Robert Harris has over 25 years experience working for some of the major financial institutions in the City of London, including 12 years at Citibank where he was a Senior Banker. During his time at Citibank, Robert was responsible for global relationships with important financial institutions and instigated a number of landmark deals.
Robert is a founding partner of Forth Capital and has helped the company become the leading expat financial advisory company in Switzerland. He has been quoted in the Financial Times and numerous magazine articles.
For the www.knowitall.ch website, Robert invites various members of his team at Forth Capital to contribute blog articles on different financial topics that he thinks will be of interest to our readers.
By Dr Graham Brown, Forth Capital
Anyone who has pension benefits with a value in excess of the lifetime allowance (LA) will be subject to a tax charge on their excess benefits value known as the lifetime allowance charge.
Key facts
The lifetime allowance was introduced in April 2006 and is the maximum value of benefits that can be taken from a registered pension scheme without being subject to the lifetime allowance charge.
Benefits in excess of the lifetime allowance could be protected from the lifetime allowance charge by using primary, enhanced, fixed and individual protection.
The lifetime allowance has been steadily decreasing since 2012 as follows:
By Nicole Booth, Forth Capital
The Chancellor of the Exchequer delivered his first Conservative Budget on 8th July 2015. The key measures affecting private clients are highlighted below.
Income Tax
The personal allowance will rise to £11,000 in 2016/17, and to £11,200 in 2017/18. The government plans to raise the personal allowance to £12,500 by 2020 so that people working 30 hours a week on the minimum wage do not pay income tax.
The higher rate threshold at which individuals start to pay income tax at 40% will increase to £43,000 in 2016/17 and to £43,600 in 2017/18. These are small steps towards the manifesto target of £50,000 by 2020, so steeper increases will be needed in future years.
By Stephen Langton, Forth Capital
For thousands of years there have been Greek Tragedies. From Oedipus to modern times, the idea of a Greek Tragedy is a familiar one. In most recent years, the Greek Tragedy being played out in front of our eyes in real time, has been the demise of the Greek economy and the suffering of the Greek people.
An inefficient and inflexible labour market, a reliance on the black economy and a divergence in growth from its Northern EU brethren, coupled with the debt from the global financial crisis, made the current situation inevitable.
Austerity hasn’t worked for Greece and the “Emperor’s New Clothes” reality is that Greece cannot pay back the debt whether it wants to or not.
This is not the first time in their history that the Greek people have suffered and I suspect it will not be the last.
By Jason King, Forth Capital
I’m often asked what Wealth Management actually is, and as a relatively new profession it’s not surprising that most people are vague about what wealth managers actually do.
Wealth Management addresses a wide range of issues. A wealth manager can help you with such issues as: investing a lump sum, deciding how much you need to save in order to retire comfortably, inheritance tax and estate planning, dividing up pension entitlements on a divorce or separation, getting the right types and amounts of life and health insurance, planning to pay school or university fees, deciding how much to borrow and providing a general financial health check.
These are crucial issues for most people and their families, and it’s very important for a wealth manager, or adviser, to have a thorough understanding of clients’ aims and challenges.
By Stephen Langton, Forth Capital
There has already been much written on falling oil prices, so here is a little more. However, I won’t be looking at the merits or not of this price fall, nor be trying to predict the effect on inflation, global growth and economic policy.
Instead I will take a brief historic look at real oil prices to try and see what may or may not be considered as normal.
So what is the normal price of oil? Or what has the average inflation adjusted price of oil been?
