Worldwide Financial Planning

The options are to: immediately take an Annuity; a Flexible Access Drawdown; Retire later; take as Regular Lump Sum Withdrawals; Take the Whole Pension Pot; or a combination of the above.

The performance of US tech stocks over the last two years and the narrowness of that rally has generated a lot of concern about whether revenue growth and lofty valuations are sustainable. This week’s updates from US tech stocks have not been terrible.

I covered the methods of mitigating Inheritance Tax last week and was asked a question regarding equity release to mitigate the tax where the property or home may be causing the tax.

The FOMC meeting came off the back of a decent CPI print. May’s inflation data came in softer than consensus expectations with headline CPI decelerating slightly to 3.3% versus 3.4% in April.

In monthly terms, CPI was 0.3% (consensus: 0.1%), compared to 0.6% in March. Similarly, core CPI inflation (ex-energy, food, alcohol and tobacco) came in at 3.9% (consensus: 3.6%) vs 4.2% in March.

An end to the interest rate hiking cycle would be welcomed by US consumers, who have seen new US mortgage rates spend four weeks above 7% for just the third time this century. Despite this, new home loan applications increased by 2.3% in the week ending August 25.