How to protect your ISAs from Inheritance tax
An ISA (Individual Savings Account) currently allows you to save up to £20,000 a year without paying tax on the returns. This makes it a very popular and tax-efficient way…
Blog
Auto-enrolment pension increases
The new tax year has seen the pension contribution for workers in auto-enrolled pensions rise from a minumum of 1% of their income to a minimum of 3%. Whilst this…
Making cash gifts to your kids
A client got in touch recently to check if they were allowed to give £500 a month from their pension income to their children. This simple answer to this is…
The Markets
2016 turned out to be a real rollercoaster and was full of suprises but in the most cases positive returns were seen in the money markets. What can we expect…
Good News
I'd like to welcome my daughter Hannah Edwards into the Portland family as our new trainee planner. She decided after 20 years as a nurse she wanted a new challenge…
Christmas Wishes
From everyone at Portland Financial Planning - we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
State pension update
The Chancellor has announced that from 6th April 2016 the state pension will rise to £155.65 a week, £8,094 a year. However, despite Pensions Minister Baroness Altmann hailing the new…
2015 Summer Budget
There has been a lot of positive press around Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne's first budget of the new Tory-majority government. For all but the wealthiest, the family home will…
The Budget – What a Surprise…
The 2014 Budget announced groundbreaking reforms in the pension tax rules and a huge boost to Individual Savings Account rules. Portland Financial Planning see it as one of the most exciting…
Beating the Granny Tax
Last month’s Budget attracted the headline ‘Granny Tax’, as the chancellor announced he was to end a century old tax break. This move will see the retired ‘tax break’ frozen…
It is not just QE that people looking for annuities should worry about!
Recent press articles have highlighted how Quantitative Easing (QE) is hitting annuity rates as the BoE continues to buy back government bonds, thereby depressing long term interest rates and as…
New Year Resolutions
The usual ones are giving up smoking and loosing weight, but what about your finances and savings? Over the years I have met too many people who neglect these issues. …