House prices rose by around 10% in 2021 – their fastest pace in 15 years – but that is no guarantee of what may come in 2022. Relying on bricks and mortar to boost your finances may no longer be as attractive as it once was. Source: Nationwide. Just as inflation enjoyed an unexpected leap in 2021, so too did house prices. According to Nationwide, the average UK home rose in value by 10.4%, while Halifax put the increase at 9.8%. As the graph shows, it was the sharpest rise in

“Everything you don’t understand about money combined with everything you don’t understand about computers.”—HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, March 11, 2018 Bitcoin and related cryptocurrencies (now numbering in the thousands) are the subject of much debate and fascination. Given bitcoin’s dramatic price changes, it is not surprising that many are speculating about its possible role in a portfolio. In its relatively short existence, bitcoin has proved extraordinarily

More details have emerged on the £86,000 social care cost cap for England. At the start of September, the Prime Minister announced long-awaited plans for the funding of social care in England (Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland all have their own social care funding regimes). Alongside the announcement came the news of a new Health and Social Care Levy, effectively adding 1.25 percentage points to the National Insurance contributions of employers, employees and the self-emp

What is proper financial planning, and what is it that clients value most if they engage a Financial Adviser? Primarily, it is about the relationship with your Adviser built up over many years. It’s about clients trusting the Adviser, and the adviser understanding the clients’ values, goals and family. I have clients where I recall their children being born and now, they are at university, or where their children are now clients because of trust funds set up by grandparents.