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Protection
Personal – To provide a lump sum or income on the death or diagnosis of a critical illness of a spouse or partner. How would you cope financially with the loss of a spouse/partner?
Mortgage – To provide a lump sum on death or on diagnosis of a critical illness equivalent to your outstanding mortgage.
Business or Shareholder – provides protection against death or critical illness for a Director or Key Person within your business. Would your business be able to continue if you or another Key Person was to die or be diagnosed with a critical illness?
Income Protection – To provide a replacement income if you were unable to work because of an accident or illness. What would happen to you and your family if your regular income stopped?
Inheritance Tax/Estate Planning
With the recent escalation in house prices more and more people will find themselves, on death, passing part of their estate to the Inland Revenue and not to their heirs unless they take advice to reduce or even negate this
tax. Currently (tax year 2007-08) the first £300,000 of your estate is free from inheritance tax with anything over and above this amount being taxed at 40%.
Retirement & Pensions
From April 2006 total payments to pension schemes each year will, in theory, be unlimited. However for both individual and total payments there are limits on tax relief. The Annual Allowance for individual payments which will attract tax relief is £3,600 or 100% of earnings, whichever is higher. The Annual Allowance for total payments which will attract tax relief is £215,000 in
2006/07 and will increase by £10,000 each year to reach £255,000 in 2010/11. The Annual Allowance is expected to be reviewed every five years.
However, pension plans do not have to be the only way to prepare you for retirement, as it is also possible to use other investments. Are your adequately prepared for retirement?
University/Further Education
Have you considered the costs of sending your child/children on to further education? Most parents don’t start saving until their children are almost ready to go to university. Tuition fees represent a small amount of the total expense involved in going to university, with the main cost relating to living expenses. Have you made provision for your child/children’s further education?
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