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

I guess it was inevitable, after ‘pension freedoms’ arrived 10 years or so ago, that many more would end up cashing in t...
10/06/2026

I guess it was inevitable, after ‘pension freedoms’ arrived 10 years or so ago, that many more would end up cashing in their pensions. The numbers are still increasing, but very few are buying Lamborghinis - as some at the time thought they might. Most of the pots cashed in are small, less than £10,000 or between £10,000 and £30,000. So not in itself a problem, but I’d bet a majority will not have taken advice, and may have done better to put those small funds together with bigger ones and take them out over time; and others will have paid more tax than they should. And there are a significant minority who blow much bigger funds, yes, over time, but taking taxable lump-sums which they could usually get elsewhere more cheaply - borrowing is cheaper than paying 40% tax to solve a temporary problem. But, we can only warn and discourage - at the end of the day, it’s their money.

Another best-seller from a first-time author (see previous), and a Penguin, so gave it a go and very glad that I did. Th...
07/06/2026

Another best-seller from a first-time author (see previous), and a Penguin, so gave it a go and very glad that I did. The story is set in a small Yorkshire mill town at the end of the ‘70s, Thatcher has just won and the Yorkshire Ripper has so far killed ten women. As it seems the police are doing nothing, 12-year-old Miv (Mavis) and best friend Sharon decide they will catch him and Miv starts her List of Suspicious Things, or rather people in the town who don’t quite fit. What they find is not the Ripper, but that those on their list act differently or strangely for a reason, usually sad, often tragic. The Asian cornershop owner is a widower bringing up his son, their schoolfriend, alone and harassed daily by National Front skinheads - nothing changes, full circle and all that. The loner camping out in a scrapyard has also suffered loss, the violent teacher is passing on his own upbringing - and so on. What seems a YA schoolfriend story becomes much darker, ultimately tragic and the Ripper and his eventual capture are an of-the-time background to the real story, or stories - although Miv and Sharon do, foolishly, venture to Leeds to see where it’s all been happening. Miv herself has difficult home life, silent mother, strict aunt and half-there father, but her character and innocence are beautifully portrayed, I was gripped emotionally and raced to the end. Tough at times but a lovely book.

Death and taxes are the unavoidable inevitablities, and what we do as financial advisers has a lot to do with both. I of...
05/06/2026

Death and taxes are the unavoidable inevitablities, and what we do as financial advisers has a lot to do with both. I often say to clients that the times they’ll see the benefit of the fee we take from their investments is when things happen and life changes.
The death of a client can be when we come into our own and really help those who are left behind. That can involve anything from detailing what they have, the investments we look after, other accounts we’ll have asked about at review meetings, pensions and so on; to on-the-spot help and guidance through the whole process. Some investment and pension companies have dedicated bereavement teams and are great; others may make the noises but take forever to do anything, and then not without a ridiculous amounts of form-filling.
So it could be a good thing that the FCA is looking into this – as long as the result is not more forms and back-covering admin. Let’s hope.

Wes Streeting is proposing, in the unlikely (I’d say) event that he becomes PM, an overhaul of CGT, aligning it with inc...
05/06/2026

Wes Streeting is proposing, in the unlikely (I’d say) event that he becomes PM, an overhaul of CGT, aligning it with income tax. I have often preached the virtues of simplifying, rather than tiddling-around-with and further complicating our tax system. CGT is an obvious starting point, although I understand that other Chancellors mooting it have been talked down by various Sir Humphreys. Counting gains as income will, as with many another tax change, catch those in the middle rather than those at the top of the wealth tree.

The worry always seems to be that, if we do stuff like this, our billionaires will ship out to a low-tax haven. If you’ve been to any, you’ll see why so many risk coming here on small boats. No, the super rich will find other means, often deferring income and gains (because they can) and simply borrowing against their shares, houses and land, as even 10% interest is better than 45% tax.

Increase tax by all means, Wes, but increase allowances, too, to allow legitimate and proper planning; and ensure fairness at all levels.

I read this as a beautiful, signed hardback - a Christmas present, but, hey-ho, it’s not that long ago. Lucy Steeds’ deb...
31/05/2026

I read this as a beautiful, signed hardback - a Christmas present, but, hey-ho, it’s not that long ago. Lucy Steeds’ debut novel is set in Provence in 1920, in the house of reclusive, monstrous and fictional post-impressionist artist Edouard Tartuffe. He lives with his niece, Ettie, sees no one, goes nowhere and paints all day. A young, English journalist, Joseph, arrives, apparently invited by Tartuffe (but as it turns out, by Ettie). He is at first blanked by the artist, then used as a model, and so begins a summer in the Provençal sun in which their respective stories unravel and intertwine. The traumatic aftermath of the First World War has touched both Ettie and Joseph. Ettie is desperate to escape the expectations and repression from which women of the time are starting to emerge. The way she achieves this is one of the twists of the tale, signposted in its opening, when an older Ettie looks at a painting in the National Gallery and remembers a fire. Tartuffe is a cliché of grumpy, obsessive painter and the passionate romance of the younger pair seems almost inevitable. But you can feel the heat, tragedy and yearning and if you’ve ever been to the beautiful area in which it is set, you’ll be transported back, not always happily, in both place and time.

Have you watched “Dirty Business” on Channel 4? It tells the story of over 30 years of profiteering by the owners of our...
28/05/2026

Have you watched “Dirty Business” on Channel 4? It tells the story of over 30 years of profiteering by the owners of our privatised water companies and back-covering by those who should have been regulating. And nothing’s changed as this week several areas have been without water due to burst, antique mains and ‘increased demand in hot weather’, who knew? Everyone should watch this, and it should make everyone with investments think carefully about what their money does and what it supports. You can’t invest in, or avoid investing in a Thames, Southern or most other Waters as they’ve all been bought, sold and bought again by overseas banks and sovereign wealth funds. But if you choose a ‘Positive Impact’ portfolio, you can be pretty sure that your investments will not just avoid the nasties, but seek out the goodies. Ethical, sustainable investments never went away, we’ve always tried to champion them; and news of a ‘comeback’ of any kind has to be welcome.

When interest rates were nothing and transfer values from final salary pensions were eye-watering, unregulated scammers ...
26/05/2026

When interest rates were nothing and transfer values from final salary pensions were eye-watering, unregulated scammers persuaded some to move to dodgy, get-rich-quick investments schemes. Much of the blame was apportioned to pension schemes, keen to offload liabilities without checking where the cash was going.

Those big transfer values are no longer a thing, but it seems that stable doors are now being slammed when horses have not just bolted but gone out to grass and long-retired. To transfer even the smallest scheme on the recommendation of a regulated adviser to a huge UK insured pension fund, clients are being asked to complete several-page questionnaires and talk to anti-scam script-reading Money Helpers. Shifting the responsibility to the client and away from those who should be regulating.

99% of us, particularly the independent us, just want to do a good job for our clients. And, sadly, no amount of extra form-filling will stop the persuasive bad guys from tricking those they’ll trick. Just get out there and catch them, please...

If you die with anything left in a pension pot, it will be liable to IHT from next April. How exactly that will happen i...
26/05/2026

If you die with anything left in a pension pot, it will be liable to IHT from next April. How exactly that will happen is slowly emerging through bureaucratic mists, as those responsible realise what a nightmare it’s likely to be. Main point to note, it will be up to executors to ‘track down all of a deceased person’s pensions and contact each pension scheme or provider’.

Now a big part of what we do is to help those approaching retirement (as that’s usually the first time they worry about it) to sort out the many odds and sods of pensions they may have accumulated over the years. Our team do this every day, days which can turn into weeks and months when dealing with some companies.

And so we and our ilk will be advising that you get those old plans together in one place, with a living, breathing pension provider, sooner rather than later in future; as you never know...

We advisers are the first to moan about ‘too much regulation’. But there is a difference between the tick-box, back-cove...
20/05/2026

We advisers are the first to moan about ‘too much regulation’. But there is a difference between the tick-box, back-covering that benefits noone, in particular the end users, our clients, and that which clearly limits the reckless stuff which does real harm.

Our current rulers, keen/desperate a boom of some kind, want economic growth to be the ‘number one mission’ and regulators to be ‘less risk averse’.

Those of us with long-ish memories or an eye for history will remember the chocks-away deregulation of the 1980s, the ‘Big Bang’ which gave the banks carte-blanche and made zillionaires of many a banker.

The part Ms Reeves probably likes to remember is the big tax-take it gave Gordon Brown some 10 years later, rather than the crash to which it all led in 2008.

Things are different now, they say. I’m not so sure. Be careful what you wish for.

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