Hello all, welcome to issue 2 of our quarterly emails exclusive to our Premier Club members. I’m sure you’re either already settling in for the festive season, or maybe just cramming in as much as you can before that well earned break. We’ll try therefore try to keep this short and sweet.
Autumn Statement?
I’ll be honest I thought about this heading and then I re-thought that in my opinion, it was really all about nothing, especially in the pension and investment world! So, nothing to report that I feel would be important to you.
Mortgage World
As you know, last month 2nd November, the Bank of England decided to keep the interest rate at 5.25%. We felt this was a good move not to increase rates further, as in our opinion this was never the answer anyway. However, politics is a subject we’ll stay away from! This last quarter has been a tough one with consumers feeling a little uncertainty in the market, which to a large extent has stagnated. This year we’ve seen many properties down valued, maybe due to the fact the lenders haven’t had the same appetite for lending.
However, wherever there’s positivity you can be sure we’ll find it and focus on here, so on that note we’d like to add many lenders are now reducing their rates, which we believe have peaked, and they for sure seem to be encouraging more longer-term fixed rates as they are offering them at a cheaper rate. Personally for us, we’ve seen this trend before, and this tends to indicate that they believe rates will continue to fall, so as the idea is that you’ll fix long term and if rates reduce you’ll be on those higher rates for longer. Crafty Banks – A tip to bear in mind, Merry Christmas!
With that said they are next due to sit 14th December lets see what happens next…
World of investments
The markets do appear to have settled back down recently, and plan values tend to be on the rise, which certainly keeps me happy as I’m sure it does all of you. The latest so called ‘World event’ as yet hasn’t had a majorly negative impact, so long may this continue.
As such, as a variation on a theme, it’s one of the lesser discussed subjects that I’d like to focus upon, Beneficiaries. Where appropriate, have you nominated a beneficiary, and if so, it really is important to keep them updated. There are many factors which can render nominated Beneficiaries obsolete, so do have a think about this subject and at the latest request these to be amended at your next review.
IFS updates
Not much to report here, we’ve incorporated a regulatory required update to our investment charging structure, and we’ve attached this here as it will be of interest for you to browse at.
We are soon to approach our 10 year limited status, we are working on ideas of how to celebrate this, and we will share this with you all in due course. I think on that note it shows that we have laid solid foundations in this company and you are always at the forefront of what we do and we really hope you and your finances feel the benefit for that. We couldn’t have done that without you, and as such we want to repeat how very humbled we feel, and thank you for your continued loyalty and business.
Any ideas, gratefully received!
On that note let’s just recap what IFS can do for you, and your family.
- Pensions/Pension Transfers
- Investment Advice
- Equity Release Advice
- Mortgages
- Protection, not just mortgage and personal protection, but health and business protection too.
Useful hints and tips
It’s that time of year when our very efficient accountant reminds us of the rules around what you can claim through the business, unfortunately not all accountants share this information so I thought it would be useful to share with you as we’ve made use of this the last few years.
Purchasing vouchers that cannot be exchanged for cash are not taxable or subject to national insurance, so you could purchase £50 per head for staff and £300 per head for directors, vouchers such as John Lewis, Amazon or Food and Drink vouchers are all great ideas, we even brought vouchers from the jewellery shop we intended to buy our wedding rings from, a story I know our accountant loves to share.
Wrap up
As we soon draw another year to a close we have been reflecting on our year which consisted of having a new office built and the move which wasn’t a little job given I’d been there nearly 10 years, wedding celebrations, and a new regulatory requirement (Consumer Duty) that we’ve had to spend a lot of time on, so it has been a busy year here. Moving into the New Year for IFS we really just want to focus on business development and how we can continue professionally to stand out from the crowd so to speak. More golf would also be a bonus! It’s a great exercise to reflect and make new goals/targets for the new year. Again, we’d love to hear your ideas and targets for 2024.
Changing subjects, If you’re in need of some Hambledon Fizz over the festive period, let me know soon so I can get the orders in for you, don’t forget we pass on our 15% discount to you.
We will be shut around the festive period but emails will be monitored throughout so you are welcome to send an email and we will reply when we can.
Lastly may me and Kirsty wish you a Merry Christmas and a Prosperous New Year
