Standard Life is to remediate all customers who lost money after the revaluation of its Pension Sterling fund last month (January), at an estimated cost of £100m.

With the level of interest you earn falling on cash savings accounts with bank and building societies by about 75% you might be facing the prospect of not enough income to meet you expenditure.  Of course, you could cut back on what you spend or even start using some of the capital but how long are you prepared to do this for?

In the world of investments, the more you want and the quicker you want it the more riskier the scheme tends to be.  We are not talking about 100% return/100% loss on the spin of a roulette wheel though.

By careful analysis of your income requirements and the level of risk you would be comfortable with (non, minimal, minimal to low, low, low to medium, medium etc.)  We can carefully advise you on both the most suitable style of investments scheme (ISA, Bond, OEIC, Unit Trust) and the most suitable underlying asset classes (Gilts, Fixed Interest, Corporate Bond, Equities etc.)

We have many years of experience in the area of investing for income and a number of satisfied clients.  If you would like to discuss you requirements with us then please contact us for a free initial consultation.

What a disaster this is turning out to be.   I speak as an investor, adviser and shareholder. Clients have lost money, advisers feel misled, shareholders worry about management and Standard Life ask for…..patience!!

Forget patience.  If this company was still a mutual organisation (owned by its policyholders) I don’t think it would have ever gone down the route of chasing a fast buck at the beck and call of investors.  And, even it had, I think it would have used its own funds to clean up the mess and financial loss of its wrong decisions and pay a lower bonus to with profit policyholders.

As a result of the wrong decisions I expect no winners.  Clients won’t want to put new money in an organisation whose cash fund loses value,  advisers won’t recommend a company that does not treat its customers fairly and investors will subsequently sell their shares in a less profitable organisation.

So is this goodbye to Standard Life or merely au revior until it changes it decision.  Over to you Mr Crombie.

After my last post regarding protecting your cash assets we have seen today another finanical institution become nationalised.  This time it is Icelandic bank, Landsbanki.

Iceland’s banking minister confirmed that Landsbanki has gone into receivership and would be taken over by the Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority (IFSA) following emergency banking legislation that was passed last night.

In a statement the regulator said: ‘Based on new legislation, the IFSA proceeds to take control of Landsbanki to ensure continued commercial bank operation in Iceland.

‘Domestic deposits are fully guaranteed, as declared by the government. Landsbanki’s domestic branches, call centres, cash machines and internet operations will be open for business as usual. The objective of the IFSA’s action is to guarantee a functioning domestic banking operation.’

However, around 300,000 British savers with £4.5 billion of funds are now unable to access their money.  They were drawn to the lender by high rates of return and could end up losing out.  Maybe ths is the time that “value” starts to recover some of the ground lost to “price”.

With all the turmoil surronding banks and their savers at the moment, finding a safe place for your cash deposits is becoming more of an art.  No, we are not recomending the “under the matress fund” for your money.  We haven’t suggested that since the Millenium Bug scare.

Currently up to £35,000 of you savings is protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.  This is a bona fide scheme and we pay into it each year.  It is also the scheme which is helping bail out Bradford and Bingley so I guess our contribution next year may be a little higher. 

We have now received confirmation that all Post Office accounts are secure up to 100,000 Euros.  This is because the Post Office falls under the Irish Deposit Protection Scheme.

If you wish to know more about investing your cash in The Post Office, or any other institution offering a higher level of protection then please contact us now.