We strongly recommend you never consider appointing a solicitor as an executor to an estate. There are a number of reasons why we say this. The main reason of course is cost. Solicitors can often charge a fee based on a percentage of the estate. This will typically be in the region of 1.5%. In [...]

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The Financial Services Industry in now in consultation on affordability matters relating to obtaining a mortgage. The Financial Services Authority looks set ban Self Certification mortgages. In other words, you are looking for a mortgage where you the client tell us, the adviser, what your income is and we trust you this figure is correct. [...]

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New figures on unemployment released today show the rate of unemployment was smaller than expected, in fact was the slowest rate since June 2008. This is a key indicator that things may be about to turn around. Generally, as you would expect, when the number of people being made unemployed stops rising this is a [...]

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As many of our clients will be aware. I suggested it was a possibility that we may start to see the banks report huge profits after all these “huge” losses. I was interested to read today that JPMorgan, the United States 2nd biggest bank announce, reported net income for the quarter of £2.5 billion!!! Have [...]

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I saw an article at the weekend prepared by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). They believe the base rate will remain at its current 0.5% level until 2011 and not reach 2% until 2014. The report predicted the pound will weaken further, falling to $1.40 and “possibly” below 1 euro. Its forecast [...]

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