The festive period is often a mad rush of Christmas shopping, seeing family and friends, and preparing for the big day. But you might also find you have moments of calm and relaxation between the hustle and bustle.
With 2022 around the corner, now is a great time to catch up on some of the financial housekeeping jobs you’ve put off so far this year. If you’re looking for some support, speak with one of our financial advisors who will be happy to help.
Here are five places to start.
1. Find your lost pensions
With a new year approaching, the festive period might be the perfect time to gather together your financial paperwork.
This could include digging out your pension scheme details and maybe even tracking down lost pensions.
With the idea of a traditional “job for life” becoming increasingly outdated, multiple jobs mean multiple pensions, especially since auto-enrolment arrived in 2012. If you have lost a pension, you aren’t alone.
The Association of Business Insurers (ABI) reported last year that there are around 1.6 million lost pension pots in the UK, with a collective value of £19.4 billion.
Use the Pension Tracing Service to help find your lost pensions and then gather the paperwork together so that it is on hand when you need it.
2. Review your life cover and protection plans
Begin 2022 with peace of mind, knowing that you and your loved ones are protected.
Find your life cover paperwork and ensure the details are up to date. Big life events like births, deaths, and marriages might mean you need to make alterations and changing jobs might mean losing an employee benefit that will need replacing from elsewhere.
Once you know what policies you have, you can look for gaps in your cover. We can help here, so if you are worried about the protection you and your family have, get in touch to see what we can do for you.
3. Check in on your investments
Your investments with Hartsfield are already aligned to your goals, your values, and your risk profile. But these things aren’t static.
We want your investments to provide the income you need to live the life you want. We regularly review your investments to ensure they are still on track but if you haven’t checked in recently, now is the perfect time.
Maybe life events have changed your priorities or world events have shifted your values? Our intention is always to improve your financial wellbeing and give you the freedom to make the choices that are right for you.
We can rebalance your portfolio, switch to responsible funds aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals or find ways to help you achieve a new financial dream.
4. Start thinking about tax year end
The number of tax changes and allowance freezes announced this year mean it’s vital that you make full use of the rules as they exist now.
Get tax-year end ready earlier than ever by thinking about the following:
- Your Annual Allowance – you can pay £40,000 (or 100% of your pensionable earnings if lower) into your pension for 2021/22 while still receiving tax relief. You might also have carried forward some of your allowance from up to three years ago.
- Your ISA Allowance – For the 2021/22 tax year, the ISA Allowance is £20,000 across all ISAs you hold. Maximising your subscription is the best way to take advantage of your ISAs’ tax efficiencies.
- Your annual exemption – HMRC gifting rules allow you to make some gifts tax-free in a given tax year. Making full use of these exemptions can help you to manage your estate tax-efficiently while providing a living inheritance to loved ones.
5. Check your will is up to date
The festive period might not seem the ideal time to dwell on your own mortality but writing a will or ensuring that an existing one is up to date, is a job that can’t wait.
A will is the best way to make your wishes known and to ensure that your estate is distributed in the way you want.
If you don’t have a will, now is a great time to get one. If you already have one, it is worth reviewing it to make sure that life events haven’t shifted your priorities.
Get in touch
Hartsfield Planning can help you get your finances shipshape in time for the new year. If you would like to discuss any aspect of your long-term financial plans, from pensions to protection, please get in touch and find out how our team of expert planners can help.
Please note
The value of your investments (and any income from them) can go down as well as up and you may not get back the full amount you invested. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance. Investments should be considered over the longer term and should fit in with your overall attitude to risk and financial circumstances.