Churchouse Financial Planning Limited is 5 years young!

Churchouse Financial Planning Limited celebrates its 5th Anniversary at the beginning of October 2009. Started by Keith Churchouse and Esther Dadswell in October 2004 in Guildford, the business blossomed into its current office in the High Street in Guildford in May 2007. Having moved to a mainly fee based advice service in 2007, business has been strong through the recession, and this is a testament to the need for quality financial advice and guidance.

Director Keith Churchouse said, ‘The last 5 years has been an interesting rollercoaster of economic attitudes, going from positive to cautious in the last 18 months and a now showing a change in mood back to investor confidence. We are delighted to have served Surrey, London, Kent and online over this time and look forward to our expansion plans over the next 5 years.

This is going to be a busy period for us with the re-launch of www.planmypension.co.uk which has been completely re-engineered over the last 12 months and should launch on the 08 October. This is an online advice service limited to the issues of investment areas of Pensions, ISAs and Annuities. This is a lower cost direct service to help internet surfers with specific areas of their financial provision. Because of this launch, we have decided to defer the celebratory party until next year as we have a further anniversary of 25 years in the profession next year. Thank you to all of our clients for their support’

The office can be contacted on 01483 578800 or at their website www.churchouse.com.

Churchouse Financial Planning Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

Keith Churchouse is on to something with planmypension.co.uk

By Dennis Hall | 12:05:19 | 25 September 2009

It’s remarkable how writing something down really focuses the mind. I’ve been in deep thought over the past few weeks, following a blog I wrote about how the current IFA business model is basically broken and difficult to scale up. What stopped me from my navel-gazing was news that Keith Churchouse is ready to launch a new online service called planmypension.co.uk.

It’s not even up and running yet, but has already attracted negative comments from detractors who believe that an online service for pensions will not work. I disagree. I think Keith is on to something. In fact, he’s been working on a web-based proposition for at least four years. I'm not privy to the level of success he had with the previous online service, but it clearly hasn't dented his enthusiasm.

There are a number of directional changes I can see, the first being a focus on pensions rather than an all-embracing advice service. The second is a shift from an explicit fee to something that looks like commission, which is probably the way that his target consumer would prefer to pay. Clearly, there's consumer appetite for this style of charging when dealing online, and it hasn't held back Hargreaves Lansdowne.

It’s a brave but determined move by Keith. We know that consumers will use web-based services to purchase investments, but whether this will translate into a market for pension advice has yet to be seen. I hope it does work, not just for Keith but for the rest of us too.

Wouldn't it be great if we could deal with the transactional side of our business in a more efficient manner? They said it couldn’t be done with car insurance, household insurance or travel insurance, but these are now routinely bought online, leaving the specialists in each of these fields to develop bespoke services for the higher net worth cases.

Any doubts I have about Keith's model are that it's probably undercapitalised. When reading about the money spent by other online services, it begs the question as to whether a lone IFA will be heard above all the competing chatter. Keith's no mug when it comes to social media and he probably knows how to market his message at very low cost, but will that be enough. I'm not sure.

Hats off to Keith for being a pioneer and a trailblazer: I just hope he doesn't crash and burn.

Dennis Hall is a chartered financial planner at Yellowtail Financial Planning in London

The new increased ISA allowance, 06th October 2009. Do you need a reminder?

My first blog communicated the changes in legislation that for those individuals aged over 50 to make a higher investment into ISA holdings in the current tax year.

The new allowance for stocks and shares investment increases from 06th October from £7,200 to £10,200. This will be the same from the next tax year (2010/2011) for all eligible investors from 06th April 2010. As an example, an ISA can be used to provide either tax-free income or tax free growth or a mixture of the two. From 2004, ISAs ceased to be able to recover tax deducted from UK dividend income.

It should also be noted that the cash ISA allowance is also increasing to £5,100 from £3,600 at the same time which some investors will find preferable to investing in stocks and shares. The maximum overall investment in a tax year is limited to £10,200.

Many investors have started their planning to use this new tax efficient opportunity for investment.

Churchouse Financial Planning Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. This blog is not individual advice and you should speak to your independent financial adviser for advice and guidance.

Are you sitting comfortably.....then I shall begin

A short tale of investing in 2009 so far.

For many people and organisations, such as businesses and charities, with investments (whether these are pensions, gilts, cash deposits, ISAs or stocks and shares as examples) 2009 has seen a rollercoaster of values and in some cases emotions over the last 12 months.

With the major ‘scalp’ of Lehman Brothers falling a year ago, most investment markets have seen volatility over the last year, with some values being seriously affected. However, this monetary cost does not illustrate the human cost in terms of falling lifestyles and income.

From the depths of early March 2009, when equity values were at their weakest in current times, within 6 months we have seen the FTSE100 close above 5000 points, gold reaching $1,000 dollars and Bank base rates remaining at 0.5% for over 6 consecutive months.

Many have indicated that the resurgence in the markets is due to Quantative Easing, but, dare I say, there also appears to be a renewed confidence in investing. As a note of caution, there remains a concern that we could suffer a ‘mini recession’ (a fall in production and equity markets) within the overall recession that we have all experienced. However, in this computer driven modern world that we live in, the pace of falls and recoveries seems to be far quicker than it has been in previous eras and this can surely be attributed to the speed, breadth and diversity of information that we all receive daily through our computers, televisions and radios. The speed of the delivery of information certainly allows investors the opportunity of making faster decisions and implementing their reactions.

Thinking forward, I am sure that we will see some hick ups in investment progress in the shorter term, although the ride may not be as bumpy as it has been in the last 12 months. This can only help with investor confidence. However, the prospects for investment look far better than they did 12 months ago. With the advantages of increased ISA allowances (£10,200 for the over 50’s from 06th October, available to all eligible investors from 06th April 2010) and the valuable Capital Gains Tax allowance (£10,100 in 2009/2010) it is well worth reviewing your investment strategy to ensure that you are aligned to your investment objectives for the future, whether this be for income or capital growth, or both.

Churchouse Financial Planning Limited is Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Services Authority.