Worldwide Financial Planning

Inheritance tax planning is one area where life assurance can do something very useful: it can create cash exactly when a family may have a tax bill and very little appetite for selling a house, business or investment at the wrong time – a firesale.

Central banks have been talking tough on inflation, and bond markets see rate hikes coming from the Fed, Bank of England and ECB. Inflation is also rising in Japan as its central bank considers more aggressive hikes.

Badtempered accusations have been exchanged and reciprocal tariffs of up to 50% have now been imposed on a range of goods. Yet the economic effect is limited as the new tariffs cover only a fraction of the volume of trade across the US-Canadian border.

In my final column on passive funds it may be worth reminding readers that for the last 25 years my aim has always to be the financial canary in the mine.

The White House announced what it called the most crushing economic campaign ever waged on Iran and threatened to bomb Oman, the mediator, while Tehran promised to go fully offensive. Oil rose a fourth week, the energy price cap pushed British inflation to 2.9%, and governments kept borrowing into
the storm, with America’s debt passing $40tn.

Regulation changes behaviour. It changes what providers build, what advisers fear, what compliance departments approve and what pension schemes choose for people who will never read the fund factsheet.