Death and taxes may be the only certainties in life, but they offer another immutable truth: they always come at an inconvenient time. So, it’s pleasing and mildly surprising to discover that some of you are addressing both death and taxes at the same time. Our Inheritance Tax service is proving popular, with several enquiries […]
As we’ve said before, times are tough for income-hungry investors. Interest rates remain low, and traditional savings products mostly lag inflation. So the hunt for income is always on, as noted by our friends at P2P Finance News. ISA SEASON may be a distant memory but there are still tax-wrapper product launches to look forward […]
Loans from property-backed Seascape (currently we are offering number 22 in the series) continue to prove popular. The latest A-rated tranche yields 8 per cent gross, at a fixed rate for five years. After less than a day, the issue is 36 per cent subscribed. Bear in mind that while there is no profit without […]
Our determination to keep the crowd – individual investors – in crowdfunding is on the record. That does not preclude forming partnerships with bigger commercial lenders, but the individual will always have a place in peer-to-peer (P2P) lending. Our friends at P2P Finance News quote Orca Money’s Iain Niblock’s thoughts on the debate: While much […]
The alternative finance sector is growing fast. This is especially true of the financial technology (FinTech) sub-sector. With rapid growth comes rapid change – so much so that the language we use to describe our industry often struggles to keep up. We’ve often reported here on the need for an established taxonomy for alternative finance. […]
Recently, HM Treasury, the Department for International Trade, and Innovate Finance, joined together in publishing a report entitled “UK Fintech State of the Nation.” The report provides a snapshot perspective as to progress in the UK regarding FinTech, as well as providing a roster of ongoing programs created to ensure the UK’s position as a […]
Regular visitors will be aware that we have been reporting regularly on the chequered history of peer-to-peer loan assets when held in the stock-market-listed vehicle that is an investment trust. Here’s an excerpt from a recent report by P2P Finance News: FUNDING Circle’s dedicated investment trust is set to close, raising questions about the future […]
A house can be more than a home. It can also be a serious tax problem. Average house prices in England are nearly a quarter of a million pounds and the threshold for Inheritance Tax (IT) on death is £325,000 (after which tax applies at a flat 40 per cent rate). London average prices are […]
With two loans close to closing, we thought we’d remind visitors to the site of the pluses and minuses of lending, As an investment, peer-to-peer (P2P) loans can be rewarding if you know what you’re doing. Our lenders have averaged a gross return of more than eight per cent in the five years we’ve been […]
Market liquidity – the availability of buyers if you want to divest yourself of a loan holding – is a side-issue of our recent short series of articles looking at investing in peer-to-peer loans via investment trusts. Investment trusts have had their problems, but they operate in a market where there’s pretty much always a […]