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More and more insurance companies, fund managers, investment banks and retail banks are offering a certain kind of structured products. This ranges from guaranteed products to various company index performance- related plans with a varying level of risk. Quite a few companies even offer the choice of three or four different products. Although most of these structured products are fixed over a certain period of time (five or six years), it is possible to take the money back in the event of emergency. I have recently started investing into this and have several plans with three different providers. I think they are very useful investment tools and should be a part of every investment portfolio as a low-risk solution to balance a higher-risk portfolio.

To minimise a couples estates liability to inheritance tax on the death of the second individual the simplest solution is to ensure that both Nil rate Bands are used. Usually upon the death of the first individual everything passes to the 2^nd. However as between spouses there is an inter spousal exemption this serves to save no inheritance tax, though it does waste the first individuals nil rate band allowance £285,000. This allowance can be fully utilised by incorporating into the will instruction to give away an amount of asset equal to the nil rate band (285,000) on first death.  This has the effect of ensuring that £114,000 is removed from the inheritance tax bill.

Am I the only person in Britain who was brought up to save for something that you want rather than just stick it on to a credit card? I recently applied to Bristol & West for a self certification mortgage but was turned down because I do not have enough debts.

When I queried this with them, they told me that they did not believe my income because if I did earn what I said I would owe more money to credit card companies and finance houses. Has this world gone mad? Because I am a sensible, hard working man, who if I earn £1 I spend 99p I am being penalised. Everyone wants to keep up with the Jade Goodys’ and David Beckhams’ of this world who are happy to get into debt just to look like their idols. The Labour government, although they have turned us into a nanny state, have done nothing to help this Debt and in fact have today given the go ahead to build a Supercasino in the ‘Highly Affluent’ area of East Manchester.

Mortgage Lenders, The Financial services Authority (FSA), and most of all Tony Blairs New Labour need to take more responsibility and stop encouraging Debt.

People normally start saving for the pension as soon as they start working. This wasn’t the case in the past, some thirty forty years ago, which is the reason why at present some ninety percent of the pensioners only rely on the State Pension. By contributing into your pension early and continue with your contributions throughout your working life, you should ensure that you have a sufficient pension in place, so that you do not rely on the State provision. As your annual income increases each year, your pension contributions should also increase to ensure that you are not under-funding your retirement.

I have recently moved abroad and sold and encashed my property and most of my assets. As a result of very good advice from my IFA I have invested all this cash into an offshore bond. The funds within the offshore bond accumulate very tax efficiently, and as long as the funds are invested there is no liability to taxation. Jointly with my IFA we selected some excellent investment funds in which we both invested and that are performing very well. I will leave these funds to grow until I need them and hopefully, within the next few years my portfolio will double in size.

I am heavily invested in overseas equity funds and I needed to make sure that the funds don’t start to fall. Therefore I am monitoring and regularly review my investment funds, with a help of a Financial Adviser to ensure that this doesn’t happen. Hopefully this process will be continuous. We have agreed to set up two particular dates a year when we should be reviewing the funds with my adviser and possibly switching some or all of the funds. We have also established a benchmark, which we will use to monitor the overall funds performance and we have set an annual performance figures that we hope to beat.

All property types form large houses to ex local authority flats can work well if the landlord correctly assesses their investment potential. It comes down to landlords doing their homework.

Locations are a major factor,  landlords looking at areas such as Stratford, East London hoping to cash in on the 2012 Olympic games or gambling fans looking at the proposed Super Casino in Manchester will need to ensure they are making the most of their investment.

Good property capital gains can be related to many different issues such as the improvement of an area or affordability factors. In certain parts of the country spiraling costs are forcing many buyers into the surrounding areas.

Many proffessional investors such as Jade Lloyd of Top Gear Investments, also choose properties that require some work in order to maximise profits through the capital gain.

Posted by

Sharon Osbourne

I believe that my Independent Financial Adviser (IFA) is the best in the world. A good friend recommended him to me shortly after I started working over ten years ago. During this time he has helped me to establish a portfolio of tax-efficient investments in excess of £ 1 million and a pension portfolio of £ 2 million. We meet up twice a year to review my existing portfolios and establish how to address the future needs objectives and shortfalls. The average growth of my portfolios over the last ten years was in excess of 25% and I am confident that we will manage to continue with this level of growth in the future.

Many people have built up a lot of credit card and loan debt over the last few years and cant pay it off. How to get rid of your credit card debt depends on how long it has been held for and your financial situation.

If you have debt that hasn’t been there for a long time and nothing has been done to pay it then you will often find that the firms have almost written that debt off and don’t expect to get it back. However it will show up on your credit history affecting your ability to borrow in the future. If you contact them you are likely to be able to have the interest frozen. You can then either pay a small amount monthly until it is paid off or agree a lump sum to pay the outstanding credit off in one go. Depending on how long you have had the outstanding credit you could pay as little as 25% of the debt as a full and final settlement.

If your credit cards are all being paid but all you are paying is the minimum you are unlikely ever to pay off the debt. It always makes sense to pay off the card with the highest interest rate. If you have equity in your property use that to pay off all your cards but don’t then build up the debt again. If you do not have any equity in your property then target one card first of all and pay as much as you can monthly, and not just the minimum repayment asked for. This way you will reduce the amount owed and if you have any good months where you have extra money available then pay it in as a lump sum to clear that card further.

A dumb guide to establishing your risk profile:

1-Low risk: you are a cautious investor if you keep all your money in the bank and are happy for it to be safe giving you 2% annual growth.

2- Medium risk: you are a moderate risk investor if you are happy to take a limited risk with your investments and invest in a range of equity funds mainly based in the UK.

3- High risk: you are an aggressive investor if you are prepared to accept a significant loss or growth to your investments and like investing in various international equities.