We recently marked 10 years since a little known bank in northern England became a worldwide brand for all the wrong reasons. In 2007 we saw the unedifying – and chilling – spectacle of long queues of desperate savers lining streets outside branches across northern England. Despite assurances of solvency from the Bank of England it quickly spread to England’s first full-on bank run since 1866. Northern Rock was eventually nationalised and the savers’ deposits secured. But the global financial crisis as it became known had begun and it would unfold throughout 2008 and result in the collapse of major investment firms like […]

As the first quarter of 2017-18 draws to a close, it’s worth checking whether you are making the most of your ability to make regular salary-sacrificed super contributions. If your salary-sacrificing contributions are lagging, think about stepping up your contributions for the remaining nine months of the financial year. Your ability to step up your contributions – never overlooking the annual contributions cap – will much depend on your personal circumstances. There are, of course, two broad categories of super contributions – concessional (before-tax) contributions and non-concessional (after-tax) contributions, each with different annual contribution caps*. If you are thinking of […]