Jelf Group are a consultancy group who provide advice on insurance, employment benefits and healthcare, as well as financial planning. The group reported an increase in revenue to £35million in the six months up until the end of March, slightly up from £34.9million the year before.

Through cost saving, group pre-tax profit increased from a £1.2million loss last year to a £800,000 profit in 2011, whilst operating profit increased from £1million last year, to £1.5million this year.

The financial planning groups chief executive Alex Always believes that the group will be debt free be next year.

Employee benefits and insurance moved forward, whilst financial planning lagged behind, with revenues falling 11% from £4.4million to £3.9million. Profitability actually increased.

The Jelf interim statement added, ‘In the current economic environment individuals continue to look to improve returns and seek sound financial planning advice, however the quality of advice demanded has risen.’

Jelf controls investments of £500million and services of £1billion of funds in older style products, which they claimed had, ‘improved the size of the on-going trail that can be derived from these investments enabling the group to service clients and grow the business’.

Alway added, ‘The business has continued to perform well in the first six months of this financial year, revenues have held up and we have achieved an increase in profitability and margin. Maintaining revenues against a continuing difficult economic backdrop is a good performance and our focus on improving margins means the business is well placed to take advantage of future opportunities.’

The study, conducted by unbiased.co.uk, revealed that taxpayers in the UK will waste £13.5billion across 2011 through unnecessary tax payments, and ten per cent of that figure would be as a result of inheritance payments.

The Tax Action Report also revealed that pension credits and tax credits were other key areas where Britons were wasting large amounts of money.

Despite the results, it was revealed that nine out of ten people living in Britain also reported that they had taken no action last year to organise their taxes, or made any plans to streamline their finances so there were no financial burdens for those they left their estate too should they die.

Karen Barrett from the firm revealed, “Vast sums are being paid unnecessarily in inheritance tax every year because the deceased had not made adequate provision.”

The coalition Government have vowed to simplify taxes, and have created an Office of Tax simplification.

The office have revealed that they intend to implement a review of inheritance tax and its various procedures and rules, although this may take some time.

Inheritance tax has various rules and regulations and it is advisable to seek specialist advise on the subject.

Inheritance tax is only payable on a persons estate if it is worth more than £325,000, and anything above that threshold is taxed at 40%.

In 2007 a new law was passed that enabled married couples and registered civil partners to be able to pass their assets to one another without incurring a charge after death.

In most normal circumstances the executor of the will is responsible for paying the relevant inheritance tax from the deceased’s estate.

Of those survey, nearly 60% also thought that the quality of advice offered would be the same, or worse than before the ruling is put in place.

Skandia, who carried out the Adviser Confidence Barometer survey also believed that restricted advice would have a large part to play in the industry after January 2013, after 11% of advisors revealed they would offer a restricted service from then.

Of the 11% planning on offering a restricted service, 3% were planning on offering that service on its own, whilst the other 8% planned on offering it on top of their existing advice service.

Director of financial planning business consultants Kingmakers, Robert Stevenson believes that many IFAs will find it increasingly difficult to remain independent, and claims they will find it impossible to “offer independent advice and will join most DFMs as restricted”.

Robert added that “People will be quite surprised at how complex and difficult it will be to remain independent. We will all get lumped into restricted and we will have to compete with the banks,” adding that to remain independent advisers “have a lot of work to do.”

Skandia asked 1700 advisers and only 43% believe the new rules will actually improve the quality of advice offered to customers, with 29% believing the new rules will have a negative effect on advice offered.

Of those who did believe the new rules would improve advice, a fifth put this down to the ban on commission, preventing advice for personal gain, and two thirds thought the higher qualifications required to hand out advice after RDR kicked in would improve the advice offered.

Jeremy Megridge from Skandia said, “It is great to see that a significant number of financial advisers are embracing the Retail Distribution Review and believe it will improve the advice given to consumers.

“As an industry we have the opportunity to use the RDR to make things clearer and more transparent for consumers which will go a long way to improving the trust they have in financial services.”

New research from Scottish Widows has found that an estimated 28 million Britons have no Financial Plan should the worst happen to them.

The research shows that these Britons risk leaving their families in a vulnerable financial position due to their lack of life insurance.

Market director of protection from Scottish Widows, Clive Allison revealed that his company’s poll of over 5000 adults in the UK revealed that a large number of adults are continuing to ignore the risks associated with not having a financial plan for their love ones.

Products such as life insurance, income protection and critical illness cover are often overlooked by adults living for now and not worrying about the future.

Over half of those surveyed did admit that they reviewed their finances at least once a year, but the survey showed that in reality many chose not to act on their findings.

Allison explained, “We realise that many people do not like to plan for the unknown but the importance of doing so cannot be underestimated.

“Our research shows that the majority of people clearly understand the benefits associated with protection products such as life, critical illness and income protection, but that many still do not adequately protect themselves, their families and their homes.

“The industry still needs to do more to highlight these benefits to ensure take-up increases, especially in an environment where welfare provision is being eroded and the government is promoting the need for greater self-reliance.”

Even more surprisingly were the statistics relating to life insurance, where 97% of those surveyed were aware of both its existence and its importance but only 44% actually had any life insurance.

Critical illness cover had an even worse take up with 86% aware of the need for it, but only 12% of those asked actually having a policy.

Income protection had an 83% awareness but only a 7% take up showing that many Britons are aware, but are simply choosing not to take out such policies.

The study also revealed that 58% of Britons have less than £2500 of savings, suggesting that the 43% of people who said they would use their savings should the breadwinner have their income cut may not be able to survive for long.

Despite a global economic downturn it appears that companies offering financial advice are starting to see an upturn in fortunes as Jump Money have proved in their latest results.

The financial advisors saw strong growth in the number of advisors, issued policies and turnover for 2010 in figures announced yesterday.

The Leeds based firm saw the amount of financial advice they charged for increase to just over £3million, a demand which saw them increase the number of financial advisors on their staff from just 2 at the beginning of the year to 17 at the end of the year.

The number of policies issued throughout the year was also up 14% and that growth shows no sign of slowing.

Three months into 2011 the firm have expanded to 24 advisors, adding a further 7, and as a result issued policies and turnover has continued to grow.

The firms primary focus is the life assurance and protection sectors, although they have had to expand to offer private medical insurance, general insurance, secured loans, mortgages and credit cards through the difficult period.

They are now looking to expand into pensions, investment and equity release in the remainder of this year.

Managing Director of Jump Money, Adam Temple revealed, “The last 15 months has certainly seen the Jump Money business expand and develop as we have grown in a variety of areas. At the start of 2010 we had just two advisers and at the end of quarter one 2011 this had grown to 24 not including those based in our retentions department.

“As we currently stand we fully expect to substantially improve on our turnover and number of policies issued by the end of this year, whilst we will also be moving into a number of new and exciting product areas.”

The firm look to find customers without a financial advisor at present, and aim to offer financial advice through a web based platform.

Their existing customers have also welcomed the new ‘Personal Account’ section of their website that gives customers access to client reports, storage for all their policy documentation and the latest offers and discounts.

Brian Sweeney, the former education director of the Institute of Financial Planning has revealed plans to create an academy for advisors who wish to build up their own lifestyle financial planning proposition.

Sweeney’s new financial planning academy will offer Independent Financial Advisors (IFAs) who have reached their level four qualification the opportunity to join the year long course.

The Third Generation Financial Planner Academy will also be open to those about to take their level four qualifications, so long as they are set to do so before the retail distribution review deadline.

The course was set up by Sweeney, now chief executive of the Financial Planning Training Company, as a route into financial planning for all those IFAs who were unable to take the Manchester Metropolitan University masters in planning.

Sweeney criticised the masters course saying that it was, “great for those individuals who are either certified or chartered, of which there are about 3,000, because that’s the entry criteria, but what about everybody else?”

Sweeney went on to add that the requirements for his new course were more universal explaining that, “you don’t have to be chartered, you don’t have to be certified, but you do need to be heading in that direction to get maximum use out of this. We don’t want to exclude people because they are not there already.”

Sweeney pointed out that his new course also allowed students to learn financial planning principles that they would be able to apply in business as they moved through the course.

‘We will teach them how to do the fundamentals of financial planning,’ he said, adding, ‘We’ll teach them about how financial planning is different from financial advice, the skills they need, and what are the tools and techniques.’

The new course is intended to take a year to complete and will be split up into four different modules. The modules take three months each, with an away day to introduce the students to the different aspects of the module, followed by remote learning for the rest of the term.

The new academy is set to launch by January 2012.

Consumers organising a pension, mortgage, insurance or general financial planning much prefer to have independent financial advice, according to a new report from Axa.

Forty-four per cent of UK adults see  independent financial advice as much preferable to a bank adviser or an accountant, when choosing financial products, the research showed. Advice from a tied adviser in a bank was preferred by just 35% of consumers, with 11% saying they would approach their accountant.

The benefits of independent financial planning advice have been quantified and highlighted in various reports recently, but perhaps the most important single finding was that consulting an independent financial adviser for mortgage advice will, on average, save you £962 per year on your mortgage repayments*.

By seeking financial advice from an independent source, your financial planning is based on looking at the whole market, whereas an adviser at a bank or building society is ‘tied’ in that they can advise only on the small range of products they sell. Financial planning advice on mortgages at a bank or building society is based, on average, on a range of just 20 mortgages, compared to the many thousands that can be compared by an independent financial adviser, when making his recommendations.

The report is the 5th annual Axa ‘Retirement Scope Research’ report based on interviews with 500 working consumers aged 25-59 and 500 retired consumers aged 55-75.

*”The Value of Mortgage Advice” by the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries (AMI)

If you are close to the threshold where your next salary review could cost you your child benefits, then listen up. The good news is that some timely financial planning, with the help of a qualified financial adviser, could prevent that from happening.

The government is currently proposing that child benefits be taken away from any family where at least one parent is a higher-rate taxpayer, earning more than £43,875 per year.

There are many workers just below that threshold, who could rise above it if they were promoted, or following their next salary review. Those in the ‘danger zone’ may be currently earning £40,000 to £43,000, but are still eligible for child benefits of £20.30 per week for their first child, and £13.40 per week for younger children.

For a 2-child family, this means annual child benefit of £1,752.40 that would be lost through a wage increase – possibly wiping out the benefit of their salary increase in the process.

With financial advice, however, a salary sacrifice arrangement could be built into the employee’s financial plan.

Salary sacrifice is where the employee ‘gives up’ their raise, and instead their employer passes on the benefit in a way that does not increase their taxable pay. This could be through additional contributions to the employee’s pension, saving the cash towards retirement and with the bonus of tax relief as well.

Other options that could be negotiated with an employer include childcare vouchers, or a company car.