How to make 2018 your richest year yet

Jamie Smith, Partner at Foster Denovo, gives his predictions for helping to make 2018 a financially successful year in a recent article in the Daily Mail.

January is probably the tightest year of the month for many of us as we recover from the financial hit of the festive season. But, if you’ve overdone it on spending, financial experts have shared their top tips and predictions for the year ahead to ensure you use upcoming changes in legislation and interest rates to your advantage.

Jamie Smith, Partner at Foster Denovo, shares his thoughts on the pension landscape for 2018 and predicts a change to pension tax relief in the next 12 months.

Maximise funding

Jamie comments, “this is most likely to be in the form of a reduction to the annual allowance, which is the amount that can be saved into a pension scheme and still benefit from tax relief within a given tax year.”

“Although a reduction would not affect the vast majority of people, those who can afford to maximise pension funding should consider doing so before any new restrictions are introduced.”

Review underlying risks

Jamie warns of growing instability in the UK due to uncertainty around Brexit and recent downgrading of growth forecasts.

“Anyone within a few years of accessing any stock-market linked savings should be reviewing their portfolios and the underlying risks.”

Jamie continues, “for example, if you are a planning to retire over the next few years you may want to consider de-risking your pension funds and moving these into less volatile asset classes.”

“Some pension providers will do this automatically, which is known as ‘lifestyling’, but certainly many pension plans will not have this function.”

“Those who have a longer term investment horizon of at least five to ten years before they plan to access and spend their savings may not need to be as concerned but it is still a good idea to review their portfolios.”

Read the full article on Daily Mail here.