We are sending this first newsletter of 2024 with a feeling of positivity about the opportunities for the year ahead, confident that we are well-positioned to tackle the challenges that the next twelve months may bring. Whether that involves the economic impact of voting at elections on the global stage, or the potential changes to policy in light of a General Election at home, we stand ready to advise you on the implications for your future financial planning; and invest accordingly on your behalf. Whilst we cannot predict what the future will bring, we have the knowledge, experience, and skill to navigate the right course for you.

This quarter, we have included several articles to help you if you are reassessing your financial goals at the start of a new year. We have also included our first piece aimed at younger clients (or your children or grandchildren) - a theme on which we hope to expand during the year to help this generation build knowledge of and interest in financial matters.

As we head into a new academic year, many of you might have children or grandchildren starting at university. This important milestone marks the start of an incredible experience, but like any change it can be daunting. We’ve therefore prepared a couple of articles to help you support any new university students as they navigate student loans and budgeting in the current cost of living crisis. We hope these are of interest, and please do let us know if you would like to see more similar content in future newsletters.

In addition, this newsletter includes articles on everything from capital gains tax, what we’ve learned from rising interest rates, premium bonds, and the latest update on ‘latent value’ from our Chief Investment Officer, James Calder. And if you’ve been following our series of articles on Lasting Power of Attorney, this quarter our Client Experience Manager, Tracy Coghill, looks at ways you can help if there is no LPA in place.

Now that tax year end seems like a distant memory, we bring you our latest quarterly newsletter with some interesting insights from both financial planning and investment management.

First, we’d like to thank everyone who joined us for our first ‘Meet the Manager’ webinar this quarter. Despite the inevitable technical glitch for our inaugural session, feedback has been positive following the event and we hope to repeat this for you on a regular basis. If you missed this the first time around, we’ve included a link below. If you’d like an up-to-date view from our Chief Investment Officer, James Calder, our ‘2023 - The Journey So Far and the Road Ahead’ piece takes a more detailed look at the tumultuous start to 2023, and where we see inflation and interest rates heading for the rest of the year.

Spring is typically the busiest season of the year for financial planners, as we face two of the biggest calendar events in our working year: the Spring Budget closely followed by tax year end. As we are now sitting right between those two events, we thought now was an opportune time to share our latest newsletter with you. Not only does it include a summary of Chancellor Hunt's announcements from Wednesday, but also a useful checklist of what you should be considering before the end of the tax year on the 5th April - just three weeks away.

The chain of events that unfolded during 2022 was nothing short of extraordinary, so we were all pleased to take time to relax and reflect over the Christmas holidays. While we include a short recap of 2022 in this newsletter, we have plenty of forward-looking content to help you prepare for 2023 and beyond, including advice on how to make good financial decisions, an analysis of pension withdrawals and a guide to avoid becoming a victim of fraud.

September is an important inflection point in the year for many, and we are often filled with a renewed sense of optimism and motivation after the summer. However, 2022 has been challenging for so many people, for so many different reasons, and the recent news of Queen Elizabeth II's passing has cast a sombre shadow across our country.

Now that we’ve all had a chance to take a breather after our busiest time of the year, the ‘tax year end rush’, we have some interesting insights to share with you in this quarter’s newsletter. The first is a useful checklist of things to consider and organise at the start of a new tax year, so that you’re in a good position come April 2023.

This quarter, we start thinking ahead to the end of the tax year, with an emphasis on making sure you're prepared for what's ahead - in both the immediate future and longer term.

This quarter, we lead with a piece on inflation, a topic that we know has been on most people's minds of late. While most experts are describing the recent uptick as 'transitory', we wanted to provide some colour as to why we're seeing a sudden increase in prices and why that matters to you.