CHANGE TO MINIMUM RETIREMENT AGE Important Update For Abbey Life Pension Holders (and others). Some Abbey Life Personal Pensions have a very limited options in relation to the way that Retirement Benefits can be taken, effectively this means that if you do not make the choice to move your Pension on the Selected Retirement date you could end up with a Pension that is considerably worse than you could expect had you taken the benefits elsewhere. The affected Abbey Life Pension Plans are:- ... Read Full Story

Equity markets have rallied sharply since early July, during what is usually a quiet time of year (whatever happened to “sell in May and go away”?), encouraged by a better than expected earnings on both sides of the Atlantic and by signs that most developed economies were emerging from recession. The rallies continued to be confined mostly to the “up and down” sectors which had both plunged and bounced fastest in the past year, financials, mining stocks and industrials. More recen... Read Full Story

At last the UK Government (via  the Treasury) has started to indicate that something is up and they may be looking to raise money in other ways. Possibly because the rates offered from the City are looking to be a little on the high side. Read Full Story

It looks like the political fallout from the Bank of England’s decisions over the past few years are going to continue well into the future, oh and past April 2010 if there is an election called then. So with David Blanchflower blaming Mervyn King in the New Statesman I wonder how long it will be before Mervyn or even Mr Darling rises to the bait. Given that we have been watching from the Beach as it were, my thinking is that yes some earlier action would have been helpful, but we had no ide... Read Full Story

Interesting month this looks likely to be. September often is. People are beginning to talk about a Double Dip recession as if it could be a possibility. Maybe they are right. It will certainly upset most of the Estate Agents in the UK. So what is my focus over the coming months. Firstly Poor Performing Pensions with providers like Abbey Life, Scottish Provident and Allied Dunbar to name a few, there is more information in here in these links Abbey Life Pensions Other Pension Providers Free... Read Full Story

For Abbey Life Pension holders the date of the 6th April 2010 has even more significance as the minimum age you can draw your Pension is increasing. I have already covered many of the issues in relation to Abbey and a few other providers here Abbey Life Pension. The Pension Age is increasing with effect from April of next year 2010 which means that you could be locked into a Poor Performing/High Charging Pension for a lot longer, unless of course you start to consider your options ... Read Full Story

Something you might want to take up with your MP over the coming few months is the issue of the reduction of our E U Contribution Rebate which is said to be worth at least £257 per British Household. You may remember this, part agreed because of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) as it was argued that as we in the UK have a far smaller Farming Base than the rest of Europe, given up in part by Mr Blair – looks like his job will be safe in Europe! And now it seems the final part is being giv... Read Full Story

Updates from the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML) indicate that an increased number of new house are getting help from parents to enter the market. This might not be good news in itself, however when shown together with the facts that lending criteria stopped tightening which means that Mortgage Lenders are being more flexible in their approach which can only be a good thing. First-Time buyer deposits remain unchanged. And the typical first-time buyer needed to borrow 2.97 ... Read Full Story

According to the Rightmove House Price Index the average asking price for a property increased by 0.6% in July to £227,864, up from £226,436 in June. In a period where Doom and Gloom are the overriding factor for any good news that may be around. I have republished the entire overview below, for those of you interested in the Property Market will find it an interesting read. Rightmove’s market overview This month sees a return to rising average asking prices, albeit... Read Full Story

New research from Alliance & Leicester Bank reveals that the recession has not affected the financial ambitions of young people today compared to two years ago, when the economy was in better shape. Read Full Story