Philip James Independent Financial Advice

Philip James Independent Financial Advice Independent financial advice, helping you to invest responsibly, organise your savings, plan for retirement and both give, gladly and receive, sadly.

It doesn't need to be complicated. We'll leave you feeling better about your money - and your life. Top-rated Independent Financial Adviser, based in the beautiful Cotswolds

This is the latest in the Strike novel series, number eight, by aka Harry Potter author JK Rowling, now, to some, ‘she w...
06/09/2026

This is the latest in the Strike novel series, number eight, by aka Harry Potter author JK Rowling, now, to some, ‘she who must not be named’ for her anti-trans stance. I have to confess that, at a daunting 31 hours, this has been in my listening queue for some months. From past experience, the only way to tackle it and stay with the thickness of the plotting is to plunge in and stay plunged for a couple of weeks, which is what I’ve done for the benefit of all.

If you’ve missed both Nos. 1-7 and the TV version, Cormoran Strike is a one-legged, ex-army private detective with, of course, a tangled past. His detective partner is Robin, originally his office and their will-they won’t-they non-romance has been a constant so far.

Here, they’re hired to find the identity of a mutilated body in the cellar of a Covent Garden shop selling masonic regalia, of course getting the better of the mason-infested Met and brushing with MI5. As always there are shoals of red herrings, a selection of missing persons who could be the body and scary men following our heroine Robin.

If you too had children of an age when the Potter series was on rotation, you’ll know what a great storyteller she is. You may remember, too, the ’000s of words to which the later books ran. She needed a firm editor then and does now, my theory being that success frightens those who should control authors’ excesses.

It’s great, it’s gripping, but would have been so with half the characters and half the words. Thank goodness for an epilogue which pulled it all together and reminded me who was who. Did they (Robin and Strike) get together in the end? The next one is out soon; so what do you think?

02/09/2026

Sinks, Dinks and Henry’s Skis.

We can see which clients check their investments and when. For some, it’s daily or even hourly in exciting or difficult times. Others are less involved, perhaps looking on the eve of our annual meeting to show willing.

‘Henrys’ are, apparently, most likely to be regularly on the app. To me, that should still be prefaced by ‘Hooray’, the kind of loud, posh, obnoxious youth you’d imagine Boris to have been, but it’s now an acronym for ‘High Earner Not Rich Yet’. Who knew?

Others worrying about or interested in their money are the Sinks and Dinks - Single and Double Income No Kids. A Dino - Double Income No Options or Alice - Asset Limited Income Constrained Employed, are unlikely to have any investments to worry about nor time to look at apps.

We all, however aspire to be Fire Skis - Financially Independent Retired Early and Spending the Kids Inheritance. Which is where a financial plan may help. We’re just a ‘phone call away, folks.

01/09/2026

Why the taxman may investigate you

For many, the threat, or even the idea of an investigation of their tax affairs by HMRC is terrifying. Our tax system largely relies on self-assessment, for which read ‘they only know what you tell them’. And so random or targeted checks into one aspect or another are, they would argue, essential to keep us on our toes and ensure ‘compliance’.

It’s worth their while, as the average investigation nets around £35 for every £1 spent. Pretty good value for money, and the biggest haul by far is from big companies with big tax bills. The next, however, is not where there is suspected fraud or avoidance, but from checks on ‘individuals and small business compliance’. Which could mean any one of us.

In our experience, one aspect or another of IHT returns are checked if the estate is large or if trusts of one kind or another are involved. But as more who have never before had to complete a tax return are drawn into the tax, with inflated pensions and growing investments, expect their roving eyes to move still lower down the tax-food chain.

26/08/2026

What’s wrong with the ‘Hotel of Mum and Dad’?

Getting on the ‘property ladder’ pretty much as soon as you get your first job, is, in relative terms, a new thing. My grandparents rented until retirement, when pension lump-sums meant they could finally buy. My parents lived in upstairs in the (still rented) Hotel of Mum and Dad until I was four.

Then came the go-go ‘80s, credit was easy and we all had to get a mortgage and a skip outside somewhere of our ‘own’. Even those who properly thought they might rent for life were given the ‘right to buy’ their council house.

Since then, there have been three or four crashes which made many wish they’d never left Mum and Dad. As a both a parent and one who had a room there for more than a year or two, I’d say there should be no stigma to it. Think of it in the same, rose-tinted, better-times terms that we’re encouraged to think of many other aspects of our Great Nation’s past.

Sorry to those of you who have sent me titles to read and review, but I have a new influx from my mother, many of which ...
24/08/2026

Sorry to those of you who have sent me titles to read and review, but I have a new influx from my mother, many of which I gave to her and she never got to; and here is one. Rose Tremain is a favourite of mine, her more recent ‘Absolutely and Forever’ is novella-length, a happier experience, but definitely not suitable as a gift to a mother.

In post-war Switzerland, Gustav lives in relative poverty with his widowed mother. At school, he is asked to look after a new arrival, Anton, tearful and clinging to his mother; and a lifelong relationship begins. Anton is the son of a wealthy Jewish banker and has an impossibly glamorous life and loving mother; Gustav’s is depressive and bitter. He knows little of his father, a policeman who died ‘a hero’, as we later find, saving Jewish refugees crossing the border from Austria.

This, and the story of Gustav’s parents’ marriage, unravel as we flash back to 1938. And then forward to the 1990s, with both Gustav and Anton in middle age, in the same, small, nondescript Swiss town living nondescript and unfulfilled Swiss lives. A quote from the book which sums up much of its mood: ‘And Gustav thought, yes, that is how life is always arranged, with one living thing being chosen over another and the loser sent away to hunger and solitude’.

It’s worth it in the end, you do care for Gustav and Anton and can guess where their story is heading. But (if you know the film), there’s an awful lot of Shawshank before the Redemption. The final (literally) chapter makes it all worthwhile; but it’s a long, often miserable, wait.

📚

21/08/2026

We need to start selling life insurance again!

Many of the ‘old guard’, of which I am sadly/gladly one, started our financial careers earning commission by selling life insurance. There were thousands of us, men (always) from the Pru, Pearl, Allied Dunbar and others long-gone.

We now manage wealth, plan and advise and most would not deign to be tarred with the sales brush. The result is that many who should have life insurance, don’t. When we talk to those who come to us for help with savings or pensions, we find couples with young families and no life or critical illness cover. And unless the potential consequences of this are spelled out, it is unlikely to be a priority.

I have often been proud that I was persuasive, as those policies are marvellous things to have when things go wrong. But they are sold, not bought. That’s a skill many of us developed to survive; and which we should pass on to help others, advisers and clients to do likewise.

17/08/2026

Social Media advice won't get you rich quick

There’s no end of FinTok (it’s a thing) and Insta pundits happy to tell you how they got rich quick and to point your money at a suitable scheme. 56% of those in a recent survey who followed such ‘advice’ lost money - and that’s just those who admit it.

OK, pots and kettles you’re thinking, but I and most of my regulated-ilk are careful that we comment, not advise - that requires a plan and a proper appraisal of your circumstances. But I guess online advice looks free - the influencers are paid by those they promote, not you - and its promises surely worth a punt.

Remember, though, if it was that easy, we’d all be doing it. A little like ‘timing the market’’, a conversation I had (again) this week: ‘I’ll cash it in now while everything’s up and go back in again when the crash comes’. No you won’t, and if you do, you’ll be too late. No easy fixes, I’m afraid.

13/08/2026

You’ll need more than just pensions to retire.

In the minds of many with whom we talk, whether or when they can retire depends on the income that their pension or pensions can provide. Pensions Other savings pots, if they have them, are for other things and their house is the ultimate legacy to pass on.

That’s changed, and we as financial advisers will look at your total assets, those you have and those you’re yet to have, when making a plan for retirement. Your pension is nowadays another savings pot with a different tax treatment to the others, your other savings come into the mix to provide income, cash reserves or fun (wouldn’t that be a thing?)

For many their home may have to be the ultimate payer of care fees; that my change for the next gen, but don’t hold your breath. Putting together that bigger picture rather than flogging you a pension as part of it, is - or should be - our job in these great and troubled times.

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