Worldwide Financial Planning

UK farmers have campaigned for more support from government, with the rising costs of energy, feed and fertiliser impacting production. The good news is that energy prices have started to fall, and this should impact the cost of fertiliser.

There are two types of equity release (although I could argue that selling and downsizing is another). A lifetime mortgage and a home reversion plan are the two equity release schemes.

What has been interesting this week is the release of supporting information. The US is a consumer driven economy and resilient inflation has been accompanied by very strong retail spending in January. In the UK, inflation may have fallen for the third month but CPI remains above 10%, and jobs data points to a tight labour market with wages rising steadily.

Peter McGahan answers readers' questions about equity release. There have been a few old tales circulating around equity release for many years, but those issues have disappeared long ago. Here are some of those questions addressed.

While the market is easily fooled by headlines so too, unfortunately, are central banks. The true state of the economy won’t be clear for months so policy makers have to make do with the data they have, while the impact of today’s decisions won’t be apparent for another year.

Using equity release is a very good way to reduce your estate for Inheritance Tax. If you release the capital, it is now a debt against your estate which reduces the estate and the debt roll up reduces the estate further.