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.

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.

Are you going to invest in Equities, Property, Gilts, Bonds, Cash, Commodities etc, or a combination of these?

But this is not your only decision, once you know what asset class you are going to invest in (Equities, Property, Gilts, Bonds, Cash, Commodities etc) there are many sub sections to these investments. For example, Equities can be in different parts of the world, UK, North America, Europe, Asia, Emerging Markets etc.  So you need to decide on that.

Further more, there are more sub sections such as large, medium or small cap equities.

As you can see the choice is huge and that is ONLY ONE asset class. You need to consider all these options for all of the other areas to.

So the above is too difficult and you decide that you will invest in a “Managed Fund” so that the decisions are made for you, but how do you know the Managed Fund is any good and will provide you returns? How do you know that the investment risk rating of the fund matches the level of risk you want to take. Managed funds can range for 3 up to 9 out of 10 on investment risk ratings depending on how the fund manager invests the money! Would you want to take that much investment risk with your money without knowing?

This shows that you should get professional help in organising your investments and pensions, to ensure the money works as hard as possible for you.

Please feel free to contact Thompson Financial Consulting and we will be happy to guide you through the right investment choices for you.

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.

An easy way that people get caught out is on their bank accounts. Any interest that is earned is automatically taxed at the basic tax rate (20%). A non tax payer then has to claim this back. Often this does not happen and the tax has been paid when it shouldn’t have been.

An easy way around this is register an HRMC form – R85. Your bank or building society will be happy to give you this form. Complete it and hand it back to the bank or building society and they will lodge this on your behalf. Importantly, the bank will then automatically pay your interest WITHOUT deducting tax. This means you don’t have to waste time re-claim tax that is rightfully yours.

If you require any help or advice with your savings or investments then please feel free to contact Thompson Financial Consulting we will be happy to help.

There is a solution to this; the top tip is NOT to cash them in, unless you actually need the money for something. This relates to cash ISA’s or investment linked ISA’s.

It is much better to SWITCH the ISA to another provider. By switching you can then get better performance or a better interest rate on your ISA monies. If you surrender and cash in your ISA, then you will loose the tax efficient status that the ISA gives you.

If you need any help or advice on the correct ISA for you, please contact Thompson Financial Consulting and we’ll be happy to help.

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.

But what if your spouse has a lower income tax level than you? The sensible thing to do would be to put some or all the money into your spouses name so that any interest received would be taxed at your spouse’s lower income tax rate. Simple but very effective!

Always check with your tax adviser and financial adviser before making any changes to your savings or investments to ensure you don’t trigger any other taxes, but on most occasions you can prevent paying unnecessary tax to the HRMC.

If you would like any help or advice on this matter please contact Thompson Financial Consulting Ltd

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.