28 March 2022
Investing involves the risk that your capital goes down as well as up; you may get back less than you invested. The commentary below is not intended as a recommendation for you to personally buy or sell any of the investments mentioned nor to take any investment action whatsoever. 

Since I wrote to you in January, 'growth' oriented stocks have continued to underperform the overall equity market. For example, the Scottish Mortgage investment trust that is perhaps the most popular 'growth' oriented investment strategy in the UK is down 11% since then whilst the global equity market is down only 1%. This has been driven, in part, by interest rates that continue to move higher. 

​Investors who have performed poorly over the past six months or so have probably been exposed in one or both of the following ways:

21 June 2021
Investing involves the risk that your capital goes down as well as up; you may get back less than you invested. The commentary below is not intended as a recommendation for you to personally buy or sell any of the investments mentioned nor to take any investment action whatsoever. 

Hi everyone,

I wrote in April that the 'burgeoning problem is that the better the economy does, the more likely it is that support for the economy will be pared back.' Well, the economy has been rebounding well and on Wednesday we received the first major signal that support from the US Federal Reserve will indeed be pared back - and that's probably a big deal for markets around the world. 

In this article we explain to whom Inheritance Tax is likely to apply and outline strategies that can be used to mitigate the tax. It should be useful for anyone who is concerned that their estate may be subject to the 40% inheritance tax.

This article is a generalised guide only and it does not constitute tax, legal nor financial advice that is personal to any individual's unique circumstances.  We believe the information contained in this article to be accurate as of 11 May 2021 although we cannot guarantee this. Before taking any action concerning potential inheritance tax mitigation, we strongly advise you take regulated financial advice. 

In this article we discuss some of the key considerations that should go into the decision of whether to sell or to hold onto shares that an employee has been given by their employer (a.k.a. 'vested equity'). It should be useful for anyone who receives compensation from their employer in the form of shares.

It is not intended to be financial advice specific to your unique circumstances. ​

20 April 2021
Investing involves the risk that your capital goes down as well as up; you may get back less than you invested. The commentary below is not intended as a recommendation for you to personally buy or sell any of the investments mentioned nor to take any investment action whatsoever.

Hi everyone,

To understand where we are today it is useful to briefly recap from where we have come over the past 6 months. By September, stocks had already rebounded from their pandemic lows and, despite the global health and economic carnage, were sitting at all-time highs. That initial rise was led by stocks of companies that were expected to do relatively well out of the pandemic: the likes of Netflix, which we were all bingeing on at the time, and Zoom, which had become a staple of working life for many. ​

We outline our fixed-fee financial planning service below. The cost for the service is £2,400 and is targeted at working professionals who have household annual income in excess of £200,000 and who spend less than they earn. Usually, though not always, it is most beneficial for people who already own their primary residence.

The article is not intended to be financial advice specific to your unique circumstances although we do, of course, provide such advice to our clients.

12 January 2021
Investing involves the risk that your capital goes down as well as up; you may get back less than you invested. The commentary below is not intended as a recommendation for you to personally buy or sell any of the investments mentioned nor to take any investment action whatsoever.

Hi everyone,

When I wrote to you in September tech stocks had been performing exceptionally well. I said this was due partly to the fact that, since the onset of the pandemic, we had done a lot more staying at home and doing things like watching Netflix rather than flying around the world. Since then, however, humanity has been given a light at the end of the Covid tunnel in the form of vaccines. One result has been that the stock prices of ‘Covid losers’ such as airlines have performed extremely well while the big tech stocks have mostly lost money. Despite our dark winter, the market is looking at 2021 as a year of normalisation, which, assuming we get a relatively smooth and successful vaccine rollout, makes sense to me.  

As ever, the question is what happens next?

This article outlines how Junior ISAs work as well how they can be used for long-term wealth planning. It should be useful for anyone considering gifting money to a child - whether as a Christmas present or otherwise. 

It is not intended to be financial advice specific to your unique circumstances.