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Philip James Independent Financial Advice Independent financial advice, helping you to invest responsibly, organise your savings, plan for retirement and both give, gladly and receive, sadly.

It doesn't need to be complicated. We'll leave you feeling better about your money - and your life. Top-rated Independent Financial Adviser, based in the beautiful Cotswolds

Film Review: Sense and SensibilityI know, my first thought was ‘why?’ The Emma Thompson version was pretty much perfect;...
25/10/2026

Film Review: Sense and Sensibility

I know, my first thought was ‘why?’ The Emma Thompson version was pretty much perfect; but, unbelievably for an old person, thirty years ago! The why?, however, is answered early on and throughout.

It is a beautiful story, with beautifully-drawn characters and Jane Austen was a genius. You might think that the travails and manners of 18th century gentlefolk would not relate to our internet world; this works primarily as there has been no attempt to modernise change the original plot nor characters.

The Dashwood mother and sisters are turfed out of their lovely (Jane Austen-style, of course) home, as a male relation, a cousin with ghastly wife, must inherit. They move to a lowly cottage in Devon, and only a decent marriage can save the sisters from having to cook for themselves. One sister is ‘sense’, the other ‘sensibility’ (see Pride and Prejudice for comparator).

I’m sure most of you worth any salt will know all of the above. This film looks gorgeous, the usual dances and clothes likewise, with the only slight acting-grating being the off-key accent of the Norwegian actor for some reason cast as suitor Col. Brandon. Otherwise, a lovely afternoon in the cinema with cup of tea and biscuit and, despite knowing the ending inside-out, a tear or two shed.

23/10/2026

What (probably) won’t happen in the Budget

The run up to the forthcoming Budget has been comparatively leak-free. Rumour-in-Chief this time was a hike or even major change to the CGT rules or rates, but in a for-a-change benign leak, this has been quashed.

It seems unlikely that he will, or he would mad, I’d say to, make more changes to Inheritance Tax - surely Rachel did enough. Pensions will be IHT-able from April, and that’s shaping up to be an admin nightmare, for executors in particular

Pensions should also be untouched - shouldn’t they? Any more complexity and restrictions will mean that those who should be encouraged to save will be still further disinclined or discouraged.

Trouble is, that doesn’t leave much to grab, does it? If income tax is still out-of-bounds and more money is needed just to keep the show on the road, let alone make things better, then, well, where else to turn? Surely those poor banks have suffered enough?

23/10/2026

Whatever happened to National Insurance?

I hadn’t realised that our auto-enrolment pension regime has become a respected model which other governments are seeking to copy. We often see it as a poor relation to the now-unaffordable final salary pensions which were the norm for many years but which no longer exist in the wider (non-unionised private sector) world.

The principle of being opted in to a pension unless you opt-out means that most will at least pay and have something paid-in, not enough but better than nothing.

Could that be a model for some sort of better funding for long-term care? The idea (from respected pensions guru Steve Webb) is that over-40s would pay into a social care fund which would give them some sort of benefit when and if needed.

Maybe they could call it “National Insurance” That was the idea of the post-war founders of our welfare system, of course; until NI was hijacked to become just another tax. With predictable results.

22/10/2026

Paying for care - the real world

Despite all the talk of our Care Crisis, most have little idea of what is involved unless they have had to tackle the system. In particular, just how much or little financial help will be available when funds are exhausted.

To be considered for local authority help, you need to have less than £23,250 left. That does not, however, mean that they will automatically cough up and pay for whichever home you’re in.

No. They will assess how much care is actually needed - usually based on an occupational therapist’s assessment of the so-called ‘activities of daily living’. If they decide that you don’t need to be in a care home, they won’t pay for one.

We often tell clients that they worry too much about the possibility of needing long-term care. But we just as often tell those who think, by moving their assets into complicated trusts, that they can avoid paying, that it really is not that simple.

Book Review: A Fortunate Woman: A Country Doctor’s Story by Polly MorlandThis is the connected-yet-unconnected sequel to...
18/10/2026

Book Review: A Fortunate Woman: A Country Doctor’s Story by Polly Morland

This is the connected-yet-unconnected sequel to ‘A Fortunate Man’ written by John Berger almost fifty years ago. Berger, a journalist, followed and celebrated the life of a GP in a remote valley in the Forest of Dean, from the founding of the NHS in 1947 to the doctor’s retirement.

‘A Fortunate Woman’ is beautiful, often harrowing and genuinely inspiring, and tells of his present-day successor. She joined the same practice some forty years later, having, coincidentally and unknowingly, read and reread the prequel in teen and training years.

It is episodic, returning to both her early days in medicine and the Fortunate Man’s very different practice and NHS, but comprising mostly individual and individuals’ stories from the remote countryside in which she works.

Covid arrives, and we are reminded - it can already seem history- of its effects, actual and collateral, on both those isolated and isolating, and the medics working through it.

The turn-up and wait your turn surgeries and home visits of, well, my youth are no more. This GP, however, has learned and understands that her job is about people as much, if not more than science. And that it’s by giving time to and knowing her patients that she - and, let’s hope, others - can make a difference.

17/10/2026

Should we be rethinking ‘low risk’ investment portfolios?

When we talk about risk, more generally means more shares, less more bonds. The rationale being that, when shares are sold, the money generally goes to lower risk investments.

Bonds are loans to governments and companies which, unless they’re dodgy third world or likely to go bust, will be repaid at some time. They, and in particular those of biggest beast, the US government, can be equally volatile.
So many are thinking differently and leaving bonds out of the reckoning altogether. Some, if you’re a ‘balanced’, medium risk investor, rather than recommending what in our jargon is a ’60/40’ portfolio, 60% shares/40% bonds, will go half cash/half world stockmarket index.

Others, including us, are more nuanced, not recommending more than half in bonds, and similarly, for those who want less risk, leaving more on deposit or in Premium Bonds.

If you’re in for the long-term, it will, I would say, come out in the wash. And more often than not, it does not pay to go against the wisdom of ages. Looking at you, DT.

16/10/2026

Why do we care so much about Inheritance Tax?

It seems strange that pledges to abolish Inheritance Tax and its predecessors have been consistent vote-winners. As is often cited, 95% won’t pay it. It’s forecast that this will reduce to around 88% when pensions are dragged in to the net, but that’s still not, you’d think, significant for most.

Estate Duty was originally intended to break up/plunder the landed estates and ensure the noble rich paid their proper share. The reality, over many decades, is that the very wealthy can and have generally planned accordingly, so that most of that 5% fall into the ’squeezed middle’, in political parlance just a rung or two above those famous Hard Working Families.

When Thatcher in the ‘80s fulfilled her pledge to abolish Capital Transfer Tax, it was a change in name only, to, yes, Inheritance Tax. Any future ‘abolition’ would likely be along similar lines, as taxing the dead will continue to be too easy and tempting for any Chancellor. And canning it altogether too radical for most.

15/10/2026

HSBC’s AI Gamble: Are Human Advisers Disappearing Again?

The big banks were big in financial advice and bancassurance was to be the future. Then came The Crash of 2008.
Many disappeared altogether, those remaining decided that they no longer needed either to own life assurers nor investment managers and with them went their armies of advisers.

Full circle, Crash forgotten, most are back in the game one way or another; but HSBC, it seems, are leading the next exodus, apparently replacing 70% of those you can find in their few, remaining branches with, of course, AI.
The extent to which this is the tip of another iceberg or a cost-cutting excuse remains to be seen; so, too, how long the wheel will take to go round again.

Some won’t mind talking to a robot, others, those who like the look of or stick with us, will still want an actual person of some kind. As I’m sure HSBC will discover when the next restructure comes around.

02/10/2026

Budget Rumours and Possibilities

The Budget Rumour Machine is not the shambles it was last year. Before Rachel’s Swansong all sorts of stuff was leaked to see what sort of puddle it would create.

Most damaging was ‘tax-free cash will go’ which, no surprises, is back. Most supposed to know don’t think it will happen, that pensions won’t be touched - surely certainty is needed to keep us bothering to save.

CGT, which they can frame as a fat-cats tax, is another favourite. Aligning it with income tax or simply adding gains to income would be a major shake-up but hardly an encouragement to investment in Brit Companies for Growth.

Ditching savings and dividend allowances would not affect Working People or be classed as an increase in income tax. Easy to get away with if you b**g in an increase in the personal allowance for low-earners.

Inheritance Tax? Surely no more tiddling here, but, back to CGT, an end to ‘rebasing’ or wiping out gains on death is another possible.

All the above is speculation so don’t, I’d say, do anything ‘just in case’ that you might regret. As many did last time around.

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