An ad for ‘PensionBee’ popped up on Facebook yesterday. It’s the future. It’s robo-advice. With just a few clicks you can transfer any old pensions to a brand new one. And it’s cheap; because it’s all down to you. No need for an expensive adviser to get details and projections for your existing plans, make a comparison of charges, funds, contract options blah blah. In fact, it’s as easy as it once was to buy Woodford funds from certain other robots…
So it looks as though Cash ISAs are safe for the moment (FTM – is that a thing?) Rachel has apparently ‘bowed to pressure’ from the banks and building societies and decided not to reduce the allowance to £4,000 for cash and to keep the £20,000 parity with Stocks and Shares ISAs. Bowed also to common sense, I’d say.
A dichotomy/dilemma here. Two thirds of adults are probably right to be worried about the cost of care, which is huge and getting more so. Many of those currently worrying will have had first-hand experience with their own parents, which will have focused their minds on their own possible future.
Many a government has made the point that only a minority will be affected by this or that tax change or tinker. It is, however, both perception and aspiration which are important, and they are what makes IHT the ‘most hated’ of all taxes – along with all the others, of course.