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Insight Financial Associates

Inheritance Tax

Gifting rules and inheritance tax, what you might not know

Following an in depth study conducted by the National Centre for Social Research (NCSR) and the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), it has been discovered that only one in four people making financial gifts are aware of the risks of inheritance tax. Further to this, they found that only 45% of gifters reported being aware …

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Financial Wellbeing

Financial Wellbeing

How is your financial wellbeing? Increasingly, people are talking about financial wellbeing. But what does it actually mean? Financial wellbeing is about having a sense of confidence and security around money. It’s about having enough money to meet everyday needs and being in control of your finances; having the financial freedom to make choices that …

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June Market Commentary

June Market Commentary

Introduction May was a relatively quiet month, virtually nothing of any importance happened at all. Well, apart from the European elections, Theresa May’s decision to stand down and the re-escalation of the US/China trade war. Not content with that, Donald Trump imposed tariffs on Mexico and Angela Merkel decided that her potential successor wasn’t up …

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Savings

The UK is struggling to save; what are the implications?

A studyfound in 2018 that one in four adults have no savings. Many residents in the UK wish that they had cash to save, however high monthly outgoings and debt clearance seem to take priority. Saving for the little curveballs that life throws your way is a good way to maintain a sound mind, but …

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Inheritance Tax

3 tips to avoiding inheritance tax

Benjamin Franklin famously said, ‘In this world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes’. ‘And if your estate is valued over all the available allowances, everything above these will be taxed at 40% when you die. Even in death there’s no relief from taxes! However, there are certain steps you can …

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Market

May Market Commentary

Introduction First the good news. None of the leading world stock markets on which we report in this Bulletin fell in April. With just one exception – China – all the markets made gains, with the German DAX index leading the way. Generally the world breathed a sigh of relief as relations between the US …

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Savings

How safe are your savings?

With your capital tucked away in savings accounts, investments and mortgages, you’d assume that there is some kind of protection in place. But exactly how safe are your savings in the event of, for example, an authorised financial services firm going bust? That’s exactly what happened during the 2008 banking crisis, and UK taxpayers had …

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Pensions

Is it time to cut out the jargon from pensions?

People simply aren’t saving enough into their pension funds. Despite the relative success of the auto-enrolment rollout and the increase of minimum contributions from 5% to 8%, there’s still a culture of misunderstanding surrounding pensions. With a reported 51% of the public believing that the minimum contributions are in line with the recommended rate of …

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