Ipswich Financial Adviser

If you are a First Time Buyer, Re-mortgaging or a Home mover you need to make sure you are aware of any hidden costs that may be payable when you apply for your mortgage.

Lenders, for a long time, have had arrangement fees; usually any thing from a few hundred pounds up to 3% of the mortgage amount. However, I am now seeing completion fees being charged, up front, as well. These are usually in the region of £250. This is something to bear in mind when comparing different lenders.

Also,  the arrangement fee needs to be looked at VERY carefully. This is because, you may get a very competitive interest rate with a large arrangement fee attached to it and this can look very appealing. There is a sting in the tail though, that if your mortgage is not large (typically in excess of £250,000) then you will actually being paying more for your mortgage overall with the high arrangement fee product. The better option would be to take a slightly higher interest rate product with a lower arrangement fee. This will mean that  overall, you will actually pay less for your mortgage. Again, this is a very important point to check out and compare when looking for your new mortgage product.

As can be seen, there are ways that you could end up paying a lot more for your mortgage without realising it. Talk to the experts at Thompson Financial Consulting and we will ensure you get the right mortgage deal.

Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.

With the end of the tax year (05/04/2010) fast approaching ,everybody should review their use of Individual Savings Accounts (ISA’s).

These are tax efficient wrappers for your money, so that there is no capital gains tax or income tax on the proceeds that are generated from investing in an ISA.

If you are under the age of 50 you can invest up to £7,200 in any one tax year . The over 50’s, get a more generous allowance, they can invest up to £10,200. The good news is that the higher limit will apply to all savers from the 6th April 2010.

You can open one cash ISA and one stocks and shares ISA each tax year. Up to £3,600 can be invested in a cash ISA for the under 50’s and £5,100 for the over 50’s. The remainder of your allowance can be invested in a stocks and shares ISA. Alternatively, you can just open a single stocks and shares ISA and invest the full amount in that.

You do not have to invest up to the maximum limits, you can pay into an ISA any amount up to the limits available. This could be by a lump sum payment or by savings regularly.

To make the most of your ISA allowance, speak to the experts at Thompson Financial Consulting, we will be happy to advise and help you make the right financial decisions.

The value of investments and the income from them can go down as well as up and an investor may not get back the amount invested. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.

Interest rates were today held at 0.5% by the bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee. This marks one year since they hit the record low of 0.5%.

When taking out an equity release product on your home, you want to make sure you get as much help as possible.  You also want to find out from your advisers how much support and advice they are going to give you. For example, your adviser should be giving you advice as to how state benefits are potentially affected, if you take out an equity release scheme.

You will also want an adviser that gives you ongoing support after the equity release has been sorted out. You may have further questions or information sent from the equity release provider that you need clarification or advice on.

You will also need a solicitor when you are taking out an equity release scheme and you should ensure that the solicitor has experience in dealing with these products so that the legal aspects are taken care of professionally.

Finally, you should do your own homework so that you have some knowledge about equity release. A great place to start is the Financial  Services Authority (FSA) website for consumers http://www.moneymadeclear.co.uk I have included a link below to the equity release pages on this website. http://www.moneymadeclear.fsa.gov.uk/products/equity_release/equity_release.html

To ensure you get the right advice contact Thompson Financial Consulting Ltd where we have an equity release specialist to help you now and to give you ongoing advice and support.

At Thompson Financial Consulting we often get contacted by potential client’s interested in Equity Release or Lifetime Mortgages as they can be know.

It is surprising when we ask questions, that many of these people do not know how much money they may need or require. If you are considering Equity Release then you need to look at what your current and future needs may be.

If you only need a small amount of money to start with, but you may need more in the future, the best plan is to take what you need and then release further money from your property when you need to. Many of the Equity Release providers will set a limit up to the amount you can draw out. This means you can plan your withdrawals when you need them rather than take all the money immediately and then have a larger amount of interest adding up against the debt.

By taking the right amount of money when you need it, you will potentially preserve more of the equity in your property to pass to beneficiaries, when the time comes.

If you need any help or advice with regards to Equity Release then please contact the Thompson Financial Consulting and we will be happy to help and give you the right advice.

If you have climbed the corporate ladder or been successful at running your own business and are earning in excess of £130,000 per year then you need to be fully aware of the restricting tax relief, on pension contributions, that will affect you. 

You need to make sure you have calculated your “Net Relevant Income” correctly to see if you have actually earned above the £130,000.  This includes your income that is chargeable to income tax and pension contributions paid under a net pay arrangement. The calculation does allow you to deduct certain losses and reliefs, relievable pension contributions subject to a maximum deduction of £20,000 and donations that qualify for gift aid. Finally, if a salary sacrifice has been agreed previously, then this may have to be added back into the income figures depending on certain rules.

The calculation is not straight forward and you have to do this for the 2007/2008, 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 tax years. If in any one of those years your income was at or above £130,000 then the new pension tax relief restrictions could have an affect on you.

I would strongly advise that if your income is near or above the relevant figure that you get appropriate financial advice to ensure you make your financial planning as efficient as possible.

Please contact Thompson Financial Consulting and we will be happy to give you the right advice and help you through the pension changes.

Bank of England base rate stays at 0.5%.

The Bank of England has frozen its quantitative easing programme and kept interest rates on hold for another month.

Interest rates will be kept at 0.5% for now. This is the 11th consecutive month that the rate has been at 0.5%.

It should be expected that rates could rise later this year, after inflation hit almost 3% last month.

When you are looking to invest money or invest within a pension, it is of paramount importance that you diversify where you invest your money.

There are many different asset classes that you can invest in such as, Equities, Bonds, Gilts, Property, Cash and Commodities to name some of them.

Ensuring that you invest in a spread of these means that you are not backing a one horse race. If you only invest in one area, you stand a good chance that you may not get the returns you had hoped for. However, if you spread your money between the various asset classes you ensure that you can make the most of all the investment opportunities that are available.

By diversifying you get the benefit of lowering your investment risk, but with the upside of potentially greater returns, a win / win situation.

You should always get professional help to ensure you have the right mix of investments and that the investment risk you want to take is matched by the spread of investments you put your money into. 

Getting the combination right can mean the difference between making a return or loosing money.

Please feel free to contact Thompson Financial Consulting Ltd, should you require any help or advice ion planning your investments or pensions.

The value of investments and the income from them can go down as well as up and an investor may not get back the amount invested. Past performance is not a guide to future performance.

Breaking News – Thompson Financial Consulting is now authorised directly by the Financial Services Authority (FSA).

We have always used a third party to oversea our rules and regulations, however, with the ongoing growth and business development at Thompson Financial Consulting we are now going to be directly regulated by the FSA.

This is a fantastic move for us and will allow us to be more flexible in the way we help and advise our clients.

Thompson Financial Consulting looks forward to helping many more people plan their financial futures!!

One of the charges that mortgage companies add onto their mortgage products is the redemption penalty. This is charged if you pay off your mortgage or switch to another product or provider during the initial period of time your interest rate is set up over.

You may not think that this is important as you may feel that you would not be in a position to want to change your mortgage. However, you never know what may be around the next corner and you may want to change your mortgage for some reason.

You want to ensure that if you do have a redemption penalty than you are as certain as you can be that you will not be changing your mortgage. If you do change the mortgage product, it can be a very expensive cost to pay the redemption penalty.

You need to take all your financial circumstances and potential future financial needs into account to ensure you get the right mortgage product for you now, as well as into the future.

Our advice would be to get professional mortgage advice to ensure you get the right mortgage product for you. Please contact Thompson Financial Consulting and we will be happy to help you.

Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.