Expert Wealth Management

It's an important part of Expert Wealth Management's vision that we make an active contribution to our local community. Around a month ago we saw an opportunity to purchase a Defibrillator unit for the Mickey Cranks Cycling Club.

We feel that by recording our interactions with you, we'll be able to increase our focus and engagement with what really matters... Your life goals.

Sometimes, having owned your Individual Savings Account (ISA) for a few years, you might notice that the underlying investments no longer give you what you need.

It is important to remember that equity market falls are an inevitable part of the process of building wealth through equity ownership. This note seeks to put market falls in perspective and offers some behavioural tips for surviving them.

Thirty years ago, securing an income in retirement was relatively simple; collect years of service in the company’s pension plan (or some government pension plan for public servants) and retire on a defined percentage of your final salary. A combination of poor government policy, weak investment strategy, and rapid increases in longevity has all but destroyed this type of pension.

Have you ever considered if the attempt to select and buy individual stocks is a worthwhile exercise? Is it better to stick with a disciplined approach to investing and look to win in the longer term? This vlog explores some thoughts on the matter (and there's a very cold dip involved!).

During my youth I quickly learnt to get ahead you had to play the ‘Winners Game’. Do you remember school sports day in the days when competition was actually allowed?

All you want is to get a decent return without too much worry, so what is diversification and how can it work for you? Many professional investors are experts in their field. They can specialise in a market and make informed decisions quickly. They buy and sell their shares at exactly the right time, making plenty of money as they go. Knowing the companies you deal with inside out is all very well if that’s your full time job. But let’s be honest, most of us aren’t in that position. Is investment diversification the right(...) Read more...

What are the alternatives to annuities? Find out the best ways to plan for your retirement fund. The pension funds that an individual accumulates can be used to purchase an annuity from the pension plan provider or similar company. This typically happens during the early stages of retirement. For many people, this is their retirement fund. People with annuities receive a fixed sum of money at regular intervals, either for the rest of their lives or a set term. That may sound fair, but annuities can have drawbacks. This is especially true for retirees with(...) Read more...

So how do you invest to maximise your wealth in the long run? Here’s our advice for getting the most from your long-term investments. See also: How Deep Is Your Risk? Why Does Diversification of Investments Reduce Risk? What Are the Best Ways to Invest Sensibly? There are many reasons to invest for the future. Whether you want to raise a deposit on a house, save for your retirement, or see the kids through university, it’s always good to have a nest egg. So how do you invest to maximise your wealth in the long run? Here’s(...) Read more...

As dawn breaks, the morning light reveals yet another political gamble that has not paid off for the dice roller.  The UK has a hung Parliament, with no party holding an absolute majority.  Such is the unpredictability of a parliamentary democracy.  If you ask the people of the UK what they think, be prepared for the answers that you might receive! The last few weeks has highlighted the divide in opinion in the country of the role and size of the state in our lives, with further austerity and a shrinking state on the one(...) Read more...

Inheritance tax planning is something many people delay thinking about. Even those with a sizeable portfolio tend to neglect this area of their wealth management. However it is important to appreciate: the implications this can have for your estate, the impact inheritance tax can have on your loved ones, and the options available to reduce it. This detailed article will assist you in making the most astute choices. Our comprehensive guide to inheritance tax planning 1. Which assets fall under inheritance tax? The assets that are taxable under inheritance regulations include cash savings and lump sums,(...) Read more...

In our last blog, we wrote about behavioural biases and how they can affect us all as investors by pulling us off course if we succumb to their siren call. Let’s face it, if we wanted to, we could find plenty of reasons in the 24 hour news feeds every day to sell our holdings in the great companies of the world but this is exactly what we should not do. The market timing and selection culture is a dominant force in the investing industry; a significant part of our value is in helping you(...) Read more...

If you’re thinking about investing money, the chances are that you’ll have encountered the term “diversification” but might not know exactly what it means or why it’s important. Why does diversification reduce risk? While diversification may sound like a fund manager’s buzzword, it’s actually a crucial investment technique that aims to minimise the impact of financial risk on your invested capital. By investing in a variety of different assets, you’re diluting – or diversifying – the risk associated with investments. Different kinds of asset tend to behave in different ways; if particular economic conditions lead(...) Read more...

We tend to assume that wealth is accumulated over time, often growing fastest in the later working years. Yet, in a broader sense, we are all born with wealth in the form of human capital, which represents the value of the earning potential that we have over our working lifetime. As younger people have a long time to go before they will need the money, the advice they receive is often that excess earnings should be invested predominantly in equities. A subtler approach takes into account the attributes of each person’s human capital which ranges from bond-like to equity-like in nature.

As time goes on, financial planning for the future becomes more important. For those of us looking to ensure we’re comfortable into our later years, calculating the cost of care homes is essential. It may seem far off, but it’s never too soon to start building up a nest egg for retirement. Given that a considerable chunk of that nest egg could be spent on care home fees, why not take the opportunity to break down the costs involved. Here are some common questions about the cost of care homes. 1. Will I have to(...) Read more...

Back in the day active fund managers were all there were – you called the stockbroker who managed your portfolio. But then came the Big Bang. Computers were brought into fund management and the automated tracker fund was born. As technology became progressively better, many started to become critical of the continuing role of active fund managers. Now that role has been questioned by no less an organisation than the Financial Conduct Authority. An introduction to active and index fund management An Index Investment is an investment strategy that follows the performance of a particular(...) Read more...

Making the most of tax relief on your pension Most of us pay into a pension, knowing that it’s the best way to secure an income once we stop working. Less widely recognised is that pensions are among the most tax-efficient ways of saving for the future, as you can receive tax relief on any contributions you make. For those who are not working or who earn less than £3,600 per year, it’s possible to make pension contributions up to that amount annually and receive income tax relief at 20% on our contributions. For other(...) Read more...

How can using a financial planner help you? Planning your finances properly can allow you to prepare for all scenarios. One of the tragedies of the recent recession is that people found themselves facing redundancy due to the strain on businesses costs. However if you successfully plan and prepare for all situations, this could be much less stressful. Of course, financial planning can’t protect you from such major problems, but it can be enormously useful when trying to navigate through them. If you’ve budgeted well in the good times, you should have a little extra(...) Read more...

Personal Tax Advice As the end of the year draws closer, the thoughts of many business owners and freelancers turns to tax. And for many of them, it’s a burden they could do without. Nobody said tax was an easy subject to get a handle on and you may find evaluating tax liabilities can take unnecessary hours out of the day. However, here at Expert Wealth Management,  it’s just what we do. We understand the tax system as well as anyone, and we’re here to guide you through the complexities, with a trained eye for(...) Read more...