Inheritance Tax (IHT) is a controversial issue which leaves many people wondering how they can reduce the amount that will be lost to the government when they die.

The good news is that IHT only affects estates worth more than £325,000. The bad news is that it is easier to breach this threshold than you might think. Your home alone could be worth more than that amount.

It may be possible to reduce your estate’s worth and avoid paying high amounts of IHT by gifting amounts to family, friends and charity before you die. Plus, seeing the im...

With hardly any queues, convenient opening hours and a great location, the Bank of Mum and Dad is the preferred financial institution of many.

Membership is limited (it helps if they’re actually your parents!), but new research reveals it is expanding (Source: Prudential). And often-lenient repayment conditions are part and parcel; nearly 60% of loans are partly or fully written off.

For many people, help from the Bank of Mum and Dad is the only way they can afford things such as education or a home. But, exactly how affordable is it to ...

How much do you need for retirement?

It’s not an easy question to answer, for a number of reasons. For one thing, it depends entirely on how you want to spend your retirement.

If you don’t know how much you need, new research from Retirement Advantage suggests that you probably don’t have enough.

So, how much are people falling short by? And more importantly, what can they do about it?

Shortfall

On average, over-50s say that they need a gross income of £1,435 per month to live on in retirement. However, a pension pot with the UK avera...

By Rob Barron

The Government has moved to resolve the confusion over the amount some people can pay into their pension. Although, not everyone will be happy with the news.

Announced in the Budget earlier this year, the change proposed a cut in the amount some people could pay in to their pension. Known as the Money Purchase Annual Allowance (MPAA), it caps the amount some people, who have already drawn money from their pension under the new Pension Freedom rules, can subsequently contribute. The Government proposed a cut from £10,000 to ...

By Rob Barron

New research from the Scottish Widows suggests that whilst auto-enrolment has been a success, under 30s are not putting enough away to save for their future.

For the uninitiated, auto-enrolment was introduced as part of the Pension Act in 2008, and means that an employer must enrol staff into a workplace pension if they fit a range of criteria, including the following:

• Over the age of 22 
• Earn more than £10,000 

Once enrolled, employees have a month to decide whether to stay in, or opt out. If they choose to stay in t...

By James Tanswell

In the run up to any budget or General Election, there are always rumours circulating regarding the abolition of pension tax relief. In fact, whenever the Government looks to save money, pension tax relief seems to be a likely target.

Therefore, many pension savers will be pleased to hear that the threat of cuts to the current system have been publicly neutralised by David Gauke, the Work and Pensions Secretary.

Mr Gauke released a statement on the 4th July, saying that he doesn’t expect to see any fundamental changes in...

By David Triggs

Gaps are rarely good things. Sure, a gap year backpacking around South East Asia might sound splendid, but certain gaps aren’t so wonderful, such as:

• Gaps in the road 
• Gaps in your CV 
• The retirement income gender gap 

Looking specifically at retirement, new research from Prudential suggests that women retiring this year will now on average be £6,400 worse off than men.

A survey of 10,605 non-retired UK adults was conducted by Research Plus. It revealed that the gender gap of £5,300 in 2016 had increased by £1,100,...

By James Tanswell

Saving for a rainy day is something that many of us struggle to do. Last month, research from Legal and General suggested that nearly one in four people in the UK have no savings. In fact, the average UK employee only has enough money saved to maintain their lifestyle for one month, should their income suddenly stop.

It doesn’t come as much of a surprise then, that figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that the average proportion of disposable income that goes into savings is at a record low.

What is...