More Life Support for Britain’s Economy
After three months of shutdown, Britain is slowly but surely opening up. The government has been keen to stress that this process is only possible because of the steadily falling infection and death rates across the country, but clearly the relaxing of restrictions is also prompted by economic concerns. With pubs, clubs, shops and many other businesses shuttered since the end of March, the UK economy has been on life support. For many businesses, the government’s furlough scheme and emergency loan measures have been the only thing keeping them afloat.
COVID19 Effects on Retirement Planning
The coronavirus (COVID-19) is having a widespread impact across all aspects of financial life, including retirement plans. The current global stock market turbulence, as a consequence of COVID-19, will no doubt be concerning for individuals whose pension savings are invested partly or fully during these volatile market conditions...
Stock Markets Suffer Altitude Sickness
Reading the news seems much more complicated these days. Our friend and old colleague, Rob Martorana, has lived and worked in New York all his life. An excellent portfolio manager and great thinker about investments, Rob has written a series of articles for the Chartered Financial Analyst group[1] about how to digest news in a way that takes account of its underlying biases. The easy way to do this is to pick a sample from media sources with known biases to judge the central case and the range of interpretations.
Income Protection Insurance
There is a growing unease about the economic fallout of coronavirus (COVID-19), with many businesses laying off contractors and putting staff on extended leave, as well as natural worries about contacting the disease. What this crisis has shown is that being unable to work can quickly turn our world upside down. No one likes to think that something bad will happen to them, but if you can’t work due to a serious illness, how would you manage financially?
May Ends With Optimism & Promise of Further Stimulus
The stock market recovery that started on 23 March – and was widely regarded as little more than a soon-to-falter bear market rally – consolidated further over this last week of May. By now it is either the most pronounced bear market rally in history, or we have indeed already witnessed the turning point of the equity bear market that accompanies recessionary periods...
Big Trouble in Big China
Over the past week, it felt as if the new normal of enforced idleness paired with less stringent lockdown rules and summer weather would lead to a happier mood across Western Europe, including the UK. The same applied for investors, whose portfolios also enjoyed some time in the sunshine. However, the outlook began to cloud over somewhat again towards the end of the week.
Investment Insights
We all have different objectives in life and need different strategies to help achieve them. Sensible diversification – owning a mix of assets, including shares, bonds and alternative investments such as property – can help protect investors over the long term. When one area of a portfolio underperforms, another part should provide important protection... However, when it comes to financial planning for your future, it’s important that you receive expert professional advice about all the options and income sources available to you.
US-China Cold war: Threat or blessing?
In the absence of truly effective anti-viral drug treatments against COVID-19, or vaccines (even in the best case) only becoming widely available towards 2021, we cannot seamlessly switch back on what we switched off and many activities that make up considerable parts of our western economies will take much longer to return than a V-shaped recovery would require. This means that the recession the lockdown has caused is likely to last somewhat longer and be more pronounced in sectors that depend on close social proximity...
Discover a Clearer Financial Future
It’s often a common fallacy that only those that are wealthy have any need for professional financial advice. Regardless of how careful you are with your money, dealing with the tricky intricacies of taxation, investments and financial regulations can be difficult for even the most money-conscious of earners. However, when it comes to financial planning for your future, it’s important that you receive expert professional advice about all the options and income sources available to you.
Market Update: Lock-Down, Open-Up
In April, the virus ended the lives of over 190,000 people across the world. Of those, 13% were in the United Kingdom, nearly 25,000. The UK has been one of the worst affected countries during this pandemic. The US has suffered a similarly heavy death toll, with nearly 58,000 deaths recorded with the coronavirus as a cause...
Millennial Money
Building wealth for the future is important, but increasingly people want their investments to do more than make money. Investing ethically means different things to different people. According to a new global survey[1], almost eight out of 10 millennials now prioritise socially responsible and impactful investing...
Market Update: Negative Oil Prices and the Wait for V or U Shaped Recoveries
Investors appear to have been focused on the post covid-19 opportunities, encouraged by the news that Asian nations are slowly getting back to work. In addition, positive data has indicated that the European outbreak has passed its peak. In Europe Germany, Norway, Poland and the Czech Republic have relaxed their lockdowns measures this week.
April Team News
Firstly, I would like to wish you all a Happy New Tax Year! Although it may not be the start of the new year that we were all expecting to have, the staff at Vizion Wealth have smoothly adjusted to virtual working and have been keeping as busy as ever with closing off 2019/20 and preparing for the new tax year.
Market Update: Plotting a Path for Recovery
This week may have been a short week for many but there was no shortage of data to digest as a number of positive news stories started to appear through the Covid-19 haze that has consumed markets in recent times. Whilst the number of deaths continues to rise, the rate of infection in Italy, Spain and Germany appear to be slowing giving hope that the peak may have been reached in areas that had previously been dubbed the epicentre of the virus within Europe. Whilst daily death toll reports from China have been met with wide spread scepticism, markets seem...
Preserving your Legacy
Are you worried about leaving an inheritance to your loved ones and then having them pay tax on your legacy? No one likes to think about a time when they won’t be here, but unfortunately the reality is that some people aren’t prepared financially...
Stocks Market Suffer Worst Quarter Since 1987
With most countries still enforcing strict lock downs, there are some early signs of a reduction of new infections in Italy and other European countries. Governments have now started to distribute monies to support society and businesses and China has talked about additional stimulus to ensure economic stability...
Effective End of Year Tax Planning
The end of the 2019/20 tax year is fast approaching, and there are a number of valuable allowances and reliefs that will be lost if they are not used before the deadline. These opportunities include, but are not limited to, four important areas of tax planning. We’ve summarised these allowances below and suggest that if appropriate to your particular situation, these areas should be reviewed before 5 April 2020...
Markets Bounce Back Responding to US Stimulus Package
The FTSE 100 soared yesterday as it recorded its biggest one-day rise since 2008, and the second biggest one-day rise ever, climbing 9.1% as US lawmakers agreed a stimulus package worth $2 trn. It wasn’t just the UK market that responded positively as The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 11.4% - its biggest one-day gain since 1933, while Japan's Nikkei 225 index soared 7%, its largest daily rise in four years...
A Week of Rollercoasters and Government Intervention
Just over a week ago, Boris and Trump seemed to be taking a relaxed approach to tackling the threat of the coronavirus. Since then we have been told all pubs, restaurants, gyms and schools must close and up to 20,000 troops have been placed on standby as part of a ‘Covid support force’. The government has increased its fiscal support against the virus to over £350bn and has now said it will pay up to 80% of staff wages for 3 months for those employees unable to work due to the coronavirus pandemic...
Market Update: Markets Rise as Global Sell-Off Eases
Not to be out of the limelight for too long, Donald Trump rattled markets further as he delivered what may well be one of the most expensive speeches in history. The US President announced he was ordering an immediate shut-down of all travel from Europe to the United States from midnight on Friday to try to stop the spread of coronavirus in the US in an extraordinary address to the nation on Wednesday night...