the-wright-financial

Newsletter 2026

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 10:35:12 GMT

Happy New Year to you all from The Wright Financial Company!

Another great year for investors took place over the last 12 months! That’s despite the downturn we had between January to April last year due to Mr. Trumps tariffs! Smoothed funds have performed well with Prudential Bond holders and ISA holders enjoying no falls at all now since August 2023. LV smoothed funds have also performed well. For clients investing on various platforms such as Fidelity & Quilter double figure returns have been achieved in a number of funds. Scottish Widows pension portfolios are showing superb results with portfolio one returning 15.4% and even the cautious Portfolio four returning 10.4% over the year.

What IHT changes were announced in the Budget?

From April 2027, ISA rules will change. The key updates are: The overall £20,000 annual ISA allowance stays the same for people under 65, the cash ISA allowance will be capped at £12,000. People aged 65 and over will still be able to contribute £20,000 to a cash if they prefer. The cash cap only applies to the cash ISA. You can still put your full £20,000 annual allowance into a stocks and shares ISA or innovative finance ISA if you prefer. As part of the ISA reform, the annual ISA allowance will be frozen at £20,000 until 2030.

Investment bonds are becoming increasingly popular with changes that have taken place to capital gains tax annual allowances. An investment bond gives you the potential for medium to long-term growth on your money, over 5-10 years or more, along with fund management expertise. You also get access to a mixture of funds, which are looked after by professional investment managers. Of course, like any investment, the value can go down as well as up so you might not get back what you put in. Investment bonds are usually classed as a single premium ‘life insurance’ policy because a portion of your ‘life insurance’ policy can be paid out upon death, but they're really an investment product.

So, if your need is solely for life insurance, you might want to research other more tailored options. There may also be a minimum investment amount that may range typically between £5,000 and £10,000. You can withdraw up to 5% per annum of the amount invested without paying any immediate tax. Tax rules can change, and the impact of taxation and any tax relief depends on your circumstances, including where you live.

Types of investment bonds

Investment bonds mainly fall into two categories, onshore and offshore. The main difference is their tax treatment. In high-level terms, those onshore are subject to UK corporation tax, which is offset by your provider, while offshore bonds are issued from outside the UK and the returns roll up gross of tax in the funds, apart from Withholding Tax, as described below. Offshore bonds may also offer a wider choice of funds.

Onshore investment bonds

UK Investment Bonds are non-income-producing investments and so have a different tax treatment from other UK based investments. This can provide valuable tax planning opportunities for individuals. The funds underlying the bond are subject to UK life fund taxation meaning that you're treated as having paid Income Tax at the basic rate on the amount of your gain. This notional tax is not repayable in any circumstances. You will have no liability to Capital Gains Tax or basic rate Income Tax on bond gains.

Taking withdrawals from the bond

An investment bond could therefore be a potentially tax-efficient way of holding a range of investment funds in one place. You can withdraw up to 5% each year of the amount you have paid into your bond without paying any immediate tax on it. This allowance is cumulative so any unused part of this 5% limit can be carried forward to future years (although the total cannot be greater than 100% of the amount paid in). You will often see this referred to as the "5% tax-deferred allowance". However, if you decide to take more than the accumulated 5% tax-deferred allowance, you will create a gain equal to the amount taken over the allowance. Your insurance company will send you details of the chargeable event gain arising for you to notify HMRC of the gain, upon which, you might be liable for additional Income Tax.

Please contact Richard for further help and advice on 01937 372132 or email rwright@thewrightfinancial.co.uk or admin@thewrightfinancial.co.uk

Prize Draw time –All you have to do is answer a question. The answer is somewhere in this Newsletter, email the answer back to: - admin@thewrightfinancial.co.uk 4 lucky winners picked at random will receive M&S vouchers.

This year’s question is: - From April 2027 what is the maximum investment into a cash ISA for a 50-year-old saver? Closing date 30 April 2026.

The Wright Financial Company Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. FCA Registration number: 926034. The Wright Financial Company Limited Registered No: 11793303. Registered in England. Registered Address: Tadcaster Enterprise Park, Commer House, Station Road, Tadcaster LS24 9JF

Newsletter 2025

Fri, 28 Mar 2025 09:49:37 GMT

Happy New Year to you all from The Wright Financial Company!

A bumper year for investors took place over the last 12 months! Lower risk

investors in smoothed Prufunds who prefer lower volatility have seen their

Pension & ISA accounts increase by 7% after charges are deducted and

Investment Bonds by 5.8%. Liverpool Victoria (LV) Smoothed funds have also

performed well with Bond holders seeing up to 9.3% growth, ISA and Pension

holders are seeing up to 12% growth over the year thanks to the inclusion of

BlackRock funds within the portfolios! Non-Smoothed funds for clients investing on various platforms such as Fidelity & Quilter who have a higher risk tolerance have seen the best returns for several years with Jupiter North American equity (29.5%) and Invesco Global equity (21.7%) being the standout funds here. Ethical funds have also bounced back well and Scottish Widows pension portfolios continue to perform.

What IHT changes were announced in the Budget?

At the moment, inherited pensions are not counted for inheritance tax purposes but will be included from April 2025. Rachel Reeves also said shares listed on the AIM stock exchange in estates would be taxed at 20%. From April 2026, tax will be payable for the first time on inherited agricultural assets worth

more than £1m. There are a number of exemptions, as well as allowances for passing on a home to children, or grandchildren. These include any estate that is valued at less than £325,000 (now fixed until 2030) anyone who leaves their estate to a husband, wife or civil partner or somebody who leaves it to certain charities or community sports clubs.

There are additional, significant allowances. If the person who dies leaves their home to their children or grandchildren, the threshold goes up to £500,000. Married or civil partners can also transfer assets free of tax between each other, so one partner automatically inherits the other's unused allowance. So, the estate of someone who can use their late partner's allowance, and leaves a home to their children or grandchildren, won't be liable for inheritance tax on anything under £1m. Anyone can give away up to £3,000 a year, and pay no tax. This is known as the annual exemption. If unused, this allowance can be carried over to the following year, up to a maximum of £6,000. In addition, if you can show that the gift was funded out of income - as opposed to savings - you will not pay inheritance tax. There are also allowances for wedding gifts and small gifts for Birthdays and other special occasions. However, if someone gives a bigger sum, then dies within seven years, then the money may be used as part of inheritance tax calculations.

Bed and ISA might sound complicated, but it's in fact a very easy process. It simply involves selling investments that you hold outside an ISA and using the proceeds to open or top up your existing ISA - all with a single instruction. You can choose to repurchase the same investments, buy

another investment or just hold cash. It's flexible, cost-effective and is a great way to make use of your valuable ISA allowance. This applies to all clients holding Investments in Non-ISA Products such as General Investment accounts or Investment Bonds. All clients should take advantage of this process which in the long term will give you the potential of better investment returns. Investment Bonds are subject to Income tax and although you have no personal liability to basic rate tax, the fund you are in will pay tax so investment growth would be lower than it would be if you held monies in same fund within an ISA, also if gains in a bond on partial or full encashment push you into a higher rate of tax bracket you would be faced with a tax bill whereas in an Isa there is no income tax or Capital gains tax liability. The same applies to a General Investment account (some providers call this a Collective Investment) except here you are mitigating capital Gains tax (CGT). The allowances for CGT do not roll up each year like the tax deferred allowances in a bond. So, if you have no other monies to invest in ISA this year get in touch for advice on this important area of tax planning, it applies to all clients holding Investment bonds and/or General investment accounts, don’t delay the end of the tax year looms.

Your Tax-Free ISA allowance this year remains at £20,000. You can of course incorporate part cash and part Bed and ISA to use your full allowance, for instance a contribution of say £10,000 from your own bank account and £10,000 as a bed and ISA is allowable, meaning you have used the full allowance for the tax year. Just a reminder that a transfer from one ISA to another ISA (cash or stocks and shares ISA)

is unlimited as those contributions were deemed to have been made in previous tax years.

Please contact Richard for further help and advice on 01937 372132 or email

rwright@thewrightfinancial.co.uk or admin@thewrightfinancial.co.uk

Prize Draw time –All you have to do is answer a question. The answer is somewhere in this Newsletter, email the answer back to: -

admin@thewrightfinancial.co.uk 4 lucky winners picked at random will receive M&S vouchers.

This year’s question is: -What is the current ISA allowance? Closing date 30th April 2025.

Newsletter 2024

Tue, 06 Feb 2024 10:25:32 GMT

Happy New Year to you all from The Wright Financial Company!

Well, its ended up being a much better year in the financial markets. The last 6 months have seen the FTSE 100 index increase by 5.51% & the FTSE Mid 250 by 6.66% (at the time of going to print). The USA main index has increased by 10.45% and the German Dax by 5.91%. India, now a major world market, has increased by 11.54%in the same 6- month period.

Click here to download the Newsletter →

Newsletter 2023

Tue, 28 Feb 2023 15:59:33 GMT

The Wright Financial Company would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year.

We have had a very trying year in the financial markets. Only the UK’s FTSE 100 index and the Singapore Straits Times index have made gains and both of those have increased by just 1% in 2022. As you are aware the issues that have turned the markets volatile are increased inflation, fear of recession, increasing interest rates and of course the war in Ukraine.

Click here to download the Newsletter →

I'm not worried about the investment markets - here is why!

Tue, 04 Oct 2022 12:06:59 GMT

In February of this year, I wrote to you to give my take on what was happening in the markets around the world. I am writing to you again today to tell you that I am still firmly standing by my statements I made at that time. I want to update you and hopefully promote calm and patience amongst all of my clients.

The problems that started a downturn last November still exist, the war in Ukraine that began at the beginning of the year still rages on, inflation and interest rates have increased and that new kid on the block the Mini Budget has caused enhanced volatility in the last week or so. Historically these issues have a relatively short-term effect on the markets. The short-term could be another 6 months or more but this is not a crash, it’s a slow downturn with a lot of volatility and uncertainty. During the Covid downturn in 2020 the FTSE Mid 250 fell to around 12,000 points, today it stands at over 17,0000 points. The world’s strongest market is the FTSE100, as lots of companies in the 100 trade in dollars so the low pound does have some benefits. Also, there are a number of Gas, Oil producers, Banking and Tobacco companies in the Index whose share prices are doing well and paying good dividends, these of course are not the type of companies that ethical clients would be interested in.

So why am I not at all worried? Markets will bounce back at some point I’m certain of that, I just do not know when. I, like all of my clients, am a long-term investor and we will all be holding monies in our investments until the day we die and then our beneficiaries will take charge of them. The longest Bull Run in the markets in my lifetime was between 1974 and 1987 when share prices went up and up like an express train. During that same period, we had interest rates as high as 17.5%, inflation hit a high of over 26%, we had at least 2 recessions, 3 million people were unemployed and we had a war that we were actively involved in, a much worse situation than we face today but markets shrugged them off and lived with the problems.

My advice is as always, continue investing regularly if you are in an investment that you pay into monthly, if you have more monies to invest do it, as in both these cases you will eventually see great value. Don’t even think about disinvesting, if you do you will suffer a real loss and then suffer regrets when the market turns around again.

I am always available to talk by phone, Video call or email and please, if you have any concerns or questions, do not hesitate to call me.

Doctors could claw back £11m in LTA charges

Tue, 02 Nov 2021 12:28:46 GMT

Several hundred doctors could collectively save £11m if they apply for lifetime allowance protection.

A Freedom of Information request submitted by Quilter found 413 members of the NHS Pension Scheme who have retired and paid lifetime allowance tax charges could have benefited if they applied for protections.

As the LTA tax charge is 25 per cent, these members could collectively have saved £11,094,979.

But as Quilter pointed out, these doctors are able to apply for individual protection retrospectively.

It has now raised this issue directly with the NHS Business Services Authority, which is going to contact the impacted members and alert them to their options.

Graham Crossley, NHS pension specialist at Quilter, said: “This Freedom of Information data illustrates how an extremely complicated pension taxation system in the UK can cause significant numbers of doctors to fall through the cracks and ultimately pay much more in pension tax than needed.

Source: FT Adviser article

Writing life insurance in trust

Tue, 27 Jul 2021 09:07:58 GMT

Did you know that you could avoid inheritance tax and maximise the pay-out for your loved ones by writing your life insurance in trust?

When taking out life insurance, you’ll want to set it up in such a way that the beneficiaries of your policy do not have to pay tax and that the policy pays out quickly without having to go through probate. Putting your policy into trust is a great way to do this. New policies can be put into trust at onset and existing Life policies can be put into trust at any time during the term of the policy.

What is a trust?

A trust is an asset that is set aside to benefit a particular person (or group of people) called the beneficiary. Until the beneficiary is intended to benefit from the trust, it is managed by a trustee. For example, if you’ve set up a trust for your children, then either your spouse or another relative might look after it until say, they reach 18. Life insurance policies can be put into a trust (known as writing it in trust), affecting the manner of the pay out in the event of your death.

Avoid inheritance tax and probate

One of the biggest benefits of writing your life insurance policy in trust is that you can actually sidestep paying inheritance tax as the value of the policy will not count towards the value of your legal estate. Normally, when you die, the value of your legal estate is calculated and anything beyond the threshold of £325,000 is taxed at 40%. (The estate may also qualify for Main residence nil rate bad of up to £175,000 providing the property is left to a direct descendant) If you have out a conventional life insurance policy, then the value of it will be included in the calculation of your legal estate. However, if your life insurance is placed in a trust, then the proceeds from it will be sent directly to the beneficiaries and not to your estate, therefore not counting towards the inheritance tax threshold.

Another benefit of writing a life insurance policy in trust is that the whole process of the pay-out is somewhat more streamlined, as you don’t need to go through probate.

Normally, when the time comes for your life insurance policy to pay out, a legal process must be undergone by which the executor’s authority to deal with your assets is confirmed. This is known as the granting of probate.

This can be a long process, particularly when there is no will (known as intestacy), but even if there is one it can take a while.

If your life insurance is put into a trust, then probate can be bypassed altogether; all that is needed for the policy to be paid out is for a death certificate to be provided.

There are a number of different trusts you can use – a Discretionary trust is the most common or sometimes a bare trust may be used, its important that you understand the differences and choose what is right for you. A discretionary trust is one in which the trustee has a wide discretion in relation to the dealings with the trust property or monies. A bare trust is one in which the trustee has no discretion, but has nominal control, and only one duty, namely to convey the property or monies on demand to a specified party.

For further Information please book an appointment through this site or ring me on 01977 678066 or 07764 923528

Newsletter 2021

Tue, 19 Jan 2021 10:42:36 GMT

A belated happy new year to all of my clients.

2020 will go down in history as one of our darkest years without a doubt, but there have been some good things to come out of this awful pandemic. The way communities have pulled together and shown that in most we are caring human beings has been heartwarming. How amazing that the worlds leading scientists and pharmaceutical giants have come together and enabled us to be able to start a mass roll out of vaccinations just 11 months after COVID-19 became a global emergency. These are things the world now needs to build on. We can now see a larger light at the end of this tunnel as we all hope for a better 2021. The Wright Financial Company was launched in November and we are now ready for all the challenges that lie ahead. As an adviser I’m lucky enough to have been able to work throughout all the various lockdowns and restrictions and support you all through some tricky and daunting times over the last 12 months. Markets fell rapidly and heavily in February and March and then rallied and rebounded to see a position where most of the Far East and the USA markets are now actually higher than where they were in January 2020. The UK and EU markets are not quite there yet but with the Brexit deal secured and vaccines rolling out there is more confidence in these markets.

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"Financial advice provides £47,000 wealth uplift in a decade" – new research from Royal London and the International Longevity Centre

Tue, 17 Nov 2020 13:37:40 GMT

Receiving professional financial advice between 2001 and 2006 resulted in a total boost to wealth (in pensions and financial assets) of £47,706 in 2014/16

• The benefits of financial advice are potentially greater for those we term “just getting by” than for those we consider “affluent”

• Fostering an ongoing relationship with a financial advisor leads to better financial outcomes

Quantifying the value of financial advice has always been a challenge because people who take financial advice have different characteristics to those who do not. But what if it was possible to control for those differences and isolate a pure ‘advice effect’? This was the challenge set by Royal London to researchers at the International Longevity Centre – UK (ILC).

And new research, What it’s worth: Revisiting the value of financial advice from the ILC suggests that, holding other factors constant, those who took advice around the turn of the century were on average over £47,000 better off a decade later than those who did not.

This result comes from detailed analysis of the government’s Wealth and Assets Survey which has tracked the wealth of thousands of people over two yearly ‘waves’ since 2004-06. The wealth uplift from advice comprises an extra £31,000 of pension wealth and over £16,000 extra in non-pension financial wealth.

One of the key findings from the research is that the proportionate impact of taking advice is greater for those of more modest means. For the ‘affluent’ group identified in the research, the uplift from taking advice is an extra 24% in financial wealth (eg shares, ISAs, bank accounts) compared with 35% for the non-affluent group. On pension wealth, the uplift is 11% for the affluent group compared with 24% for the non-affluent.

An important explanation for the improved outcomes for those who take advice is that they are more likely to invest in assets which offer greater returns though with greater risk. Across the whole sample, the impact of taking advice is to add around eight percentage points to the probability of investing in equities.

The research also found that those who were still taking advice at the end of the period had pension pots on average fifty per cent higher than those who had only taken advice at the beginning of the period. However, this result is not controlled for other differences in characteristics, so may at least in part reflect greater engagement by those who have larger pension pots.

Commenting, Steve Webb, Director of Policy at Royal London said:

“Many of those who receive financial advice can testify to its value but it has always been difficult to quantify. This research uses the latest statistical methods to identify a pure ‘advice effect’ and it is strikingly large. If financial advice can add £47,000 to your wealth over a decade compared with not taking advice, it is incumbent on government, regulators, providers and the advice profession to work together to make sure that more people are sharing in this uplift”.

International Longevity Centre Director, David Sinclair added:

“The simple fact is that those who take advice are likely to be richer in retirement. But it is still the case that far too many people who take out investments and pensions do not use financial advice. And only a minority of the population has seen a financial adviser. We must now work together to get more people through the ‘front door’ of advice”.

What it’s worth argues that industry and policymakers should work together to:

• Ensure advisors can communicate clearly about the costs and benefits of advice

• Harnessing technology as a route to deliver quality advice at a lower cost

• Ensuring that those who do not receive professional advice can still achieve good outcomes

Tom Dunbar, distribution director at Royal London Intermediary, added:

“These findings build on those of the previous research and clearly show the impact financial advice is having on people’s overall wealth. This effect is shown across the earnings range from mass affluent to high net worth and shows the great work being done by advisers across the UK. As an industry we need to do much more to promote the benefits of good quality ongoing advice.”

Source: Royal London

The Market Overview

Fri, 09 Oct 2020 14:20:25 GMT

From Late February onwards I was sending regular email reports to all clients regarding the Market downturn.

My stance from the start was that markets would definitely recover but I would not be able to put a date on when that would be. This downturn was nowhere near as severe as the 2008 “credit crunch” which at its worst saw the FTSE 100 index fall by 51%. The “Covid Crunch” was relatively short lived, the UK market fell by 38% between Mid-February and its lowest on March 24 ^th but was extremely volatile seeing markets fall by 11% in a day and then rebound by 9% the following day. We then saw this amazing V shaped recovery in the markets that even I did not expect and if anyone had told me where we would be today back in March I think I would have directed them to the nearest Psychiatric department!

Extremely low interest rates and inflation have played a part, as has Quantitative Easing (QE), which is a monetary policy whereby a central bank buys government bonds or other financial assets in order to inject money into the economy to expand economic activity. It is an unconventional form of monetary policy, it is usually used when inflation is very low or negative, and standard expansionary monetary policy has become ineffective. Other government stimulus methods including the Furlough Scheme have played a part without a doubt.

The China Index and South Korea fell the least and have completely recovered. The American Markets are almost there as are some European indexes such as Germany are also very near. The UK has still got a way to go though and the FTSE 100 especially has unique issues as almost 2/3rds of this index actually trades in foreign currency (mostly US Dollars) so has a tendency to be effected by currency fluctuations. Good quality funds have outperformed markets by some way since the downturn and if you invest in an actively managed fund and you are not getting better than market growth you need to ask your adviser or the fund manager why, because you are paying management fees to these people and need to see value for that.

The short term future? You can never second guess the markets in the short term but if we end up getting this elusive Brexit deal markets will certainly go up sharply and of course a successfully rolled out vaccine is bound to do the same. No deal may see modest falls but my feeling is that this is already priced in.

The best and worst performing funds tend to be funds with narrow themes such as technology which is booming at present. Technology is high risk and can be volatile so be aware of that, Latin American funds and Equity Income funds are struggling and should be avoided for the time being. One of my favourite funds is a multi-asset fully actively managed fund (holding shares, fixed interest and cash) which invests purely in ethical companies, the Liontrust Sustainable Future Managed fund, which has grown by 18% in the last 12 months. For more information and to discuss if this is suitable for your needs ring me for a chat or mail me through the contact page.