A recent report showed that global dividend payments held up much better than those in the UK in 2020. For investors in UK shares and funds investing in UK companies, 2020 was a grim year when it came to dividends. The pandemic cast a long shadow over the pay outs to investors: Early on, the Bank of England effectively stopped all the major UK banks, including those mainly focused overseas, from paying dividends. The timing of the Bank’s decision meant that the first dividend

The Budget announced a five-year freeze to the standard lifetime allowance. The standard lifetime allowance (SLA) is an important pensions number. It effectively sets the maximum tax efficient value of all your retirement benefits, in the absence of any legislative protections (of which there are many). To the extent that the SLA is exceeded there is a special flat rate tax charge which is 25% if the excess is drawn as taxable income and 55% if it is received as a lump sum. W

Three letters, ESG, have become a major driving force in investment decisions. ESG – environmental, social and governance – considerations are playing an ever-increasing role in investment decisions. What used to be classed as ethical investment, socially responsible investment (SRI) and green investment have now to some extent merged under the ESG banner. The table below gives a taste of the broad range of ESG investment considerations. In 2020, the popularity of ESG funds a

A new consultation paper has set out more details of an increase in the normal minimum retirement age. In February the Treasury and HMRC published a consultation paper on implementing an increase in the normal minimum pension age (NMPA) from 55 to 57. The NMPA sets the earliest age at which retirement benefits (lump sum and/or income) can normally be drawn from a pension. The rise to 57 was originally announced back in 2014, but all then went very quiet. Eventually, in Septem