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The Credit Crunch - A few Positives ......
It has been a while since I circulated an update to my contacts and much can change in a matter of days / weeks at the moment. So what is hot and what is not ?! ……
Mortgages / Remortgages
• Lifetime tracker – Clients that arranged a lifetime tracker 18 months + ago look to be sitting pretty at the moment !
• Clients with fixed rate deals or discounted deals ? Have a look at what your ongoing rate will be when your deal expires. You may be pleasantly surprised if it is due to switch to a tracker, as the tracker rate could well be much cheaper than deals available to new borrowers, possibly over 2% cheaper !
• What if rates go up ? Let’s hope they do go up again if it means that the economy is recovering. As you know, rates can change ( up or down ! ) very quickly. Many borrowers are planning to enjoy the low variable rates of today and fix their rate when they look like going up. The tough call is the timing. Fixed rates can move quickly and independently of the base rate. It is easy to miss the boat. I will be happy to do a rate comparison for you at any time.
• Falling property values - It is worth bearing in mind that many of the very best deals are currently only available to people borrowing 60% or less of the value of their home. 75% & 80% are also significant points with many lenders. Something worth bearing in mind is that in a time of falling property values, waiting a while for interest rates to fall further could be offset by falling prices moving a client into a higher Loan to Value band and thus, a higher rate.
• What to do with any savings made from the current low rates ? – Many client’s monthly payments have fallen dramatically. The economy is hoping that people will spend the money. Many clients, myself included, are using the saving to chip away extra capital from their borrowings. Others are building up their savings “buffer”. How about this for a thought ? ….. Most of us have a gap of some kind in our insurances. Few people can insure themselves fully for every eventuality. The low rates have significantly increased a lot of people’s disposable income. Many are using a small part of this to take out important insurances they have previously needed and even wanted, but declined on affordability. Do you have any gaps in your own protection arrangements, be it Life Insurance, Critical Illness Insurance and / or Income Protection, that you could now afford to cover ?
Other Debts ?
I had an interesting call from a Bank recently. They were reducing a clients borrowing facility by £40,000, but were unwilling to increase their client’s mortgage with them, so asked me to look at remortgaging him. The client had an interest only mortgage @ 0.19% above base. A remortgage to another lender would have cost him over 3% more ! To preserve this favourable mortgage deal, I looked at a secured loan of £40,000 for this client. The Secured Loan was far from cheap, but, as the amount was small when compared to his mortgage, it was advantageous to take the secured loan and keep the existing mortgage in place, rather than remortgage. Secured Loans can be available to around 80% Loan to Value Employed, 75% Self Employed.
Existing Policies
Longevity and competition between insurers has lowered the cost of life insurance in recent years. I have saved many clients money on existing policies. Many people believe a new policy would be bound to cost more as they are that much older. This is very often not the case.
Pensions
This is not my specialist area, but the colleague I sit next to, Robert Dent, is helping lots of clients with their pension planning, particularly Income Options for partial retirement, helping clients with High Charging and / or underperforming pensions and Tax Efficient Corporate Planning for clients with their own businesses.
Savings / Investments – What to do with my money and where is it safe ? Low interest rates and falling stock markets are making “Protected Investments” look very appealing to a wide range of people in the current climate for a proportion of their portfolio of savings / investments. There can be significant tax efficiencies too, so give us a call so we can tell you more.
General Insurances
Motor, van, home and contents, travel and business insurances are not something we have specialized in here. We hate to tell clients we cannot help them so we work with Stuart & Co of Huntingdon on these insurances. We belong to the same networking group and their offices are currently right next door to where we meet, so I am confident they will do a great job for the clients we refer. Their flyer is attached.
Introductions
It is always good when someone refers a client to me. We like to show our appreciation to clients and professionals who are good enough to introduce a new customer to us. When the new client’s business goes through, we are happy to pay the introducer 10% of our income from the deal. ( 20% on the whole amount if over £1,000 ) Can you think of a friend, family, colleague or client that I might be able to help ?
A favour ?
As you might expect, I am not doing as much business at the moment as I was 12 months ago ! I would really appreciate it if you would send this to a few of your email contacts ? I would hope this will result in a Win : Win : Win situation. Your acquaintance saves some money or helps to protect his / her family, you get some introducer commission and I get to do some work !
It would be great to hear from you.
Kind Regards
SIMON BARHAM – CeMAP A.C.I.B.
www.ashleylawstneots.co.uk
simonbarham@ashleylaw.co.uk
This information and text are for general information purposes only. It is not intended to constitute professional advice. Ashley Law and the writer do not
accept any responsibility for any loss or damage which may arise from reliance on this information or the contents. If you would like specific advice and recommendations, please contact us.
Ashley Law Independent Financial Advisers (St Neots)
Tel 01480 215210 Fax 01480 215211
Mob 07846 035071
11A St Marys Street, Eynesbury, St Neots Cambs PE19 2TA
Ashley Law Limited ( Registered Office 30-32 Staines Road, Hounslow, Middx,TW3 3LZ )
Registered in England No 2377803 is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
Mortgages / Remortgages
• Lifetime tracker – Clients that arranged a lifetime tracker 18 months + ago look to be sitting pretty at the moment !
• Clients with fixed rate deals or discounted deals ? Have a look at what your ongoing rate will be when your deal expires. You may be pleasantly surprised if it is due to switch to a tracker, as the tracker rate could well be much cheaper than deals available to new borrowers, possibly over 2% cheaper !
• What if rates go up ? Let’s hope they do go up again if it means that the economy is recovering. As you know, rates can change ( up or down ! ) very quickly. Many borrowers are planning to enjoy the low variable rates of today and fix their rate when they look like going up. The tough call is the timing. Fixed rates can move quickly and independently of the base rate. It is easy to miss the boat. I will be happy to do a rate comparison for you at any time.
• Falling property values - It is worth bearing in mind that many of the very best deals are currently only available to people borrowing 60% or less of the value of their home. 75% & 80% are also significant points with many lenders. Something worth bearing in mind is that in a time of falling property values, waiting a while for interest rates to fall further could be offset by falling prices moving a client into a higher Loan to Value band and thus, a higher rate.
• What to do with any savings made from the current low rates ? – Many client’s monthly payments have fallen dramatically. The economy is hoping that people will spend the money. Many clients, myself included, are using the saving to chip away extra capital from their borrowings. Others are building up their savings “buffer”. How about this for a thought ? ….. Most of us have a gap of some kind in our insurances. Few people can insure themselves fully for every eventuality. The low rates have significantly increased a lot of people’s disposable income. Many are using a small part of this to take out important insurances they have previously needed and even wanted, but declined on affordability. Do you have any gaps in your own protection arrangements, be it Life Insurance, Critical Illness Insurance and / or Income Protection, that you could now afford to cover ?
Other Debts ?
I had an interesting call from a Bank recently. They were reducing a clients borrowing facility by £40,000, but were unwilling to increase their client’s mortgage with them, so asked me to look at remortgaging him. The client had an interest only mortgage @ 0.19% above base. A remortgage to another lender would have cost him over 3% more ! To preserve this favourable mortgage deal, I looked at a secured loan of £40,000 for this client. The Secured Loan was far from cheap, but, as the amount was small when compared to his mortgage, it was advantageous to take the secured loan and keep the existing mortgage in place, rather than remortgage. Secured Loans can be available to around 80% Loan to Value Employed, 75% Self Employed.
Existing Policies
Longevity and competition between insurers has lowered the cost of life insurance in recent years. I have saved many clients money on existing policies. Many people believe a new policy would be bound to cost more as they are that much older. This is very often not the case.
Pensions
This is not my specialist area, but the colleague I sit next to, Robert Dent, is helping lots of clients with their pension planning, particularly Income Options for partial retirement, helping clients with High Charging and / or underperforming pensions and Tax Efficient Corporate Planning for clients with their own businesses.
Savings / Investments – What to do with my money and where is it safe ? Low interest rates and falling stock markets are making “Protected Investments” look very appealing to a wide range of people in the current climate for a proportion of their portfolio of savings / investments. There can be significant tax efficiencies too, so give us a call so we can tell you more.
General Insurances
Motor, van, home and contents, travel and business insurances are not something we have specialized in here. We hate to tell clients we cannot help them so we work with Stuart & Co of Huntingdon on these insurances. We belong to the same networking group and their offices are currently right next door to where we meet, so I am confident they will do a great job for the clients we refer. Their flyer is attached.
Introductions
It is always good when someone refers a client to me. We like to show our appreciation to clients and professionals who are good enough to introduce a new customer to us. When the new client’s business goes through, we are happy to pay the introducer 10% of our income from the deal. ( 20% on the whole amount if over £1,000 ) Can you think of a friend, family, colleague or client that I might be able to help ?
A favour ?
As you might expect, I am not doing as much business at the moment as I was 12 months ago ! I would really appreciate it if you would send this to a few of your email contacts ? I would hope this will result in a Win : Win : Win situation. Your acquaintance saves some money or helps to protect his / her family, you get some introducer commission and I get to do some work !
It would be great to hear from you.
Kind Regards
SIMON BARHAM – CeMAP A.C.I.B.
www.ashleylawstneots.co.uk
simonbarham@ashleylaw.co.uk
This information and text are for general information purposes only. It is not intended to constitute professional advice. Ashley Law and the writer do not
accept any responsibility for any loss or damage which may arise from reliance on this information or the contents. If you would like specific advice and recommendations, please contact us.
Ashley Law Independent Financial Advisers (St Neots)
Tel 01480 215210 Fax 01480 215211
Mob 07846 035071
11A St Marys Street, Eynesbury, St Neots Cambs PE19 2TA
Ashley Law Limited ( Registered Office 30-32 Staines Road, Hounslow, Middx,TW3 3LZ )
Registered in England No 2377803 is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.
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