Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs)

ISAs are a fantastic vehicle for long-term savings thanks to generous tax-saving features. When saving into an ISA you don’t pay any tax on the money in your account, or any income tax on the interest you earn. However, there are a few rules you should be aware of when using them.

Now that we are in the new tax year how should you respond? Is now the time to take advantage of market-sell offs or is it best to hold fire?

With less than one month to go before the tax year ends on 5 April, there is still time to make the most of your tax allowances before you lose them. Here are five simple tax rules you can take advantage of before 5 April to reduce your tax liability and maximise your savings.

If you have assets you always imagined you’d pass down to family members, perhaps so that your grandchildren could buy a first home or pay for university education, you could be in for a wake-up call.

Spring has arrived early this year and after the turmoil of late 2018, it makes sense to give your investment portfolio a spring clean. Here are five questions to ask yourself. If you were starting from scratch, would everything in your portfolio be there? There is a danger that if you don’t re-examine your portfolio from time to time, you end up with a random selection of yesterday's investment ideas rather than a coherent portfolio that works to meet your long-term goals.

For many people, the ability to achieve a regular income from investments is important. This may be particularly relevant for people who are retired and no longer have a monthly pay packet to rely on and are looking to achieve financial freedom, while other people require their investment to pay out regularly to cover a regular commitment such as school or university fees.

EQi has more than 50 customers with ISA portfolios that have passed the £1 million mark. Last week, we shared the story of how one EQi customer has built a portfolio worth over £1 million in his Stocks and Shares ISA. Here, Brian* talks us through the high and low points of his time as an investor, plus his tips on how to build a successful portfolio.

The new tax year started on 6 April. It’s not quite the same as the calendar new year (there are no fireworks to mark a new financial year), but that shouldn’t stop you from making some important financial New Year resolutions.

For investors yet to shelter the maximum £20,000 for the current tax year, it’s important to work out the best route to take full advantage of the allowance. And even though ISAs were designed to be straightforward savings vehicles, there’s plenty of jargon to get your head around - even for seasoned investors. Here we explain some important terms that will help you learn more about how to maximise your ISA savings.

It can be tricky to work out how to organise your investments to make the best use of tax allowances and optimise returns. If you are thinking about opening an ISA or topping up your current ISA, you are likely to face a decision over whether to go for stocks and shares, or cash, or a bit of both.

Anyone with even a passing knowledge of the economic landscape of the last decade won’t need reminding that the value of investments can go down as well as up. One response to the possible volatility of financial markets would be to put all your cash in the bank as, in theory, this should be protected by a national compensation scheme.

Spring has arrived early this year and after the turmoil of late 2018, it makes sense to give your investment portfolio a spring clean. Here are five questions to ask yourself. If you were starting from scratch, would everything in your portfolio be there?

If you are planning your own retirement savings on top of any workplace scheme you might have, then trying to choose between the many different options could leave you confused and frazzled.

The start of a new tax year comes with a shiny new ISA allowance, currently sitting at a generous £20,000. However, while the temptation may be to sit back and relax, secure in the knowledge that you have a year to make the most of it, there are real advantages to getting started early in the tax year.

As a qualified chartered accountant, Leah* is all too aware how tax can eat into the value of people’s savings and investments. When it comes to her own money, she wants to make sure it is invested as tax-efficiently as possible, and this was one of the reasons she opened a SIPP with EQi.

Investing for a comfortable retirement is an ongoing process, not a one-off exercise. You will need to check you are on course to achieve the required level of income when you give up work as interest rates and returns from different assets may change over time.

EQi has more than 50 customers with ISA portfolios that have passed the £1 million mark. ISA savers who want to follow suit and join the growing number of ISA millionaires might be curious to know how it’s done.

The popularity of ISAs has largely been down to their sheer simplicity. There is currently more than £600 billion sitting in adult ISAs. In the 2017/2018 tax year, around £69 billion was saved into adult ISAs - around £131,000 every minute.

An Individual Savings Account (ISA) is a flexible and tax-efficient vehicle. There are a number of ISA options available to investors. One of these is a £20,000 annual allowance for a cash ISA, which operates in much the same way as a typical savings account.