We talk about financial planning a lot, but there are many other related financial services and advice that we can provide.
Services
Can we help you?
How about some peace of mind?
We all have different priorities. But, whether your main goal is to retire early, or provide for family, or travel the world, or leave a legacy to a charity that is close to your heart, or even if you are still working all this out and you just want a review of your pensions, there is one thing that we all want in common – peace of mind.
Whatever people’s personal goals, everyone wants to have peace of mind that they are doing the right things with their money.
Financial Planning
The way we provide peace of mind to our clients is by undertaking genuine financial planning.
Whilst we put financial planning at the core of our work, we understand that few people understand what this actually entails until they have experienced it for themselves.
Simply put, this is ensuring that your finances are aligned with your goals.
Although this is a simple statement, it takes a lot of time and work to get to this point.
Once we have identified and prioritised your goals, we then investigate what changes can be made to your finances to help you achieve them. These changes could be, for example, a change to your existing pension arrangements, an investment of cash, a strategy to reduce tax and hence save more, or a discussion about your spending patterns.
Whilst the bulk of the changes to your finances are often made at the beginning of the process, the ongoing reviews are equally as important. Life rarely pans out exactly as imagined. Work, business, children, or personal matters may all take a different path than initially planned. Pensions and tax rules will almost certainly change over time.
Regular financial reviews allow you to reevaluate your goals, assess whether you are still on track to meet them, and make any course corrections to point you back in the right direction.
Individual Financial Services
You may not be looking for full blown financial planning at this stage. We can undertake some work in isolation of providing a full financial review, although typically the services below are combined with wider financial planning. If you are unsure what type of service would be best for you, please get in touch.
- Estate Planning – Inheritance Tax
- Pension reviews
- Investment advice
- Tax advice
- Final salary & CARE defined benefit pension
- Pension Tax charges
Estate Planning – Inheritance tax
You do not have to be significantly wealthy to be caught up in inheritance tax, particularly if you live in an area where the value of properties is high.
We can help you make plans to pass more of your wealth onto the people you want to receive it, be that family, friends, or good causes.
Pension reviews
We naturally accrue a number of separate pension funds over time through a combination of personal and workplace saving.
It is normally possible to transfer pensions and combine them into one pot – but is it wise to do so?
Certainly, it is more convenient to have all of your pension savings in one place, but not all pensions are equal. Some pensions will have more investment options, lower charges, guarantees, or more flexible options as to how they can be accessed than others, and it is important that all of these factors are considered before making any changes.
We undertake an independent review of our clients’ pensions and make recommendations as to whether any of them should be transferred, or whether they are already in the best place.
Because, unlike most financial advisers, we do not base our charges on how much money we are managing for you (see about us for more information), we are not incentivised to transfer your pensions, and we will only recommend changes if it is in your interest to do so.
Investment advice
Our core investment solutions are sustainable, kind to the planet, and low cost.
Each of our clients has their own personal views on ethical issues. Our job is to understand your ethical stance and match you up with an appropriate investment style, without compromising on investment returns.
Regardless of the ethical approach that is taken, we recommend a range of solutions to cover different risk profiles. This means that there are suitable investment solutions for people ranging from those who prefer a very low risk method, to people who are comfortable taking a higher risk approach, and everything in between.
Tax advice
You can be doing all of the right things such as budgeting and saving, and your investment strategy may be perfectly suitable. But if you disregard the impact of tax, you could be undoing all of your good work and losing your hard-earned gains.
“The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.” – Albert Einstein
Despite HMRC’s claims that “tax doesn’t need to be taxing”, and the introduction of misnomers like “Pensions Simplification” rules, and the fact that their actually exists an Office for Tax Simplification – the UK tax system is a complex mess. It is full of “cliff edge” scenarios, hidden allowances, and notional tax rates, that most people are blissfully unaware of.
At Principled, we can simplify this for you. We can review your current situation, and explain in simple terms what you can do to be more tax efficient.
We are an ethical firm, and we believe that every person and every business should pay their fair share of tax. We will never recommend that anyone enters into a convoluted arrangement with the sole aim of artificially reducing their tax liability.
It is however perfectly reasonable for anyone to want to arrange their finances in a tax efficient way. There is nothing unethical about this!
We can help you understand where you may be paying more tax than necessary, and we can show you how to fix this. If specialist advice is required, we can refer you to an accountant. If you already have an accountant, we can work hand in hand with them to achieve the best outcome for you.
Final salary and CARE defined benefit pensions
Principled are specialists when it comes to helping people understand defined benefit pensions. We have extensive experience in dealing with both private sector schemes and public sector schemes, such as the NHS pension, Local Government Pension Scheme, Teachers’ Pension Scheme, or Civil Service Pension Scheme.
Some things we can help you with are:
- Whether you should take your pension early, late, or at the scheme’s normal retirement age.
- How much tax free cash you should take as a lump sum when you retire
- Whether it would be in your interests to accept a Pension Increase Exchange (PIE) offer
- Understanding the your position regarding the annual allowance
- Options to reduce lifetime allowance charges at reitrement
- Whether you should pay extra contributions to an AVC or another personal pension
Pensions Tax Charges
Annual Allowance and Lifetime Allowance
The annual allowance and the lifetime allowance are limits applied on the amount of tax relievable pension savings you can build up either on an annual basis or over your lifetime.
They are both calculated and measured in very different ways. The rules in this area can be complex. If you are worried about exceeding either the lifetime allowance or the annual allowance it is imperative that you get advice.
Principled will help you understand if you have any issues with these allowances, and will put in place a plan to help you mitigate any taxes that may be due from exceeding them.
If you are thinking about opting out of your workplace scheme to avoid exceeding these allowances, please contact us before doing. It is not always possible to re-join workplace pension schemes, and by leaving them you may lose out on other valuable benefits, so opting out should only be done as the last resort.
