Category: Articles

Acquisition of Bank am Bellevue receives regulatory approval and successfully closes

Wealth managers are there to seek counsel and guidance with your investment funds. Like a critical friend, they are there to help with strategy and suggest solutions to any financial queries. But what if your wealth manager is not helping you meet your financial goals? What are your options?

There has been a radical shift in client’s behaviour towards portfolio construction. No longer is there a requirement for costly active portfolios and instead, many would rather opt for passive low-cost investment products. With a range of advisors providing this offering, the market has become fiercely competitive.

Financial crime is one of the biggest threats facing the global economy. The 2019 Crime Survey for England & Wales indicated that 3,863,000 fraud offences were committed last year alone, with a high number of cases also unreported.

While the country remains the 12th biggest global importer of oil, including petroleum oils, it has taken great strides towards reducing its reliance on such environmentally-harmful fuels. Between 2013 and 2018, the UK had the eighth-best rate in Europe for reducing such imports, with its intake dropping by 76.9 million barrels (from 359 million to just over 280 million).

“The EU set up the system in 2017, to put pressure on countries to crack down on tax havens and unfair competition, sanctioning those it considered unfair in offering tax avoidance schemes. However, with this news coming in just weeks after the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, many are concerned it’s a sign of things to come,” says Granville Turner, Director at Offshore Company Formation Specialists, Turner Little.

TurboTenant, an all-in-one, free property management tool, releases its latest industry report - "How COVID-19 is Impacting the Rental Market." This report highlights key rental market indicators from March 2020 in cities throughout the U.S. who have and are currently following social distancing and stay-at-home orders.

The Association of Professional Staffing Companies called for a more responsible approach from the banking sector as a survey of its membership painted a picture of demands for personal guarantees, offers of alternative loans to the Government backed Business Interruption Loan (CBIL) and inflated interest rates.

Brits incorrectly believe household favourites Tesco and Sainsburys are in the top 10 biggest companies of the FTSE 100, according to a new poll by IG Markets.

Research published by Direct Line Life Insurance in 2018 suggested that over 12.6 million Brits would be prepared to go to Court to dispute a Will of a family member if they disagreed with the division of their estate.

With the likes of Goldman Sachs and National Savings & Investments (NS&I) cutting the interest rates on savings accounts, consumers are beginning to lose trust in the value of high street banking in the UK.

R&D tax credit specialists, RIFT Research and Development Ltd, have looked at five historic advancements that not only changed the world but would have eligible for some big R&D tax credit claims if they had come about today.

Most Coronavirus linked losses will be uninsured, but investment profits for insurers have fallen dramatically – exacerbating hard market conditions.

While growth in R&D tax relief claims has increased by 35% annually since inception in 2001 to over £4bn last year the scheme is yet to be fully utilised by UK business according to R&D specialists RIFT Research and Development Ltd.

Sweden is set for dramatic growth in digital wealth management. The three key factors driving this are; a rapidly growing population of mass affluent and high net worth individuals; the fact that a significant percentage of Sweden’s workforce are employed in the technology and the telecommunications sectors, and the country’s huge and growing focus on fintech.

People living in the Eastern Central London postcode (EC) have the highest average credit scores in the UK, according to the UK’s leading price comparison site MoneySuperMarket.

We all make mistakes. However, as a doctor or other medical technician, a mistake from one of these professionals can be incredibly damaging. Sometimes we do not even make mistakes, but patients will still file potentially damaging malpractice claims. Here are some of the best paths to follow if you do receive a malpractice claim from a former patient.

Since April 2017, around 1.2 million non-domestic English water customers have been able to choose their own water suppliers. This is referred to as ‘market deregulation’. Now, businesses can choose to buy their retail water services from any licenced company, regardless of how much water they use a year.

Since 2008 the number of accounts subscribed to a Cash ISA has declined every year except one, with the total number down -36.38% all in all, averaging an annual decline of -4.69%.

London-based fintech firm Mode, advised and backed by Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, has launched its Bitcoin banking mobile iOS app. This will make Bitcoin - the world’s most popular digital asset which many refer to as ‘digital gold’ - accessible to everyone at the touch of a button.

Inflation effectively shrinks the value of your money over time and according to the Consumer Price Index, which tracks the cost of household items, the value of £1,000 on the high street at the start of 2012, would now have climbed to £1,153 today.

People are increasingly looking to facilitate a smoother and faster divorce by keeping it out of court. As such, former couples are turning to mediation as a way of resolving the issues arising from their separation (including financial and child arrangements).

Cash ISAs have become a popular way for many to stash away the cash with the aim of climbing the ladder, with the Help to Buy ISA in particular helping many save that all important deposit. While buyers can no longer take advantage of the scheme there are a whole host of Cash ISA saving accounts that average a return of 2.12% a year with a maximum annual investment of £20,000 allowed.

Applying for credit at the till or checkout is becoming more and more common. Klarna, one of the biggest ‘Buy Now Pay Later’ credit companies promote their product as a way to improve customer’s spending power, both in store and online. The risk, however, is frivolous purchases and over-buying.

Anyone born after 6th April 1978, faces being nearly £50k out of pocket from lost state pension income as a result of the Government moving the pension age goal posts. However, there are moves you can make now to bridge this gap and increase your lost pension pot through investing wisely.

As the death toll in China soars, incidents are being reported across the world, with the virus now having a knock-on effect on travelling, the financial markets and is triggering rising panic.

Breakdown cover was identified as the least well-understood additional policy with more than two out of five wrongly believing all policies provide cover from the first installment.

New analysis reveals the top five money transfer markets for UK residents that account for nearly one third of the total sent home.

19% of those who completed a tax return in the past two years believe they may have made an error that resulted in lost income. In this article, we'll be taking a look at seven of the most common tax mistakes and how best to avoid them.

Here are some of the ways you can reduce your costs and find the cheapest car loans.

One in five UK bank customers happy to see branches close in favour of improved digital experiences.

The latest research by R&D tax credit experts, RIFT Research and Development Ltd, has looked at which names are driving the R&D sector when it comes to spend on sector innovation around the world.

“Two social systems are at work in all families. The homogeneous system of being similar, the drive for unity, and the heterogenous system of being dissimilar, the drive for autonomy. These systems create interpersonal tension and ambiguity that must be anticipated and managed in a legacy family and family business.”- Edgell Franklin Pyles, PhD Thomas Edward Pyles, MA.

They are all sectors that could be claiming for Research and Development Tax Credit, according to R&D specialists RIFT Research and Development Ltd.

The reality is that today’s CRO’s (Chief Revenue Officers) are facing extraordinary pressure to transform their departments – especially in the face of a growing shift towards digital commerce models. Once upon a time, a sales executive could rely on experience, insight, and interpersonal skills to close a deal and keep the customer buying – but today, that’s a much more difficult task.

Offshore banking is often associated with negative connotations in regard to tax evasion and criminal activity, but this couldn’t be further than the truth. Despite what you may hear, offshore banking is completely legal. Put simply, they’re bank accounts held in a country other than the one you permanently reside in. So why do you need one? James Turner, Director at York-based Turner Little, takes us through the benefits of banking offshore.