Richard Smith - The Finance Zone Independent and Impartial Advice about Financial Matters

I am reminded of the words to a famous song ” what goes up must come down” - and that old bastion of modenr investing - the Hedge Fund seems to be mired in, well Cow Dung or it’s Human equivalent springs to mind.

Derivitives of course are not to blame, because it was all wrong and not so long ago the story is here >>

Richard Smith

0845 226 9106

A couple of stories caught my eye today and of course there is no more goods news anywhere,  it would seem.

The first, about Poor Investment Performance has had me shuddering, firstly there is that old bastion of 1950 and onwards the With Profits Bond, or should that Without Profits as they do seem to be struggling of late.

Interestingly enough there have not been enough Independent Financial Advisers to go around when these were on sale, all of them were in the line to make recommendations about using them as part of an Investment Portfolio, only not nearly quick enough to get their clients out in time for the plummet in values. This is despite the FSA making a lot of noise about these and other investments over a long period of time.

I guess that if you are suffering from Poor Investment Performance from any of your Funds you need to be considering further our Investment Seminars - which of course will wake the entire industry up more than a little bit the link to these is here >>

The rest of the story is here >>

As always if you need any further information or advice you can contact me on 0845 226 9106

Richard Smith

I suggest you watch this and then consider what your Financial Adviser is doing. We are about to launch our series of Summer Seminars which address many of the points raised.

Grab yourself a Coffee, take 5 minutes to watch this, and look forward to our Summer Financial Planning Seminars, we really are “blowing the lid on the Financial Services sector”.

For more information please use the Contact Pages or call on 0845 226 9106

Well who would ever have guessed that the  London Property Market would be in the doldrums will many leaving for where no one knows.

It seems the usual places, Switzerland, Monaco are all still favourite. A link to the full story is here. |  LINK |

Have a great Wednesday

Richard Smith

0845 226 9106

Have you ever asked yourself this question, well now  I can give you the answer.

Is it accurate I ? I have no idea however it looks like fun. You can find it here |LINK|

There are some risk warnings with this, but hey at least you will know how long you have.

Richard Smith

0845 226 9106

Over the years I have seen a lot of providers and products coming and going. Of course this wax and wane is the normal course of a business/financial cycle.

When I worked for one of the major (but nameless here) Building Societies they pushed, big time an In House Mortgage Payment Plan (MPPI) which worked like a well known brand of Wood Varnish - yup Ronseal.

Now as products came into the market and commision started to increase these products with some gusto, and enjoyed good levels of income from them, of course the Lenders stated that this helped keep the costs of the loans down.

Now for many reasons I have never liked these products, and have never recommended them. However now  that the ‘guano has hit the fan’ and the FSA have started to stamp their feet with fines etc, etc (ok to be fair they started some time ago) there is still a shocking number of Mis Sold/Inapropriately Advised plans out there, many have an appalling claims record. In all fairness they are shocking contracts, (bad that is) shockingly sold and now shockingly not paying claims.

If there was ever a reason for the FSA to get even more stroppy than they have been, surely the time is now.

The Daily Mirror (or Mirror) along with the Consumers Association are looking at these in some detail (you can search here )

I for one would love to see all of the claims paid, the clients receiving a full refund and the institutions that sold them fined heavily. The downside of course is we the Tax Payer own most of these institutions now.

Happy Days.

Richard Smith

As always if you have any queries please call me on 0845 226 9016 or use the Contact Pages.

If you have not tied yourself into a Fixed Rate Mortgage Deal  at these present rates you really should act fast.

Longer Term “swop” rates have been increasing of late and it looks likely that the present tranche of rates will not last forever.

Remember - you read it first here folks.

Richard Smith

0845 226 9106

Although there has been some positive commentary in various (usually unregulated and less uniform) publications about the outlook for property funds, we will probably not be advising clients to invest in property funds for some time yet, as;
There is a strong prospect of increased vacancies due to the
downturn in the economy affecting many more commercial tenants.

There is a strong prospect of increased vacancies due new
developments, planned and started during the boom years, coming onto the
market. This will also put downward pressure on rents.

Property fund managers are spending increased sums monitoring the
financial strength of existing and potential tenants.

Property fund managers are having to hold cash to cover
redemption’s from investors who are only now realising their investments.

Although the yield which these (usually unregulated and
uninformed) commentators are positive about is indeed in the region of 7 to
8%, the average commercial property vacancy rate is 12.9%.

The yield will come under pressure also from several of the items
mentioned above.

The best predictions from the fund managers themselves is that the
rate of decline will slow over the next few months.
Hope that helps.

As always please contact me to discuss further the options

Richard Smith

0845 226 9106

Where are you going to turn, it seems that for most of us getting older is not fun, however for large members of our community Financial Advice is getting harder to find. Realistically it has been getting like this for a long time.

Over here at the Finance Zone we recognise that and want to help where we can, this makes good business sense in the longer and shorter term. The link to this story is here |LINK |

So you know where to come.

Richard Smith

0845 2269106

There is some, and more to come. Lloyds Bank or whatever it’s called now. | LINK | At least now some of our money is coming back. Should we get the flags out, not quite yet methinks.

Over the coming months we are the Financezone are planning some seminars which will cover important issues and products like this they will be held across Sussex, Surrey and Kent and will promise to make you money.

Richard Smith

Independent Financial Adviser

0845 226 9106