The best a dog can get: Your quick guide to pet insurance October 5, 2015 The average pet insurance claim is £679, and for dog owners it’s even higher at £683. But with only 20 per cent of pets insured, it’s clear insurance is not at the top of the priority list for most animal lovers. Even if an owner has savings which could cover a pet’s illness, insurance [...]
Fund fees in pounds and pence: How the upcoming regime of clear investment pricing will work October 5, 2015 Fees for investment funds will soon be displayed in pounds and pence, under new rules coming into force next year. Annabelle Williams gets the lowdown from the Investment Association on how it will work. MAKING CHARGES CLEAR You won’t have heard of Daniel Godfrey, but he leads the Investment Association, a body which has [...]
A place in the sun: Your guide to buying a home in Spain October 5, 2015 Many Londoners have a hankering to buy a second home abroad, and Spain ranks as one of the most popular places to own one. There are officially 750,000 British people living in Spain, and thousands more who own property but live in the UK. Spain’s economy was hit hard by the financial crisis, and [...]
EU refugee crisis: Europe’s ageing economies will benefit from migrants October 5, 2015 The US will be doomed to low growth of 2 per cent a year because of its demographics, according to one expert. There just aren’t enough working age people in the country, says Colin Moore from Columbia Threadneedle, and the workforce they do have is not productive enough. Economic growth is a function of [...]
Breaking the Bank: What will rising UK interest rates mean for P2P lending? October 5, 2015 The Bank of England will soon need to rediscover the use of its trigger finger and fire the starting gun on interest rate rises. Still expected to be slow and steady, tightening policy after nearly seven years of ultra cheap money will nevertheless have a sizeable impact on everything and everyone, pushing up borrowing costs [...]
Paying the professionals: Do I need a wealth manager? October 5, 2015 Annabelle Williams explains when it’s worth enlisting the help of a professional Getting your affairs in order is complicated and many people will have considered enlisting the services of a wealth manager, either on an ad-hoc or more permanent basis. But when do you need one, and what should you sort out first? DO [...]
Politics and markets: What risks do key upcoming elections pose? October 5, 2015 Far less of a close-run thing than most had expected, the Greek elections last month confounded predictions. Syriza, led by Alexis Tsipras, bagged 7 per cent more of the vote than conservative party New Democracy – with which it had been neck-andneck in opinion polls. Now, with a more centrist hard-left party at the helm, [...]
The Debt Emporium: An investor’s guide to debt-based crowdfunding October 5, 2015 Thanks to a growing array of alternative finance platforms, the funding landscape for SMEs has improved dramatically in the last five years. The 2014 Moving Mainstream report from Cambridge’s Judge Business School showed that debt-based crowdfunding platforms alone enabled companies to raise over £1bn – and that’s just in the UK. But the advent of [...]
Pensions reform: Lump sums don’t mean Lamborghinis as Britain’s savers are still being prudent October 5, 2015 Pensioners were expected to be buying up Lamborghinis in droves this summer, after landmark pension freedoms came into effect in April. The new system allows people over 55 to take some – or even all – of their pension as a lump sum. It wipes away old restrictions which only let retirees have a [...]
Powder White’s co-founder Fraser Ewart-White on ski lifts, Khazakstan and the credit crunch October 4, 2015 When do the best business ideas come to you? For Fraser Ewart-White, it was while swinging on a chair-lift 1500m above sea level. Ewart-White had recently left his job as head of buying at the entertainment company Blockbuster, turning his back on his career to study for an MBA and, among other great ambitions, to [...]
