The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has issued a warning over an unauthorised firm moonlighting as an investments branch of the regulator. The firm is using the name FCA Investments and has used the FCA’s logo on its website along with that of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) which it says covers its investors. The […]

Moves to freeze Scottish income tax rates are adding risk and volatility to the Scottish tax regime and could lead to behavioural changes among the wealthy, the Chartered Institute of Taxation (CIOT) has warned. MSPs last week  voted to approve the Scottish government’s income tax rates for the 2019/20 tax year by 61 votes to 52. They put […]

Paying off debt has been cited as the main reason for taking tax-free cash from a pension, a survey has found. Research has found that more than a third of those seeking advice on taking tax-free cash were doing so to tackle ongoing debt. A further 21 per cent suggested the funds were for home improvement and […]

I was reading earlier, ahead of Valentine’s Day on Thursday, about recent scam data published by Action Fraud – the 4,555 instances of ‘romance fraud’ reported to the police reporting centre in 2018. Some £50m was lost in such scams last year as fraudsters pretended to be romantically attached to their victims, says the piece. […]

I was reading recently that The Bank of Mum and Dad – or Bomad – has become one of the most significant lenders in the market and needs to be considered an important branch for the financial planning profession. In 2016, Bomad financed a quarter of all mortgage transactions, which put it on a par […]

According to an article in “MoneyAge”, a News Sheet for IFAs, victims of investment fraud lost over £197m in 2018 as scammers use increasingly “sophisticated tactics” to persuade people to invest their savings, according to new figures from Action Fraud. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) issued a warning to potential victims of investment scams today, […]