Monday 30 July 2018

ASSISTING OUR CLIENTS ACHIEVE THEIR OBJECTIVES

Here are some comments from clients we have helped recently:


“Once again thank you for your excellent service.”

Mr RJ of Burgess Hill



“Once again thank you for all of your assistance with the mortgage, we can’t thank you enough.”

Mr JF of London

Monday 23 July 2018

MORTGAGE MARKETPLACE

The Bank of England still intends to start raising interest rates at some point in the near future although the recent reduction in UK economic growth may cause some delays.




Generally residential rates are gradually increasing but still remain very competitive. If you are in a position to take advantage of the low rates, we would recommend you do so now rather than later.

And even those mature in years are being wooed by lenders offering extended terms and competitive rates. So do make enquiries if you are in this worthwhile category! We would be happy to assist in providing quotes. With the Lifetime Mortgages available as well there are fewer and fewer who are Mortgage Prisoners!


Thursday 12 July 2018

UNDERSTANDING ANNUITIES

Another benefit of being older!)


The older you are, the higher the lifetime income you can buy with your pension fund!



In the past when you reached “pension age” – usually 60 for women and 65 for men, you could take your tax-free cash but then the only option you had for the rest of the money was to purchase an “annuity”. An annuity is an income guaranteed for life.
The annuity rates have generally gone down in the past decade or two and the new pension freedoms have led many people to taking other options. However, it is still worth knowing what your options are as regards annuities as they can provide a guaranteed level of income for as long as you live.
Annuity providers work out what they can offer based on how long a person can be expected to live. Detailed records are kept as regards how long people live and what they die of. This allows the providers to work out pretty precisely a person’s life expectancy. Generally people are living longer due to better diets and the medical treatments available. While that is good for us, it is not good news for the annuity providers as that means they will have to pay out the income they have undertaken to provide for a longer time. Do remember that annuity providers are businesses so there needs to be an element of profit for them.

If you have a sum of money in your private pension, you can find out what sort of return you are likely to get by just asking for quotes. Quite a bit of information is needed for precise annuity quotes including:

1) your date of birth

2) details of any medical conditions and treatment you have (or have had in the past)

3) information about serious medical conditions your immediate family may have suffered or died from before age 60

4) whether you are a smoker or have been in the past, and the level of smoking

In asking for an annuity quote you will also need to specify whether you want the income that is paid
remain the same, or increase over the years; to continue to be paid to a spouse if you die before them; and how frequently you want the income paid, e.g. monthly, quarterly or annually. The more “bells and whistles” you want, the lower the starting level of the income will be. While normally an annuity stops on the death of the person concerned, it is possible to arrange an option whereby it will be paid out for a specified number of years whether or not the person concerned is alive or not. As a rough guideline, for someone in good health here are some approximate levels of income that can be bought with money from your pension (shown per £10,000 of purchase price for a male and with no spouse’s income). You can compare the return on your annuity investment against other investment options. Do remember that annuity income is taxed in the same way as earned income.

Age                 Level Annuity                Annuity Increasing by 3% p.a. (Starting Level)

55                   £434 per annum (4.3%)          £259 per annum (2.5%)


60                   £473 per annum (4.7%)          £300 per annum (3.0%)


65                   £534 per annum (5.3%)          £358 per annum (3.5%)


70                   £610 per annum (6.1%)          £430 per annum (4.3%)


Friday 6 July 2018

Lifetime Mortgages Becoming More and More Flexible

Some of the additional features of the Lifetime Mortgages are as follows:


1) You can borrow an initial sum and arrange a facility so that you can take further funds later.

2) While normally a Lifetime Mortgage can only be done on an owner-occupied residential property, there are now some lifetime mortgage lenders who will consider lending on a let property. This can be a very useful option for landlords who do not then have to sell the property to raise funds for care or for other purposes. In principle the landlord could even pass the property down to their beneficiary.