News & Insights

The value of defined benefit pension scheme transfers in 2018 was an all time-high of £24 billion.

In 2019 the value of pension scheme transfers, according to Willis Towers Watson (WTW)*, is likely to be around £40 billion, which represents a substantial increase and a further record breaking amount.

The figures describe a market in which final salary pension schemes are increasingly transferred in favour of the opportunities and returns to be found in alternative products and investments.

There is so much to recommend around retiring to Spain. However, the many opportunities inherent in a move to the country also bring a great many challenges. As such, if you want to join the approximately 250,000 British expats who currently live there, you will need to consider a number of important questions, not least the cost of retiring in Spain.

Associate Director and Financial Adviser, Christina Brady talks about Blacktower Financial Management in Spain and the work she and her team carry out on a day-to-day basis.

The Treasury Select Committee has called on financial services providers to reimburse individuals who have lost money as a result of authorised push payment (APP) fraud, with MPs telling banks that they must implement adequate fraud measures by March 2020 or face sanctions from the regulators.

For example, UK Finance, a trade association for the banking and financial services industry, reports that during the first half of 2019 close to £616 million was stolen from banking customers during financial transactions on payment cards, remote banking and cheque transactions in the UK, with £207.5 million of this defrauded through APP scams.*

The start of a new decade, and with it the beginning of a new era for Britain and its citizens in the form of Brexit, represents the perfect time to review your wealth management plans. From taking a look at the suitability of your asset allocation and your pension savings to reviewing your tax and estate planning, now is an especially pertinent time to develop a clear path into the future.

While Brexit is not quite a done deal yet, there is at least some clarity and although Boris Johnson might have been unable to get Brexit ‘done' immediately, one thing is pretty clear: as of 31 January, the UK really will begin the process of leaving the EU.

The minutes have been published for October's Financial Conduct Authority board meeting* in which the organisation discussed, among other regulatory matters, pension losses and the kinds of situations that might arise in the event of a future economic instability.

Increasing numbers of investors are motivated to put their money into ethically and ecologically minded investments. This is undoubtedly an admirable aim, however, investors who fail to take adequate international financial advice risk becoming vulnerable to scammers looking to prey on their good intentions.

This fact has recently been underlined with the conviction and sentencing of five men for their operation of a multi-million pound fraudulent eco-investment scheme; a scheme which has been described by HM Revenue & Customs as one of the largest of its kind to be carried out in the UK.

This time we look at what the central bank of France's latest predictions may signal for the country's economy and President Macron's reactions to the latest pension protests.

Banque de France has predicted slower than expected growth of the French economy over the next 12 months as the second largest economy in the eurozone negotiates twin obstacles in the form of global uncertainty and simmering trade wars. It also comes on the back of a 5 December nationwide strike and controversy over President Emmanuel Macron's proposed pension reforms.