Enhanced and Impaired-Life Annuities

What is an annuity?

An annuity is where you exchange a lump sum of money for an income payable for the rest of your life. This can be either a lump sum of money from your savings (Purchase Life Annuity) or from your pension plan (Compulsory Purchase Annuity). The rate of return you will get will generally depend your age, sex and the annuity rate set by the provider. However, there are circumstances where you may be eligible for enhanced or impaired-life annuities, thus giving you a higher income.

At least one in three of us could be eligible for a higher income when we retire. All you have to do is buy a type of annuity that pays out a higher income if you're in a poor state of health. The trouble is that most of us don't realise it.

An enhanced annuity works on the basis that you will have a shorter life-span than someone in a better state of health - essentially using up your pension fund more quickly by giving you access to more money each year.

Protecting Your Business

Talk to any business owner and ask if their business is insured and the automatic response is, yes.

Often or not they are referring to insurance against the risk of fire, theft, flood and liability. But then ask what would happen if one of the business owners or key members of staff passed away unexpectedly, or was diagnosed with a serious illness that meant he or she could never work again? Whilst buildings can be rebuilt and stock replaced, the same cannot be said of an individual.

Research carried out on the Institute of Directors in 2011 found that 39% of businesses could not survive more than 18 months following the death or critical illness of a key person. A key person could be one of the owners, an essential employee or even a major customer.

Investing money? Then invest your time first – in planning

When looking at financial planning, it's just that, planning. We have seen a long period of turmoil in the markets, clients feeling uneasy about where to invest. Even the banks do not have the same secure appeal they once appeared to have.

So what do you do? All is not doom and gloom. We have seen many clients benefit from excellent returns over the last year as some markets showed signs of recovery. There are so many places to consider investing and many people, given low interest rates and therefore poor deposit returns, are now starting to once again consider alternatives.

We are thinking about you and your family – Are you?

Life is full of statistics, whether they are relevant to an interest such as sports, something political or on issues that affect where we live. Some we take an interest in and others we ignore, maybe because they do not affect us or we just don't want to look!

However there is one set of statistics that affect us all, whether directly or indirectly.

In the UK, almost 1 in 3 men aged between 40 and 70 will get a critical illness - that's 32 in every 100. For women, it's 1 in 4 or 25 in every 100. Even if you're not the 1, someone you know or love will be. Of these 32 men and 25 women:

· 15 men and 17 women will get cancer

· 10 men and 3 women will have a heart attack

· 5 men and 3 women will suffer a stroke

· 2 men and 1 woman will have Coronary Artery By-Pass surgery

· 1 women in every 100 will develop Multiple Sclerosis

Pension Reform - Auto-enrolment

This guide gives information on the new employers duties introduced by the Pensions Act 2008.

The Pensions Act 2008 - Pension Reform

The Pensions Act 2008 contains a number of measures aimed at encouraging greater private pension saving. From 2012 all eligible workers, who are not already in a good quality workplace scheme, will be automatically enrolled into either their employers' pension scheme or a new savings vehicle, NEST (National Employment Savings Trust), formerly known as personal accounts. To encourage participation, employees' pension contributions will be supplemented by contributions from employers and tax relief.

The overall aim of the government's pension reform strategy is to get more people saving for retirement. All employers in the UK, small and large, will need to take action to comply with their new responsibilities under the Pensions Act 2008.

With-Profit Investors Preparing to Escape

With-profit bonds were one of the most popular types of investments a few years ago, with over 495,000 policies sold in 2001 alone. Now ten years on, investors remaining in with-profits are desperate to release their capital but with high exit penalties, known as market value reductions (MVRs), it has been expensive to make withdrawals.

During 2011, £15 billion held by almost 500,000 investors in with-profits bonds will reach its tenth anniversary, triggering a penalty-free exit period for many of them. Research shows that there are about 90 with-profit bond funds that have penalty-free exit dates this year with many of them paying a typical bonus of just 1% in 2010, less than the average ISA.

Financial Planning – ISAs