The ‘K-Shaped’ Recovery Over recent years, we’ve seen what is often described as a ‘K-shaped’ recovery. Households with assets such as shares, property and pensions have generally benefited from rising asset prices, while those without assets have faced a very different experience. Higher inflation has driven up the cost of living, eroding purchasing power…
One Christmas, as a child I unwrapped a classic game: Battleships. Two grids. Hidden ships. And the slow, methodical process of probing the board, square after square, trying to work out where your targets are and what’s just empty ocean. It turns out that’s a surprisingly useful way to think about today’s oil market. Recent…
The triple lock was introduced in 2010. In a nutshell, its purpose is to make sure that the State Pension doesn’t lose value over time. It guarantees that, each year, the State Pension will rise by the highest of three measures: Average earnings, Inflation, as measured by the Consumer Prices Index (CPI), Or 2.5% So,…
With the UK Autumn Budget set for 26 November 2025, there’s already plenty of chatter about what might change – especially when it comes to pensions. But before you start making any big decisions, let’s look at what you really need to do right now. What are some of the rumoured changes? There’s speculation that…
We are fast approaching a significant UK Budget Day, 2025 and UK pensions may well be affected by the need of the Labour government to plug the £20-30 billion deficit to comply with their own fiscal rules. it is perhaps worth remembering 4 Key Facts about UK State Pension. Before we start, keep in mind…
Everyone has different wants and needs in retirement, so everyone will require different amounts of money. It’s worth checking out The Retirement Living Standards from Pensions UK. These can help you understand what your costs might look like depending on whether you have a minimum, moderate and comfortable lifestyle in retirement. For example, a moderate…
With classic British understatement, you could say the second quarter of 2025 has not been without incident. But market performance over the period fails to capture the full drama. The FTSE Private Investor Balanced Index, a reasonable proxy for the majority of our industry’s clients, returned around 2.5%, which could be considered slightly better than…
A trade war no one could afford to win A client asked at the start of last week: “Will the US and China reach a trade agreement?” Our short but confident answer was: Yes. Longer answer: Because the maths, the money and the politics all say they must. And sure enough, the US and China…
Assessing the Impact As Donald Trump completes his first 100 days in office, a complex economic narrative emerges, one which challenges traditional approaches while attempting to address long-standing structural challenges. His presidency has introduced uncertainty and volatility, yet the broader economic context remains one of relative strength. This dynamic sets the current period apart from…
Global markets are in a tough spot, caught between geopolitical tensions, shifting monetary policies and sector-specific trends. European and Chinese stocks have been climbing, while U.S. equities are under pressure, weighed down by tariff concerns. Trump’s return to office has fueled uncertainty, leaving investors on edge. The big question is how much of his aggressive…