National press mentions are a little bit like buses; you wait for ages for one and then three come along at once.
This weekend saw my words of financial wisdom published in The Times and The Telegraph.
Commenting in an article for David Budworth in The Times on Saturday, I explained that pension pots have the potential from April to become estate planning tools for savvy investors.
This is because the pension ‘death tax charge’ of 55% is being removed on 6th April, replaced with an income tax charge on beneficiaries if the original pension pot owner dies on or after their 75th birthday.
This article was prompted by a tweet I sent during the Distribution Technology Annual Conference in London last week, when Dr Ros Altmann suggested it could make sense to spend your property first, and preserve your pension pot until last.
You can read the article in full here, although you need a Times subscription to access it in full. If you have any questions about pensions and inheritance tax planning, please do get in touch.
Spice up your life
Commenting in The Telegraph, I offered an option for investors looking to spice up their investment portfolio.
My suggestion was an Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) with exposure to the oil price, which has experienced a dramatic fall over the last year and might have potential to deliver strong returns if oil prices return to their previous levels.
Of course this is a very high risk investment and its value can go down as well as up. Please seek professional independent financial advice before you invest your money, whether that’s in ‘spicy’ investments or something more mainstream.
Pounce on this
My third national press mention from the weekend was also in The Telegraph and was possibly my favourite PR request of the year to date.
I tend to hear from five or six journalists in a typical week, asking for my views on a wide range of Financial Planning and investing topics.
So when Melanie Wright came along and told me she was writing an article about what sort of investors cats would be, if they were investors, I needed very little purr-suasion to offer my comments.
Thankfully I was joined in the article by respected investment commentator Patrick Connolly, of Chase de Vere, so didn’t feel too foolish about getting involved in a slightly flippant piece.
If you’ve ever wondered what cats would be like as investors, you can read the article here.
Apart from property downsizing in retirement, spicy investment options and cats as investors, what caught your eye in the weekend personal finance pages?
