A friend of mine is with SJP (yes yes, we and he know now), but the point here is that he asked them to advise on partial/full encashment figures for his International bond on the 2nd March and is yet to receive the figures. He received an apology for the slow response, merely asking for his current salary.
I would dread to think about the SLA when he comes to ask for the actual withdrawal and account closure! What would you do/advise in this situation?
Who did he ask ?? His advisor or a dept within SJP ? Any decent adviser worth his salt could get the figures by close of play.
He asked his advisor. Usually quite sharpish in his replies, but seems to have gone missing since he's hinted at closing the account soon.
Well, to answer your original question, the first start is to make a formal complaint to SJP, not his adviser. That might put a rocket up their arses, and by result, one up his. He can also ask that any ongoing fees are stopped with immediate effect. (there is currently an ad on the radio by an ambulance chasing solicitor asking for people to come forward who are being charged an ongoing fee from SJP but not receiving a service from them).
This is standard SJP playbook, as detailed ad nauseum in the Sunday Times over the years. They'll drag everything out as long as they can.
So, the SJP chap finally replied to my friend with a calculation passed from the "Central Bond Team", aka a bloody calculator no doubt. Guess what, as this advice was asked from the 3rd of March, alongside the fact that SJP take upto 14 days for a withdrawal to process (manual paperwork of course to drag things along further), the clock has timed out for him to partially withdraw his gain from the bond in the 23/24 tax year, to apply to this current year's self assessment as income.
As he wants to exit SJP, he could fully surrender the policy in the upcoming tax year, but due to the gain, it will take him into the 40pc tax bracket for that amount. So he may be best served by splitting it into a 2 year plan. This has all been planned by the Company hasn't it?
A friend of mine is with SJP (yes yes, we and he know now), but the point here is that he asked them to advise on partial/full encashment figures for his International bond on the 2nd March and is yet to receive the figures. He received an apology for the slow response, merely asking for his current salary.
I would dread to think about the SLA when he comes to ask for the actual withdrawal and account closure! What would you do/advise in this situation?
Who did he ask ?? His advisor or a dept within SJP ? Any decent adviser worth his salt could get the figures by close of play.
He asked his advisor. Usually quite sharpish in his replies, but seems to have gone missing since he's hinted at closing the account soon.
Well, to answer your original question, the first start is to make a formal complaint to SJP, not his adviser. That might put a rocket up their arses, and by result, one up his. He can also ask that any ongoing fees are stopped with immediate effect. (there is currently an ad on the radio by an ambulance chasing solicitor asking for people to come forward who are being charged an ongoing fee from SJP but not receiving a service from them).
This is standard SJP playbook, as detailed ad nauseum in the Sunday Times over the years. They'll drag everything out as long as they can.
So, the SJP chap finally replied to my friend with a calculation passed from the "Central Bond Team", aka a bloody calculator no doubt. Guess what, as this advice was asked from the 3rd of March, alongside the fact that SJP take upto 14 days for a withdrawal to process (manual paperwork of course to drag things along further), the clock has timed out for him to partially withdraw his gain from the bond in the 23/24 tax year, to apply to this current year's self assessment as income.
As he wants to exit SJP, he could fully surrender the policy in the upcoming tax year, but due to the gain, it will take him into the 40pc tax bracket for that amount. So he may be best served by splitting it into a 2 year plan. This has all been planned by the Company hasn't it?
Imo, No. It's not a conspiracy or a way for SJP (or any other financial services company for that matter) to keep the money invested for longer. Its just FS companies are still working to outdated methods of processing. Tbh many have been brought up to date, and Covid helped, by accepting electronic signatures or even no signature & just confirmation from the adviser. I should know, I've been working in the industry for 35 years. Lots of FS & Insurance companies just seem to work to their timelines & woebetide you if you want your money sooner.
As I said previously, your mate needs to go down the complaints route. He has to start with SJP's internal procedures but ultimately if he is not happy he can escalate it to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).
As long as he has a clear timeline of his needs & actions and clear communication that he wanted a partial encashmebr to fall inside this tax year this he has a legitimate complaint & can seek redress for any excess tax that he will ultimately pay by it not being spread over multiple tax years.
Edit.
If I was the adviser in this case I would be making sure the Bond dept had the forms today, by email, and then a follow up call TODAY to make sure they have them and working on them. If they really need a paper based one then I'd be seeing the client personally & then sending the forms 1st class & signed for so they get them on Monday. SJP's "14 days" is a standard line all companies trot out but ime most companies can do it within 5-7 working days. If SJP got the forms on Monday they would have 8 working days until the end of the tax year. I believe the money does not actually have to be in the bank account before April 6th but just that a partial surrender has occured & that the money is now out of the Bond.
In Feb 2023 the FTSE was at 8102 a record close. The FTSE 100 is at 7959 this morning and has the potential to hit a new high next week. Matching recent highs seen in US markets. Pleased to see my share portfolio hitting its own all time high.
However, I have reached an age where it makes no sense to keep re-investing dividends back into the market. It’s time to take the cash and spend…..
My shares are held in a Stocks & Shares ISA with Halifax. I now have over £4,000 sitting in there earning no interest. What I would like to do, is take that cash and move it into a Cash ISA.
My question to those who know more than me is. If I open a new Cash ISA in April with £20,000. Can I then move the £4000 in cash from my share ISA into that account. Is this viewed just as an ISA transfer, or as it’s SHARE ISA to CASH ISA is that not allowed ?
In Feb 2023 the FTSE was at 8102 a record close. The FTSE 100 is at 7959 this morning and has the potential to hit a new high next week. Matching recent highs seen in US markets. Pleased to see my share portfolio hitting its own all time high.
However, I have reached an age where it makes no sense to keep re-investing dividends back into the market. It’s time to take the cash and spend…..
My shares are held in a Stocks & Shares ISA with Halifax. I now have over £4,000 sitting in there earning no interest. What I would like to do, is take that cash and move it into a Cash ISA.
My question to those who know more than me is. If I open a new Cash ISA in April with £20,000. Can I then move the £4000 in cash from my share ISA into that account. Is this viewed just as an ISA transfer, or as it’s SHARE ISA to CASH ISA is that not allowed ?
Yes, you can move S&S ISA to Cash and vice-versa without it impacting on your Annual ISA Allowance.
However, when you say your Halifax S&S ISA is not earning you any "interest" it will be "growing" depending on the shares you have in it. As you say yourself the FTSE100 is near its all time high and equity markets in general have gone up quite a bit over the past 6 months.
You don't have to "re-invest" the dividends if you are in accumulation funds - the value of the dividend simply increasing the price of the units thus you get annual growth of around 2% simply by this method.
In Feb 2023 the FTSE was at 8102 a record close. The FTSE 100 is at 7959 this morning and has the potential to hit a new high next week. Matching recent highs seen in US markets. Pleased to see my share portfolio hitting its own all time high.
However, I have reached an age where it makes no sense to keep re-investing dividends back into the market. It’s time to take the cash and spend…..
My shares are held in a Stocks & Shares ISA with Halifax. I now have over £4,000 sitting in there earning no interest. What I would like to do, is take that cash and move it into a Cash ISA.
My question to those who know more than me is. If I open a new Cash ISA in April with £20,000. Can I then move the £4000 in cash from my share ISA into that account. Is this viewed just as an ISA transfer, or as it’s SHARE ISA to CASH ISA is that not allowed ?
Yes, you can move S&S ISA to Cash and vice-versa without it impacting on your Annual ISA Allowance.
However, when you say your Halifax S&S ISA is not earning you any "interest" it will be "growing" depending on the shares you have in it. As you say yourself the FTSE100 is near its all time high and equity markets in general have gone up quite a bit over the past 6 months.
You don't have to "re-invest" the dividends if you are in accumulation funds - the value of the dividend simply increasing the price of the units thus you get annual growth of around 2% simply by this method.
I think he means he has £4k of CASH sitting in his stocks and shares ISA as dividends aren't being reinvested, I guess due to income funds rather than accumulation.
Reading that again, if, as @Rob7Lee says, you are sitting on £4k worth of cash in your S&S Isa then that's a totally different ball game. Most providers will let you do a partial transfer but not all.
I have an S&S ISA with Trading212. They pay 5.2% interest on uninvested cash within the ISA. Even miserly HL pay a bit of interest on cash in S&S ISAs. Are Halifax really that tight they don't pay anything at all? I'd be looking at shifting the lot if that's true.
Reading that again, if, as @Rob7Lee says, you are sitting on £4k worth of cash in your S&S Isa then that's a totally different ball game. Most providers will let you do a partial transfer but not all.
Certainly not disagreeing. However you do need to be careful. It is important it is a transfer. You can't take it out and then re-invest. That would use part of your annual allowance.
Reading that again, if, as @Rob7Lee says, you are sitting on £4k worth of cash in your S&S Isa then that's a totally different ball game. Most providers will let you do a partial transfer but not all.
Certainly not disagreeing. However you do need to be careful. It is important it is a transfer. You can't take it out and then re-invest. That would use part of your annual allowance.
Obviously you should transfer rather than take the money out & put it into a different ISA. However, many providers offer a flexi ISA where you can put the money back without it affecting your £20k allowance.
To the investors, what are your plans for the next ISA year starting from 6th April?
Personally, I'm torn between the usual. Fully invest the £20k into my current funds, or drip feed as the months go by. Will markets continue to perform to current levels, or will they take a dip soon. Another year, same old questions.
I don't think anybody, even Investment Managers saw this level of bounce coming from November.
To the investors, what are your plans for the next ISA year starting from 6th April?
Personally, I'm torn between the usual. Fully invest the £20k into my current funds, or drip feed as the months go by. Will markets continue to perform to current levels, or will they take a dip soon. Another year, same old questions.
I don't think anybody, even Investment Managers saw this level of bounce coming from November.
Personally I'd ALWAYS drip feed, too dangerous to lump in all in one with the markets as they are.
for who saw the bounce coming, quote a few in the CL FTSE100 comp!
For me next year will be the first year I may actually take a cash ISA as well rather than just a S&S. I'm into my 50's now and heading towards retirement. My SIPP is obviously heavy in S&S's so time to de-risk a little I think, but will do so with things like CASH ISA's.
Reading that again, if, as @Rob7Lee says, you are sitting on £4k worth of cash in your S&S Isa then that's a totally different ball game. Most providers will let you do a partial transfer but not all.
Certainly not disagreeing. However you do need to be careful. It is important it is a transfer. You can't take it out and then re-invest. That would use part of your annual allowance.
Obviously you should transfer rather than take the money out & put it into a different ISA. However, many providers offer a flexi ISA where you can put the money back without it affecting your £20k allowance.
Yes, it is cash from non invested dividends that is in my Share ISA. An I am aware that I can’t take it out and pay it into an ISA with is counting against my annual allowance. Hence why, I want to do an ISA transfer. I will shop around before opening this years ISA to ensure I can move this and future cash from my Share ISA.
To the investors, what are your plans for the next ISA year starting from 6th April?
Personally, I'm torn between the usual. Fully invest the £20k into my current funds, or drip feed as the months go by. Will markets continue to perform to current levels, or will they take a dip soon. Another year, same old questions.
I don't think anybody, even Investment Managers saw this level of bounce coming from November.
Personally I'd ALWAYS drip feed, too dangerous to lump in all in one with the markets as they are.
for who saw the bounce coming, quote a few in the CL FTSE100 comp!
For me next year will be the first year I may actually take a cash ISA as well rather than just a S&S. I'm into my 50's now and heading towards retirement. My SIPP is obviously heavy in S&S's so time to de-risk a little I think, but will do so with things like CASH ISA's.
Hang on though, we are forecasting what we expect at end June, not right now. Personally I choose a figure based on the % increase I expect. I can’t recall what the starting figure was but the current level is something like 3% up. That’s a lot in one quarter, but it could do anything between now and end June. For planning purposes most of us need to ask how much we think equity markts will go up over a full year and how that compares with what we get by holding cash. I expect to get just about 5% this calendar year from my cash even as central banks cut because I have several bonds which are at above 5.0% including the NS&I 6.2%. I’m of course happy with the bounce but I certainly didnt call such a sharp one and I’m not counting on it lasting. One reason is the bounce is yet again Big Tech driven and the big Tech barons are busy selling chunks of their shareholdings.
Monument Bank (https://www.monument.co/) offering 5.11% on instant access and slightly more if you lock up for a year. Minium deposit £25,000. Anyone any experience of using them - thoughts?
I stopped working just about two years ago, aged 57. Since then I have been living modestly on interest income. Rates went up at the perfect time for me.
I will be selling a house in the next few months (I hope!) and the split of my assets post sale, assuming nothing much changes, will be pensions 35%, cash 50% and S&S ISAs 15%, so about 50/50 cash and equities in total. As a priority I'll be looking for some reasonable fixed interest investments before rates start to drop too much, then be moving some cash into S&S ISAs for me and Mrs Idle as existing fixes expire to increase the equity proportion a bit, but absolutely in a more cautious drip-fed way as Rob suggests.
Looking at the performance of the markets over the last six months, i cant see the bull run continuing at that rate for very much longer, though the prospect of interest rate cuts will give it some further legs to the extent they aren't already priced in, though I suspect they mostly are.
I see Gordon Brown is up to his old tricks again.......trying to find money down the back of the sofa to pay for all Labour's spending plans.
First it was taxing dividends in pension funds.
Then it was selling off a 1/3rd of our Gold Reserves when Gold was at a low point.
Now its making the Bank of England not pay interest to high street banks on the reserves they have to hold to comply with tighter funding levels since 2009.
I see Gordon Brown is up to his old tricks again.......trying to find money down the back of the sofa to pay for all Labour's spending plans.
First it was taxing dividends in pension funds.
Then it was selling off a 1/3rd of our Gold Reserves when Gold was at a low point.
Now its making the Bank of England not pay interest to high street banks on the reserves they have to hold to comply with tighter funding levels since 2009.
God loves a try-er.
Whilst the bars not exactly high on the chancellor front in the last 30 years, never quite understood why he was thought of as being so good.
On a brighter note, my main SIPP continues to break all records, so far for March I'm up double my gross monthly salary. In total up just over 26% since June 2022 when I transferred my main SIPP to Vanguard. Luvly jubbly.
I see Gordon Brown is up to his old tricks again.......trying to find money down the back of the sofa to pay for all Labour's spending plans.
First it was taxing dividends in pension funds.
Then it was selling off a 1/3rd of our Gold Reserves when Gold was at a low point.
Now its making the Bank of England not pay interest to high street banks on the reserves they have to hold to comply with tighter funding levels since 2009.
God loves a try-er.
Whilst the bars not exactly high on the chancellor front in the last 30 years, never quite understood why he was thought of as being so good.
On a brighter note, my main SIPP continues to break all records, so far for March I'm up double my gross monthly salary. In total up just over 26% since June 2022 when I transferred my main SIPP to Vanguard. Luvly jubbly.
Not sure what effect the latest economic news may have on that growth.
There’s potential risks to what Gordon Brown was suggesting last night, but it isn’t a new idea with the ECB and Swiss National Bank doing the same thing. I’m not sure what the argument is for paying base rate to the banks on the funds held though. Surely potential to look at whether this rate could/should be lower, perhaps base less 2% 🤷🏻♂️
Coincidentally, because they then highlighted it on Peston, I had actually checked my tax breakdown yesterday and looked at where our taxes (including NI) are spent. National debt is really crippling everything else given that it has risen from around 3% to over 10% in the last 4 years.
Andy Haldane spoke a lot of sense and hopefully the politicians listen and reconsider their fiscal rules (certainly both main parties) to try and drive some growth in our economy*
*and push the FTSE to at least 8,100 by the end of June 😉
I see Gordon Brown is up to his old tricks again.......trying to find money down the back of the sofa to pay for all Labour's spending plans.
First it was taxing dividends in pension funds.
Then it was selling off a 1/3rd of our Gold Reserves when Gold was at a low point.
Now its making the Bank of England not pay interest to high street banks on the reserves they have to hold to comply with tighter funding levels since 2009.
God loves a try-er.
Whilst the bars not exactly high on the chancellor front in the last 30 years, never quite understood why he was thought of as being so good.
On a brighter note, my main SIPP continues to break all records, so far for March I'm up double my gross monthly salary. In total up just over 26% since June 2022 when I transferred my main SIPP to Vanguard. Luvly jubbly.
Not sure what effect the latest economic news may have on that growth.
I'm slowly de-risking, I cashed out about 15% into cash a couple of weeks back, and rebalanced quite a bit more as was very heavy on S&P500 although TBF that alone is up about 40% since June 22 despite taking profit/rebalancing.
Not ideal holding some in cash, although does pay a small amount of interest (2.6% I think), but don't want to hold it as such for too long..... but where to put it!
My other SIPP with Fidelity, I kept £28k in there from June 22 and use that to 'play' with to see if I can beat the markets/funds. As of yesterday that was £66k so doing well there, maybe I should be a fund manager .
After that I have my current works pension with Aegon, I just let that ride and it's in 3 different funds, has a fair amount going in per month between me and company and I often (like this month) sacrifice some of my annual bonus due to the tax efficiencies and the company is pretty generous as it tops up any bonus sacrifice by 10%, so a no brainer really. Been in that since Oct 2020 when I joined, doing OK, but not as well as my SIPPS for growth, but it's the tax efficiency.
Just hoping the next government doesn't bring back the LTA!! Would be nice for the £ limit on the £25% to be removed but that's just me being greedy/wishful thinking.......... 1st world problems.
Fooking hell, I thought I was doing ok but some of the bods on here must seriously minted, thowing thousands around on this investment or that and supporting plucky old Charlton to boot 😋
Fooking hell, I thought I was doing ok but some of the bods on here must seriously minted, thowing thousands around on this investment or that and supporting plucky old Charlton to boot 😋
Age and compound interest, I'm 52 nearly, and like I tell the 'youngsters' at work - when I changed jobs at about 33 my pension pot was about £50k.
I’m currently obsessed with the whole FIRE planning and spend a fair amount of time reading up on the various strategies people are using, but you are right, regular contributions plus compound interest is a game changer
I’m currently obsessed with the whole FIRE planning and spend a fair amount of time reading up on the various strategies people are using, but you are right, regular contributions plus compound interest is a game changer
I always said mid 50's, but having changed jobs in 2020 and took a bit of a step back in responsibilities hours etc (although that seems to be creeping back upwards!) I'm enjoying work more than I have in probably 15-20 years. So no plans just yet, but I'll review at 55 and will likely do a more reduced hours at least.
FIRE is fine, just don't take it too far.
My very simple financial advice has always been, if you can (as at the lower earnings end or at certain times in your life it's not always possible) live your life as if your salary is 80% of what it really is.
So that means living to that, to include savings and pensions, everything. The extra 20% is your extra investments/savings. I've been doing that broadly since my early to mid 30's and is a large reason I am where I am.
Conversely I have worked with people earning 3/4/5/10x what I do so some well into the millions who are literally cash and investment poor. All they do is spend to their limit and a bit more. £250k cars, £100k on holidays a year, mostly stuff that devalues.
Imagine you earned £2m a year and couldn't live as if you earned £1.6m! With that extra £200k net invested after 10 years and growth at about 8% you'd have approaching £3m.
Some people will always live to or beyond their means. I've literally know people earning £80k who have more investments and wealth than people earning £1m.
Basically just be sensible, save what you can, watch what you spend, and let compound do it's job.
Comments
As he wants to exit SJP, he could fully surrender the policy in the upcoming tax year, but due to the gain, it will take him into the 40pc tax bracket for that amount. So he may be best served by splitting it into a 2 year plan. This has all been planned by the Company hasn't it?
As I said previously, your mate needs to go down the complaints route. He has to start with SJP's internal procedures but ultimately if he is not happy he can escalate it to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).
As long as he has a clear timeline of his needs & actions and clear communication that he wanted a partial encashmebr to fall inside this tax year this he has a legitimate complaint & can seek redress for any excess tax that he will ultimately pay by it not being spread over multiple tax years.
Edit.
If I was the adviser in this case I would be making sure the Bond dept had the forms today, by email, and then a follow up call TODAY to make sure they have them and working on them. If they really need a paper based one then I'd be seeing the client personally & then sending the forms 1st class & signed for so they get them on Monday. SJP's "14 days" is a standard line all companies trot out but ime most companies can do it within 5-7 working days. If SJP got the forms on Monday they would have 8 working days until the end of the tax year. I believe the money does not actually have to be in the bank account before April 6th but just that a partial surrender has occured & that the money is now out of the Bond.
My shares are held in a Stocks & Shares ISA with Halifax. I now have over £4,000 sitting in there earning no interest. What I would like to do, is take that cash and move it into a Cash ISA.
However, when you say your Halifax S&S ISA is not earning you any "interest" it will be "growing" depending on the shares you have in it. As you say yourself the FTSE100 is near its all time high and equity markets in general have gone up quite a bit over the past 6 months.
You don't have to "re-invest" the dividends if you are in accumulation funds - the value of the dividend simply increasing the price of the units thus you get annual growth of around 2% simply by this method.
Talking of the FTSE 100 performing:
Personally, I'm torn between the usual. Fully invest the £20k into my current funds, or drip feed as the months go by. Will markets continue to perform to current levels, or will they take a dip soon. Another year, same old questions.
I don't think anybody, even Investment Managers saw this level of bounce coming from November.
for who saw the bounce coming, quote a few in the CL FTSE100 comp!
For me next year will be the first year I may actually take a cash ISA as well rather than just a S&S. I'm into my 50's now and heading towards retirement. My SIPP is obviously heavy in S&S's so time to de-risk a little I think, but will do so with things like CASH ISA's.
https://on.ft.com/3VxINkW
Hmm.
First it was taxing dividends in pension funds.
Then it was selling off a 1/3rd of our Gold Reserves when Gold was at a low point.
Now its making the Bank of England not pay interest to high street banks on the reserves they have to hold to comply with tighter funding levels since 2009.
God loves a try-er.
On a brighter note, my main SIPP continues to break all records, so far for March I'm up double my gross monthly salary. In total up just over 26% since June 2022 when I transferred my main SIPP to Vanguard. Luvly jubbly.
Not sure what effect the latest economic news may have on that growth.
Coincidentally, because they then highlighted it on Peston, I had actually checked my tax breakdown yesterday and looked at where our taxes (including NI) are spent. National debt is really crippling everything else given that it has risen from around 3% to over 10% in the last 4 years.
Not ideal holding some in cash, although does pay a small amount of interest (2.6% I think), but don't want to hold it as such for too long..... but where to put it!
My other SIPP with Fidelity, I kept £28k in there from June 22 and use that to 'play' with to see if I can beat the markets/funds. As of yesterday that was £66k so doing well there, maybe I should be a fund manager
After that I have my current works pension with Aegon, I just let that ride and it's in 3 different funds, has a fair amount going in per month between me and company and I often (like this month) sacrifice some of my annual bonus due to the tax efficiencies and the company is pretty generous as it tops up any bonus sacrifice by 10%, so a no brainer really. Been in that since Oct 2020 when I joined, doing OK, but not as well as my SIPPS for growth, but it's the tax efficiency.
Just hoping the next government doesn't bring back the LTA!! Would be nice for the £ limit on the £25% to be removed but that's just me being greedy/wishful thinking.......... 1st world problems.
FIRE is fine, just don't take it too far.
My very simple financial advice has always been, if you can (as at the lower earnings end or at certain times in your life it's not always possible) live your life as if your salary is 80% of what it really is.
So that means living to that, to include savings and pensions, everything. The extra 20% is your extra investments/savings. I've been doing that broadly since my early to mid 30's and is a large reason I am where I am.
Conversely I have worked with people earning 3/4/5/10x what I do so some well into the millions who are literally cash and investment poor. All they do is spend to their limit and a bit more. £250k cars, £100k on holidays a year, mostly stuff that devalues.
Imagine you earned £2m a year and couldn't live as if you earned £1.6m! With that extra £200k net invested after 10 years and growth at about 8% you'd have approaching £3m.
Some people will always live to or beyond their means. I've literally know people earning £80k who have more investments and wealth than people earning £1m.
Basically just be sensible, save what you can, watch what you spend, and let compound do it's job.
Aaaaand... Nothing for me... £125 (2 x £50, 1 x £25) for the wife!
EDIT - father in law £75.