Ask The Experts/Archive

This is your opportunity to ask us about finance queries queries.

Q: “I have read that interest rates are due to rise and that lenders are withdrawing their fixed rate deals—what can I do?”
P. Clamping

Indeed there is a lot of speculation about increasing rates and if ever there has been a time to review your mortgage it is now.  The good news is that there are still competitive fixed rates available with many of the high street lenders.  The advantage of a fixed rate is that regardless of whether interest rates rise your rate will remain at the same level.  However it is very important to look at all the costs involved with the various fixed rates out there. 

Many lenders have started to charge high arrangements fees for their lowest rates.  In fact they can be so high that they outweigh the benefit of having the fixed rate in the first place.   In addition any redemption penalties within your current deal need also to be taken into account.

There are over 15,000 products from over 150 lenders in the UK and our job is to literally ‘crunch’ the numbers for you.  If there is something you could be doing to better your mortgage we can tell you.  To find out more give myself or one of our advisers a call on 020 7382 0437.  Scott Rawling ScottRawlings@myeggnest.com

Q.  I've found the amount of information available on CTF overwhelming and confusing and was so pleased when I came upon your website and the very easy to understand table. One thing which I can't find any information on is if you have invested in one CTF, in my case it was the Halifax, but would like to move the money to a higher performing fund is this an option? I have a new baby and am presently shopping for a new CTF to invest in. Many Thanks in advance Jackie

Thank you for your kind words about our website. We're always striving to improve to give our users the best possible information. Therefore after your question, we will now include a section to cover "changing ctf providers" so that other parents will have the full information they need to make the right choices for their children's savings.

To answer your question. Yes you can change your provider at any time and they cannot charge you for transferring the account. However, if your child holds a stakeholder account or some other account that invests in shares, the provider may deduct costs (such as stamp duty and dealing charges) in selling any stocks and shares that form part or all of the account.

It's always best to check with your provider before going ahead and making the change. It would also be a good idea to check with the new provider how long the transfer should take. Joe Luong joe@myeggnest.com

If you have any questions, please simply complete the "Ask the Experts" form opposite and one of experts will be happy to reply.

Qa) I have a joint mortgage with my Mother. We both reside at this property. My father is deceased. In the event of my death, the property becomes solely my Mothers and vice versa. With regard to Inheritance Tax, when my Mother passes away will I be liable for a hefty inheritance tax bill on the property seeing that part of the property is her's? Will I have to sell the property in order to pay for any inheritance tax due? Thanks for your advice. Colin

Firstly, this is a complicated area and I would really need to know exactly what the situation is to give specific solutions to Mr Emanuel’s situation, but the crucial factor is the ownership of the property as per the property deeds, if this is in joint names rather than whether the mortgage is in joint names will determine things.

The beneficiaries of Mr Emanuel’s mother’s estate will be liable to inheritance tax if the value exceeds the nil rate band threshold, which is £300,000 for the 2007/2008 tax year, the rate of tax is 40%.  

If his Father died less than 2 years ago there may be a way of reducing the inheritance tax bill by £120,000 through a deed of variation and through careful planning and structuring inheritance tax bills can be reduced substantially, in a variety of different ways. I would need to look at the total value of the estate and any gifts made by his Mother in the last 7 years to calculate exactly what the current liability would be, before offering any potential solutions. Hope this helps. 

To find out more, please give myself or one of our advisers a call on 020 7382 0437. Steve Weisner SWeisner@myeggnest.com. Independent Financial Adviser,  Radcliffe & Newlands.

Qb). Both the names of my mother and I appear on the property Deeds. The proceeds from the sale of my Mother's former property were used as approximately two thirds of the collateral towards the purchase price of the new house and I obtained a mortgage for the remainder. My father passed away in December 2000, leaving all his possession to my Mother in their joint Will.

Although the property was purchased for £310,000 (£320,000 with optional extras included) in December 2005, an Estate Agents valuation earlier this year put the property at approximately £400,000. As for the rest of the estate, I would give my Mother's personal fortune at not exceeding £35k.

To my knowledge my Mother has made no 'Gifts' to any member of the family, myself included. Her pension is quite nominal so she is looking to retain as much of her personal fortune as possible in savings schemes in order to guarantee some financial security for the rest of her life.  Colin

Hi Colin,

I have double checked this with a colleague of mine and your Mother's estate will only have the value of half the property, i.e.
£200,000 plus the savings of £35,000 so currently her estate will have no liability to inheritance as the total will be below the £300,000 threshold.  If property prices increase there could be an issue in the future or if the rest of her estate is worth more than £35,000 there could be issues, but currently you are £65,000 below the threshold for inheritance tax.

If your Mother passed away and left you with all the property, you would have issues of your own to consider, but I don't think there will be an issue with your Mother's estate. If you would like to review the savings she has to see if she is getting the most out of them or any other financial issues with her affairs or your own, please feel free to contact me, hope this has helped,

To find out more, please give myself or one of our advisers a call on 020 7382 0437. Steve Weisner SWeisner@myeggnest.com.  Independent Financial Adviser, Radcliffe & Newlands.


Q. Hi There, I have used your website to find out info on CTF's for my newborn son. I wonder if you have any info on investment plans that I can start up for my other children 7 and 5, which will mature on their 18th birthday. I would prefer an investment product rather than a saving one as I would prefer the higher return. Also I'm not worried about the tax side, just a good return. Thanks in Advance, Regards Gary

In answer to Gary ’s question, investment based savings plans tend not to be written for a specific term nowadays, in the past things like endowments were set up in this way but in terms of new companies selling these types of products it doesn’t really happen any more.

However ISA’s, Unit Trusts, Investment Trusts and OEICs are all investments which could be used, I would estimate there are over 5,000 different funds available nowadays with funds ranging from low risk such as money market funds to high risk such as equity funds based in Latin America, Eastern Europe or Emerging Markets.

I personally like some of the multi-fund providers such as Fidelity and Skandia which allow access to multiple fund managers and several hundred different funds all within the same product. Although Gary said he is not worried about the tax side of things it should be a consideration as losing 40% of any gains to tax can be avoided with careful use of capital gains tax allowances and ISA allowances. Feel free to contact me if you would like specific advice relating to your own situation.

To find out more, please give myself or one of our advisers a call on 020 7382 0437. Steve Weisner SWeisner@myeggnest.com. Independent Financial Adviser, Radcliffe & Newlands.

Q: I would like to start a savings product for my 2 children (aged 14&11) to help pay for university fees. I could save about £50/ month each. I would like it to be tax efficient and risk free. Any Ideas?

In response to your question: I would certainly look at cash ISA’s as a first option you can invest £3,000 per tax-year per person aged 16 or above, so you would need to use your own allowance at the moment. Other securities or stock & shares ISAs can be looked at but these are generally not risk free. Some companies will build in guarantees on a return of capital or a minimum level of return if you can commit your money for 5 years minimum. Without knowing your individual circumstances I would not be able to give a more specific answer.  If you want to go through this in more detail, please give me a call. 

To find out more, please give myself or one of our advisers a call on 020 7382 0437. Steve Weisner SWeisner@myeggnest.com. Independent Financial Adviser, Radcliffe & Newlands.