How to understand annuities – read before you jump
In this blog:
The up-to-date annuity rates.
Our brand new fees explanation for clients.
How share valuations are plucked from thin air.
Wealth management = financial planning plus investment management.
Japan – what the carry trade is, why it could sink Trump.
The real £sd cost of adding ‘guaranteed’ to your pension? It’s here.
Won’t Get Fooled Again
In this blog:
‘Mister, I don’t sell to fish’ - who the product is really designed for
You think. AI does not. What it got wrong about my own State Pension
There went $2.3 trillion dollars, and here most of it comes back
A worked example: Alan, Barbara and a 25 % fall
Why the money pages never say "nothing to see here"
On age, boredom, and brothers who fall out – the Miliband Mess
What were you thinking?
In this blog:
The best question in investing, asked two years too late
So where are we now?
What this has to do with your income
So, what were you thinking of?
What the pension is actually for
The awkward question this raises
So, what is the money actually for?
Three stories (and a maths lesson)
In this blog:
The chauffeur who gave the lecture
“You are never too old to make a good deal”
Twelve miles a day at ninety-one.
Ms Monroe’s holiday reading
In this blog
Winning the Loser's Game - Charles Ellis
The Psychology of Money - Morgan Housel
Retirement Planning Guidebook - Wade Pfau
How Not to Invest - Barry Ritholtz
Pensionize Your Nest Egg - Moshe Milevsky and Alexandra MacQueen
Other people
In this blog:
Don’t assume the wealth of others
Retiring too early, and the boredom nobody warns you about
The man who sold at the bottom
On having enough
Twenty holes in the punch card
Do not buy the dip, and do not dump either
Probability is not the same as statistics
A Beggars Banquet of consequences
Never judge your retirement by cost.
In this blog:
Commitment.
Every day’s a school day – the tokamak, and why it’s important.
“We can't change the year we're retiring: we need income irrespective of market values.”
Blood on the tracks
In this blog:
Owning a business, not trading a screen
The cost of living, and the price of a ski pass
“You don’t make that kind of money selling bibles.”
You are not the average
Remember Sid, and remember mean reversion
The 4% Rule – recalculated for UK investors.
In this blog:
Why the 4% retirement rule fails in the UK - a 55-year reality check
Private credit funds bolt the doors - what it means and why it matters
How dividends grow your money - yield on cost and the Rule of 72
The Grandads of Anarchy
In this blog:
How clients actually work with us - the whole journey, start to finish
The three ingredients of investing: timescale, costs and returns
What we do, week in and week out, that you never see
A note from a Hollywood hotel, and the only ingredient that really counts
Wish you were here.
In this blog:
The mismatch
What dies with you, what does not
The size of the gap
The three ways to replicate it
The arithmetic, in full - index-linking, a 26-year worked example to the last penny
“What’s it worth?” Valuing the UK state pension for an individual.
In this blog:
Executive Summary & Purpose
Core Concepts Explained Simply
Three Strategies to Replicate the Income
The Corrected Year-by-Year Financial Ledger
Critical Risks & Practical Realities
Conclusion & Professional Guidance
Stop the Pigeon!
In this blog:
Money market funds - not a bank account, and the difference matters
The wealth you did not spend - and two events worth your diary
Patience, Amazon, and the difference between $100 and $6
What is the State Pension actually worth
Annuities: the real rates, side by side
“Gee up, Neddy!” - is retirement the time to buy a horse?
Power to you and me – keeping it in the family
In this blog:
What an LPA actually is - and why there are two of them
The numbers the retirement industry does not like to mention
The Court of Protection: what happens without an LPA, and what it costs
A worked example - meet Robert and Jean
Five things to do this weekend
Will AI make me rich?
Slow Down, You Move Too Fast
In this blog:
The 10 Minute Retirement Plan
The Retirement Funded Ratio - your most useful number
The attractions of life in the slow lane
Say "yes" more - and where it will take you
Old money in the UK - how it persists
Welcome to the Hotel California
In this blog:
Pension Basics - what your pension actually is
Hotel California: what’s changing on 6 April 2027
£280,000: a worked example, in pounds and pence
Four conversations to have - now, not in 2027
I Will Survive (but will your pension?)
In this blog:
I Will Survive - the longevity problem nobody told you about
Sequence risk: the quiet assassin of pension pots (with the maths)
Annuity rates on 15 April 2026 - and what a difference a year makes
The Dividend Heroes: trusts that have been paying through every crisis since your grandparents were courting
The conversation: what you haven’t told your spouse about the money
“Who I want to be” [it’s your retirement, not theirs.]
In this blog:
That’s who I want to be.
Total return, capital and income: the data.
Do you cycle? Do you train-ish? Alistair Brownlee ring a bell?
How to be rational in volatile markets
In this blog:
How to be rational in volatile markets
The client’s question: the maths of the value of planning your income.
Law Debenture or Claverhouse – AI for analysis, only when you know the question.
Don’t worry, be happy
Money – The Danger of Overthinking
In this blog:
Money – The Danger of Overthinking
Murray International
Law Debenture
When data lies and hallucinates – the acute danger of DIY.
What the client wrote…