manager, has shifted $1.5bn (£940m) of its flagship computerised fund AHL into an experimental new portfolio to boost ailing returns. The new vehicle, which Man has internally dubbed “evolution”, has made 18 per cent so far this year, and made [...]