Has the Fed got it wrong……again?

As most of you will know, the Bank of England (BoE) cut interest rates last week from 5.25% to 5.0%, a small but significant change. This was the first rate cut since the 2020 pandemic, when rates fell to a historic low of just 0.1% 

Since the end of 2021, interest rates around the globe have increased sharply in response to a significant spike in inflation, largely caused by rising energy prices and the unwinding of restrictions following COVID. As the rate of inflation eventually began to fall, central banks were expected to be able to take the brakes off, and interest rates would start coming down. At the beginning of the year, the first rate reductions were priced into global stock markets as expected in the Spring; however, stickier-than-anticipated inflation in the US has meant that we have all had to wait longer than we had hoped.

Deciding when to reduce interest rates is a difficult balance for central banks to achieve. Cut too soon, and inflation simply rears its head again as more money floods into the economy; cut too late, and unemployment can rise sharply, driving the economy into recession. Cooling inflation while keeping unemployment at historically low levels has been the ideal scenario, or what economists like to call a “soft landing.” 

The BoE cut rates last week, but the US Federal Reserve (the US central bank) did not. Following the Fed’s decision not to cut rates US economic indicators have moved sharply in the wrong direction, suggesting that the US could be headed for a recession, something the Fed will have desperately been trying to avoid.

The result of the worsening numbers in the US has been a global stock sell-off, and everyone is now asking, ‘Should the Fed have cut rates this month after all?’    

The following is taken from Portfolio Adviser magazine on Friday of last week.

‘Hiring in the US slowed sharply last month and the unemployment rate rose, stoking fears about the state of the world's largest economy.

Employers added 114,000 jobs in July, official figures showed, fewer than expected and far lower than in June.

Global stock markets are already on edge after earlier US data showed weaker manufacturing activity, and major companies such as Intel and Amazon published a string of disappointing financials.

The employment figures suggest the long-running jobs boom in the US might be coming to an end, as the highest borrowing costs in two decades weigh on the economy.

The three major share indexes in the US, which were hitting new records just a few weeks ago, have been on a downward slide in recent days. It has sparked fears which have also spread to international markets.

In Asia and Europe, most major indexes were down on Friday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 index tumbling, to close nearly 6% lower.

Neil Birrell, chief investment officer at Premier Miton Investors, said the US jobs data, which showed the unemployment rate rising to 4.3% from 4.1% in June, "couldn’t have been released at a more sensitive time".

"Markets are wobbling, concerns over Fed policy abound and corporate earnings are in the spotlight," he said. "The weak data will cause more angst, and concerns over the health of the economy will increase."

The Federal Reserve, unlike other central banks including the Bank of England, has held off cutting interest rates in recent months, pointing to relatively strong growth, as a healthy job market helps prop up consumer spending.

But the head of the bank, Jerome Powell, said this week that the labour market had cooled significantly over the last 12 months. Friday's report showed the unemployment rate rising to 4.3%, compared with 3.5% a year ago.

Mr Powell signalled it was likely to cut rates at its next meeting in September, warning he did not want to see further weakening in the labour market. 

But Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management, said the latest figures raised questions about whether the Fed had waited too long. "Job gains have dropped below the 150,000 threshold that would be considered consistent with a solid economy," she said.

"A September rate cut is in the bag and the Fed will be hoping that they haven’t, once again, been too slow to act."

The most important thing to remember is that these market falls will be temporary, normal service will be resumed, and new highs will be tested.

I hope you found the above interesting. As always, if you have any questions about this piece or any other finance-related matter, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Graham Ponting CFP Chartered MCSI

Managing Partner

ebi Awards

As you will know, the majority of the portfolios our clients access through their pensions and investments are managed by ebi (ebi is an acronym that stands for ‘evidence based investments.’) and I am delighted to report that they have recently been recognised with a number of awards from industry bodies Professional Adviser and Defaqto (see below).

Professional Adviser

ebi won Best Model Portfolio Service at the Professional Adviser Awards 2024.  

Defaqto

Two of the Vantage Earth Managed Portfolio Service (MPS) Portfolios were recognised by Defaqto, an independent financial product and market intelligence firm, at the inaugural MPS Comparator Award Winners event.   

• MPS Comparator Growth         - Highly Commended - ebi  Vantage Earth 80

• MPS Comparator Adventurous - Highly Commended - ebi Vantage Earth 90

The Defaqto MPS Comparator Awards are given to individual MPS portfolios that exhibit market-leading risk-adjusted performance over five years to March 31st, 2024. Leading model portfolios within each comparator peer group achieve an award, either as the absolute winner or as one of the next four highly commended models.

I am obviously delighted that our investment partners have been recognised in this way, as it demonstrates to our clients that their investments are in good hands.

I hope you found the above interesting. As always, if you have any questions about this piece or any other finance-related matter, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Graham Ponting CFP Chartered MCSI

Managing Partner

Labour and the Pension 25% Tax-Free lump sum

Following Labour’s historic win in last night’s General Election, many of my clients will be pondering what changes might lie ahead for their taxes. Rachel Reeves, the incoming Chancellor, has ruled out increasing taxes on ‘working people’, but who does that actually exclude? – even King Charles works!

BUT, many other taxes could be increased to enable Labour to meet its spending commitments. I will resist the temptation to list the possibilities here because it would just be speculation. However, a radio interview Keir Starmer gave last week provided some welcome clarity on one possible option. In answer to a question, he appeared to suggest that the 25% tax-free lump sum that individuals can take from their personal pensions was under threat.

Amid confusion over Starmer's statement, the Labour leader’s office issued a statement clarifying the party’s position. The statement said;

‘The ability to withdraw 25% of your pension as a tax-free lump sum is a permanent feature of the tax system, and Labour is not planning to change this.’

The possible removal of the 25% tax-free lump sum has been a topic of conversation prior to every Budget since I came into financial services some 44 years ago, so this clarity at a time of great political change is extremely helpful for those planning their retirement.

I hope you found the above interesting. As always, if you have any questions about this piece or any other finance-related matter, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Graham Ponting CFP Chartered MCSI

Managing Partner

How Much Impact Does the UK Prime Minister Have on Stocks?

With a General Election and a possible change of government looming, it’s natural for investors to look for a connection between who resides in 10 Downing Street and which way stocks will go. But regardless of who wins, decades of returns show that stocks have trended upward.

Exhibit 1 shows the growth of £1 invested in the UK market over almost 70 years and 17 prime ministers (from Winston Churchill’s final months to Rishi Sunak). We can see that over the long run, the market has provided substantial returns regardless of who’s in charge.

EXHIBIT 1

Growth of a Pound Invested in the FTSE All-Share Index

January 1955–December 2023

Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Index is not available for direct investment; therefore, their performance does not reflect the expenses associated with the management of an actual fund.

That’s because shareholders are investing in companies, which focus on serving their customers and growing their businesses, regardless of which government is in charge.

 Prime ministers may have an impact on market returns, but so do many other factors—the actions of foreign leaders, interest rate movements, changing oil prices and technological advances, to name a few.

The bigger picture is that stocks have rewarded disciplined investors over time—regardless of who has won high-profile elections.

I hope you found the above interesting and, as always, if you have any questions about this piece or any other finance-related matter, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Graham Ponting CFP Chartered MCSI

Managing Partner

Why is it taking so long?

The Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) assembled on Threadneedle St last week to update the market on interest rate trends.

As always, the event was less about the headline decision—rates held at 5.25%, shock—than the commentary that surrounded it.

The Bank is forecasting inflation to come down to 1.9% in two years and 1.6% in three years. A key takeaway was Governor Andrew Bailey expressing optimism and even suggesting:

“Rates could come down faster than market expectations.”

What we tend to then hear from clients (particularly those with mortgages!) is:

“If inflation is falling and is forecast to drop to below the 2% target, why ‘hold’…. what are they waiting for?!”

Good question!

If, like me, you’ve found yourself scanning the internet for a place in the world that has more than 48 hours of nice weather, you’ll have part of the answer…

There are reasons to feel optimistic about the economy, and with prices slowly going down, it’s easy to forget that some pockets of the inflation basket have been more stubborn than anticipated.

Despite being a distant memory, the pandemic squeezed a large number of businesses, many of which sit within the services sector (including travel!).

With this sector trying to meet its needs, prices have increased by almost 30% since Covid-19. And the Bank said there are still some signs of inflation persistence, with services inflation at 5% in March.

As the Monetary Policy Committee grapples with when to stick or twist, it’s worth keeping in mind your summer holidays. Even though travel restrictions are no longer a problem, we can only do so (literally) at the expense of a four-year-old foe!

Stock markets have moved forward again over the past week, with the Dow Jones touching an intra-day high of 40,000 yesterday, suggesting that the first interest rate cuts are expected sooner rather than later.

I hope you found the above interesting. As always, if you have any questions about this piece or any other finance-related matter, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Graham Ponting CFP Chartered MCSI

Managing Partner

Is the FTSE at new highs a ‘win’ for the UK?

I am grateful to my friends at 7IM for the chart below.

There’s been a lot of buzz around the FTSE 100 hitting new highs in the past few weeks.

This index, which contains the 100-largest constituents of the London Stock Exchange, has been boosted by optimism around interest rate cuts and an easing of geopolitical tensions.

This hasn’t gone unnoticed by UK papers. A group of London-listed companies doing well is something worth reporting, and “a win for the UK!”

But looking at the businesses that make up the index, it got us thinking: Is it really a win for the UK?

Accepting that headline performance is just a sum of its 100 parts, we took a look.

The likes of Shell and AstraZeneca have been the source of such growth recently and because they are so big, the wider index benefits.

But what is the revenue exposure that these companies have to the UK? Very little:

Source: Bloomberg/7IM

The fact that many companies operate with a more global outreach has removed much of the importance of their listing country. When companies think about growth, they’re less worried about the domestic economy and more interested in sector consolidation and industry-specific needs. It’s much less a matter of geography.

Look at London-listed mining company Anglo American last week, for example. ASX-listed (Australia) metals and mining company BHP made an £31bn offer to acquire Anglo American. Is it an investment in the UK? No. It’s more to do with some of AA’s major copper mines that BHP wants a piece of, based on how aggressively this metal is in demand for the production of renewable technology.

Whilst a map offers familiarity and comfort, if we had to set our investment compass, we’d be more inclined to measure where we are by sectors and factors rather than borders.

I hope you found the above interesting and, as always, if you have any questions about this piece or any other finance-related matter, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Graham Ponting CFP Chartered MCSI

Managing Partner

Might YOU have some money somewhere with your name on it?

Two in five of us have money in lost and forgotten insurance policies, pensions, child trust funds, and forgotten investments.  We’ve traced quite a few such ‘pots of gold’ for clients over the years.

Now, though, there’s a website that lets you do it yourself. https://www.gretel.co.uk/ has been set up by a collection of financial institutions that have many old forgotten accounts on their books that they’d love the rightful owners to claim. Registration is free, and amongst others, it's trusted by big firms like M&G and AVIVA. So, what are you waiting for?

I do hope you or your family and friends are able to unearth some forgotten treasures using this service. If you are successful, please do let me know, I love to hear any good luck stories.

As always, if you have any questions about this piece or any other finance-related matter, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Graham Ponting CFP Chartered MCSI

Managing Partner

The stock market is at a record high, but it’s not a bad time to invest!

The following article appeared in yesterday’s Sunday Times, and I thought its timing was interesting, given that the market (as measured by the S&P 500 Index) is actually some 5.46% below its closing high in late March (The S&P 500 hit 5,254 on 28th March 2024 and at close of business on Friday it stood at 4,967). It’s a good article nonetheless, reminding us that just because the market is at, or close to a high, it can still go higher. In fact, I googled how often does the S&P 500 hit a new high and the answer is a staggering 17 times a year, on average or more than once in every 20 trading days. Remember though, that’s on average since the 1950s.  

Here is the article by David Brenchley of Market Watch.

“Just like death and taxes, it is a certainty in life that when the stock markets hit an all-time high, the bears come out of hibernation. Stocks are in a bubble, they will say, the market is going to crash. Bears are pessimistic investors, the opposite of bulls. They will say that now is the time to sell our investments.

When the S&P 500, a stock market index of the biggest US companies, went into freefall in 2022, plunging 27.5 per cent, sceptics thought that it would take years to recover. But already this year it has hit an all-time high on more than 20 occasions.

The naysayers have been proved wrong so far, but they continue to insist that their predictions will play out eventually. Take the bearish investor Jeremy Grantham, the founder of the fund group GMO, who has predicted 12 of the last four stock market crashes, including the dotcom bust and the financial crisis. He thinks that crash number 13 is just round the corner. Actually, Grantham thinks that we’re still only halfway through 2022’s slump, which was “rudely interrupted by the launch of ChatGPT” last year. Artificial intelligence stocks are “a bubble within a bubble”, he reckons.

For those who aren’t up on the investment lingo, a bubble is when share prices within a certain stock index or theme soar in a short space of time, often with little in the way of business fundamentals to back them up. Other stock market gurus have voiced their concern, including the former US Treasury secretary Larry Summers, who thinks we are “at the foothills of a bubble”.

And it’s hard to argue against this when the likes of Nvidia, which makes the semiconductor chips that power generative AI, is up 203 per cent in the past year, and the Facebook owner Meta Platforms has risen 132 per cent. That kind of share price growth doesn’t happen often and should ring alarm bells.

I consolidated three old workplace pensions into a self-invested personal pension (Sipp) a year ago, giving myself more control over my retirement pot. Since then I have been cautious about investing the cash because markets have risen quickly. Memories of investing a lump sum inheritance into my stocks and shares Isa in mid-2021, only to see the value of those investments slump in 2022 are fresh. So, feeling rather burnt by bad decisions/timing/investments/all of the above, this time I am doing the opposite and slowly drip-feeding money into the market.

But perhaps I shouldn’t be so cautious. Just because the stock market is at an all-time high, it doesn’t mean that it’s about to crash. It could be that I was just unlucky three years ago. The thing about an all-time high is that it is only an all-time high until it is usurped by a higher one. In fact, you tend to make more money over the next 12 months if you invest when the market is at an all-time high than you do if you invest at any other time. That’s what the fund house Schroders found, anyway.

Historically, the average return a year after the US stock market has hit an all-time high is 10.3 per cent. That compares with a return of 8.6 per cent if you invest at all other times, according to Schroders data going back to 1926. Even more than three years after an all-time high, average returns were 7.6 per cent, versus 7.5 per cent at all other times.

If you had put $100 into the market 30 years ago and stayed invested throughout, you would have $864 today. If you had invested the same amount 30 years ago but sold your holdings and moved into cash each time the market finished a month at a record high (and gone back into stocks when it wasn’t at a record high), you would have $403 today — 53 per cent less. That’s encouraging.

“It is normal to feel nervous about investing when the stock market is at an all-time high, but giving in to that feeling would have been damaging for your wealth,” said Duncan Lamont from Schroders. “There may be valid reasons for you to dislike stocks, but the market being at an all-time high should not be one of them.”

What will eventually be the core of my portfolio are funds which invest in global companies such as the Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap, Vanguard LifeStrategy 100% Equity and Dimensional International Value funds. But instead of piling cash into these holdings, I have been focusing on other areas because global stocks look expensive.

I’ve been building up my positions in funds and investment trusts that focus on UK smaller companies, emerging markets and infrastructure, as well as those that back firms with positive environmental impacts. This means that while my core investments have performed well, up about 10 per cent, it’s only a small part of my portfolio — for now.

But I have begun to regret not topping up these core funds. I had been waiting for the S&P 500 to slip, which was what the bears convinced me would happen, before I start to put more meaningful amounts into those funds.

Nvidia’s price-to-earnings (PE) ratio, a popular stock valuation metric that divides a company’s share price by its earnings per share, is 73, according to the data firm Sharepad. The lower the PE ratio, the potentially cheaper the stock, and anything over 25 is generally seen as expensive. Yet, when you judge Nvidia on the earnings it is predicted to generate in three years’ time, its PE ratio falls to a much more palatable 24. Does this mean I have been sold a duff investment theory by the bears?

The counterpoint to my cautious approach is that my workplace pension, which is held with a different firm, has been automatically investing about a third of my monthly contributions into the SSGA International Equity Index fund, which has been benefiting from the markets’ rise.

Speaking of certainties in life, here’s another one: returns from the stock market always beat inflation if you invest for 20 years or more. Between 1926 and 2022, there was no 20-year period where US large-cap stocks didn’t outperform inflation, Schroders found. The takeaway of all this is that timing the market doesn’t really matter if you’re investing over the long term, which I am because I won’t be able to get at my Sipp for at least another 21 years — and let’s face it, probably more.

I should probably get a move on, forget about past mistakes and start putting my cash to work faster than I have been. Market highs be damned”.

I hope you found this interesting and, as always, if you have any questions about this piece or any other finance-related matter, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Graham Ponting CFP Chartered MCSI

Managing Partner

The Great British ISA

Some clients are quite surprised when they learn that over 60% of the equity content of their portfolios is invested in the US, with only a very small percentage held in the UK. This is by no means unique to the portfolios our clients hold. As you will see later, almost all pension and investment fund managers have been moving away from UK funds over many years.

The government is acutely aware of this and, with some justification, feels that this might be ‘bad for Britain’. Accordingly, in last week’s Budget, an additional ISA allowance was introduced, which only applies if one invests in the UK. There is now also a requirement for UK pension funds to disclose how much of their members' money is held in the UK. Presumably the govt. is hoping to turn things around and shift the focus back to investing in the UK – I wish them luck!

With the above in mind, I was particularly interested in the following article from Saturday’s Times by David Brenchley of Investment Eye’

“MPs aren’t betting their pensions on UK funds — and nor should you, because we all know not to put all our eggs in one basket

Sadly, MPs have very little “skin in the game” when it comes to investing. I often talk about the importance of fund managers having skin in the game — that they should invest meaningful amounts of their own, personal money into the funds that they run.

So the same should surely go for MPs. If they want to force us to invest a significant amount of our money into UK equities, they should do the same themselves.

In his budget on Wednesday the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, created a new UK Isa. He wants to give us an extra £5,000 Isa allowance a year — on top of the usual £20,000 — but only if we use it to invest in UK-focused assets.

It feels like he is accusing ordinary, retail investors like you and me of somehow having abandoned the UK stock market and being responsible for the state of the economy.

The creation of this new Isa is rife with problems. If you invest that £5,000 into British businesses and then invest the rest of your £20,000 allowance overseas, that will mean you will have 20 per cent of your Isa portfolio invested in the UK stock market.

Most investment experts would say that having this much of your money in a single market would leave you overexposed, not least when the UK only accounts for less than 4 per cent of the global index.

Even leaving that aside, this is only OK if others do the same. Do MPs back UK shares? Do they heck. As of the end of June 2023, the Parliamentary Contributory Pension Fund (PCPF), which provides MPs with a pension for life, had £10 million of its £784.7 million of assets invested in UK equities. That means the UK accounts for just 1.3 per cent of the fund.

Where’s your skin in the game, Hunt and Sunak?

And what of the implication that ordinary investors are shunning the UK stock market? Supporters of this view will point to the net £94 billion that was taken out of UK-domiciled funds investing in UK equities since 2016 as proof.

But the reality suggests the opposite is true: we actually already have far too much invested in our home market. Retail investors are already putting half of their Isa investments into UK-focused assets every year, according to the trading platform AJ Bell.

The government might well find that those people who do take advantage of the UK Isa will simply sell £5,000 worth of UK assets from their regular stocks and shares Isa and move those investments to a UK Isa, freeing up more room to invest in global stocks.

One of the first things you are taught when you start investing is not to put too many of your eggs into one basket: you must diversify your investment portfolio.

Another key rule is to allocate your investments to the areas that you think are going to give you the best return over time. You should not choose investments out of some vague philanthropic, patriotic duty to the UK economy.

The extra Isa allowance is welcome. The £20,000 limit hasn’t changed since 2017. If it had been increased with inflation, it would be £25,000 already (though few people are in a position to save this much). That the extra cash has to be invested in UK assets is rather less welcome (not least because we don’t know exactly which ones will be eligible yet).

If Hunt and the British Isa’s cheerleaders in the City expect it to magically increase UK companies’ share prices or to encourage more companies to list on the London Stock Exchange, they will be disappointed. A British Isa will have absolutely no impact on the UK stock market. I don’t know how they can’t see that.

Considering that the £20,000 allowance is already more than half of the average annual salary, I, and most people my age, have no need for an extra £5,000 allowance.

The only savers that will open one will be those that regularly max out their £20,000 allowance. That was 1.6 million people in the 2020 to 2021 tax year, according to HM Revenue & Customs. But half of those were savers who maxed out their cash Isa — not investors. Only 802,000 maxed out their stocks and shares Isa allowance.

The boost that the UK stock market would get if all of those 802,000 people invested £5,000 into UK companies would add up to £4 billion. It sounds like a lot of money, but it accounts for only about 0.2 per cent of the combined worth of all companies listed on the FTSE all-share index. That’s a drop in the ocean.

And that’s assuming that all those who max out their Isas every year actually want to invest in UK stocks. AJ Bell surveyed 1,852 of its customers and found that only 14 per cent thought that the UK Isa was a good idea.

I won’t mince my words: it’s a terrible idea. And until MPs are forced to use their own pension fund to invest significantly more into UK stocks, they can’t really start lecturing you and me about how we’re not backing Britain.”

David Brenchley

I am inclined to agree with most of what David says; the most important sentence being, “You should not choose investments out of some vague philanthropic, patriotic duty to the UK economy.” There is a reason why fund managers are eschewing the UK market in favour of the US and it is because almost all technology companies are listed there. The UK market is largely made up of what I would describe as ‘old world’ companies, miners, oil companies and banks etc. and I think most would agree that there appear to be greater prospects for growth from the new tech businesses in the US, AI for example. Even our own ARM Holdings (a computer chip manufacturer) faced with the choice of listing in the UK or the US, chose the US; I would imagine this decision was a ‘no-brainer’ for the board. 

I hope you found this interesting and, as always, if you have any questions about this piece or any other finance-related matter, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours sincerely,

Graham Ponting CFP Chartered MCSI

Managing Partner

It’s That Time of the Year Again!

As we approach the end of the 2023/24 tax year, thoughts inevitably turn to end-of-year tax planning and any unused allowances (ISA, Pensions, etc.) that may be available.

The ISA allowance for 2023/24 is £20,000, and if you have not made a subscription (or perhaps you have only made a partial subscription), there is still time to use this allowance if you have the funds available.

Since 6th April 2016, in addition to the subscription, it has been possible to top-up ISAs with any amounts withdrawn during the tax year, including any charges deducted. This means that even if you have not made a subscription this year but have ISAs from previous years, your personal ISA Allowance may be more than £20,000 because of charges deducted during the year. If you made a subscription at the beginning of the tax year, you may still have a residual allowance left because of these deductions, which can be utilised by 5th April 2024.

If you have a Standard Life Wrap Account, the scope for top-up (in addition to any unused subscription) does not apply unless you take physical withdrawals from your ISA. This is because Standard Life deducts ISA charges from the cash held in your Portfolio, not the ISA itself.

If you have a Transact Wrap Account and want to know your personal ISA allowance for the remainder of the 2023/24 tax year, you can access this information on the Transact website. From your home page, select reports, and from the drop-down menu, select ISA Subscriptions.

If you would like to use the balance of your allowance before 5th April, please ensure you advise us of your intentions before the end of March; we will be very pleased to assist.

Just for information, the ISA Allowance for 2024/25 is likely to remain £20,000 each, so £40,000 per couple. However, there is a Budget on 6th March, so this could change.

Capital Gains Tax (CGT)   

Currently, rates for CGT are 10% for Basic Rate Taxpayers and 20% for Higher Rate Taxpayers; where property assets are concerned (excluding the main residence), the rates are 18% and 28%, respectively. There is an allowance each year (currently) of £6,000 before CGT becomes payable. You may recall that in Jeremy Hunt’s emergency Budget when he took over as Chancellor, he announced that CGT allowances would be reduced further to just £3,000 in 2024/25.

Income tax rates, of course, are 20%,40%, and 45%, so they are quite a bit higher than taxes on capital gains!

It might be sensible to consider using this year’s CGT allowance before the end of the tax year. If you wish to look into this, please let us know, and we will try to assist.

If you have a General Investment Account (GIA) with us worth more than £250k, we will contact you individually over the next couple of weeks or so.   

Many of our clients will not need to take any action, as most assets are held within ISAs and Pensions, where CGT does not apply.

As always, if you have any questions about this piece or any other finance-related matter, please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Yours sincerely

Graham Ponting CFP Chartered MCSI

Managing Partner