Independent Financial Advice Service from Principle First

Constant pension reviews needed to protect income

March 9th, 2010

Pension Review

Maximising the performance of your pension savings requires regular reviews and quality independent pensions advice. By constantly reassessing your pension investments, a good adviser can add thousands to your annual income in retirement. New figures from Aon Consulting use 3 scenarios to show the savings that are possible.

ISAs perfect for children’s savings

March 9th, 2010

Why lose this year’s allowances for tax-free savings in ISAs? With just weeks to go before this year’s ISA allowances of £7,200 expire, you could set up ISA accounts to save for your children’s education.

Cut life insurance premiums by quitting smoking

March 8th, 2010

Cut Life Insurance Premiums

A 45-year-old male smoker can save £276 on his annual life insurance premiums, and £1,000 per year on tobacco spending, by quitting cigarettes. The savings on tobacco will more than pay for the life insurance cover, according to Aviva.

Pensions rush as minimum age rises

March 8th, 2010

The minimum age for taking company pensions and personal pensions rises from 50 to 55 on April 6th. Numbers of those retiring were up by over 20% in January, as many rush to retire before the deadline.

Critical Illness Cover protects your children for free

March 5th, 2010

Critical Illness cover protects your child

If you are one of the13% of people in the UK who have taken out critical illness cover to protect themselves against losing their income through ill-health, you are probably aware that critical illness insurance offers identical cover for your children – free of charge.

State Pension changes penalise women

March 5th, 2010

Women turning 60 and claiming their basic state pension before April 6th stand to lose up to £20,000 of retirement income, compared to women turning 60 later this year. New rules that will apply after 6th April significantly relax the requirements to receive the full basic state pension for women.

Mortgage rates stable as Bank of England holds fast

March 4th, 2010

mortgage rates

The Bank of England has today decided to hold interest rates at the historic low of 0.5%. Customers seeking first time buyer mortgages right now are being advised to seek quality independent financial advice. An independent mortgage advisor, with their ‘whole of market’ approach, can find the very best mortgages based on the whole of the UK market, and will on average save you almost £1,000 on your annual mortgage repayments.

Income Protection Insurance for skilled workers

March 3rd, 2010

income protection insurance

Income protection insurance policies now allow skilled workers more control to clearly define events covered. You can now receive a payout if you are no longer able to perform your own specific job or activity, rather than having to be incapable of all activities within your profession.

Basic State Pension no longer meets needs

March 3rd, 2010

Are you one of the 27% of people soon to retire, who will rely on the basic state pension as their main means of support? If so, then you could be receiving basic state pension benefits that currently stand at less than £5,000 a year.

ISA ignorance blocks tax savings – NS&I

March 2nd, 2010

ISA

ISA allowances for the current year will expire on April 5th 2010, leaving savers just weeks to take up ISA savings of up to £7,200. New figures from National Savings & Investments (NS&I) reveal that only 15% of Britons understand the new Individual Savings Accounts (ISA) allowances of £10,200, which apply from April 6th.

Shop around but hurry, say mortgage advisors

March 1st, 2010

Mortgage advisors are urging mortgage clients to ‘shop around’ and also consider remortgage options, as some lenders raise their mortgage interest rates to account for a possible Bank of England rates increase later this year. Certain lenders are already raising their standard variable rate (SVR), which customers move to by default, if they do not switch to a different mortgage deal at the end of their initial tie-in period.

Households last 2 weeks without life and critical illness cover

February 26th, 2010

life and critical illness cover

The average UK household would run out of money in just 14 days, if a wage earner was hit by critical illness or died. Despite this, 63% of households still have no life and critical illness cover.

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