Financial Focus: Spring 2023

In this issue…

The reappearance of a full Budget in March almost three years after the start of the pandemic marked a return to ‘business as usual’. The circumstances, however, with record inflation and a cost of living crisis, are anything but usual. Although many tax rates and thresholds have either been frozen or cut, the Budget held one surprise in the virtual abolition of the pension lifetime allowance. We look at what’s ahead in tax planning for 2023/24 in our feature for this edition. Earlier in the year, the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association reported that funding a basic standard of living in retirement is now 19% more expensive than it was in 2021, nearly double the peak of recent inflation, which should focus the mind. Ensuring financial security should also be a priority for the growing numbers of cohabiting couples who may believe they have financial and legal safeguards under ‘common law’ which don’t exist. Recent change in the law extending bereavement benefits to unmarried partners highlights the need for open and explicit financial planning.