Easiest article that I have ever prepared. Who do you trust with £6 Billion? Companies in the UK or the Government, irrespective of colour. 

How straightforward, a 1% increase in national insurance will create 1% less jobs, a 1% increase will create £6 Billion for the Government to spend on job seekers and disability benefits for the people who don't have jobs!!

The election should not be fought on whether to increase employers NI to 13.8% from 12.8% it should be about how much we cut employers NI to give employers more money to employ more staff and therefore reduce the state benefit costs.

Investment news' Jeff Benjamin published his view that in future Financial Planning firms will be encouraged by their clients to charge fees commensurate with the investment performance that they achieve. http://www.investmentnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100214/REG/302149992

I feel that this entirely misses the point of a Financial Planning firm. Financial planning is about aligning clients assets and goals and work on getting from one to the other. Where in that process is investment performance mentioned? Financial Planners have three roles, to design a plan of action, to select appropriate products for the client and then create in investment strategy to achieve the goals. Why should the clients payments be related to the least important area of the three?

Steve Martin CFP, is the Managing Director and a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) / Independent Financial Adviser (IFA) at Smart Financial Planning

On Tuesday I wrote a letter to the Association of Independent Financial Advisers, on Tuesday afternoon Professional Adviser, an industry magazine, decided to do a story on it http://www.ifaonline.co.uk/ifaonline/news/1592154/aifa-shame-pandering-gcse-level-advisers.

By Wednesday night 30+ people have strongly disagreed with eveything i have said and have me lined up as the new bogeyman! I have never been more proud. My letter was intended to move the IFA industry forward with higher standards, higher qualifications and an open an honest charging policy. Apparently many in the industry do not want this. They do not want to commit themselves to study to improve the advice they give, they do not want to tell their clients what they are doing for them and how much they are charging, they do not want to give advice which doesn't result in the sale of a product.

The commentators on the article thought that they would silence me by disagreeing so forcefully and in such a personally insulting manner with my views, far from it. Smart Financial Planning will champion the rights of the client / consumer to be charged openly and honestly by someone who is capable of giving them the advice that they need. Where that is not the case we will expose these 'advisers' for what they are and help their poor clients to find an adviser who can look after them properly.

Open letter to Chris Cummings, Director General of the Association of Independent Financial Advisers (AIFA), Thank you for your letter dated 5th February 2010 following my attendance at the New Model Adviser conference in January.

I will not however be taking up your kind offer to join AIFA as I feel that your organisation in no way represents the highly qualified, fee based, Financial Planning profession to which I belong. For as long as AIFA continues to promote the interests of advisers who do not wish to continually improve their professional abilities or companies that do not demonstrate that they have sufficient capital to trade without putting their customers at risk, Smart Financial Planning will not become a member.

I find it shocking and disappointing that AIFA continues to seek ways for GCSE level advisers to circumvent the drive to professionalism and I feel you should be ashamed of your proclamation that had it not been for AIFA the minimum standard would be level 6 rather than level 4.

Good morning and welcome to the 15th of February Smart TV review of the weekend papers.

A couple of things this week, it looks increasing likely that the VAT rate is going to be increased to 20% over the next election. This is not a great surprise, the increase from 17.5 to 20% is expected to generate something between 20-30 billion pounds of additional revenue, and it has historically been seen to be easy revenue to take, because it is only revenue when people actually choose to spend their money, as opposed to income tax or national insurance which would be taken before you even had the ability to save your money. So I think that is an absolute nailed on certainty.

What there has been less talk about, is any potential increases in the capital gains tax, I am absolutely certain that the capital gains tax will be increased after the next election. So if there is anything you have that you would be looking to dispose of over the next few months, I would very much encourage for you to get the process going and make plans sooner rather than later, because the 18% rate that we have at the moment is completely incompatible with the VAT rate of 20%, with the basic rate of income tax at 20%, a higher rate of income tax at 40%, and a super rate a 50%. So I would very much cash those chips in now, and take advantage of paying tax at the lowest rate.

Another thing that caught my attention and it always happens at this time of year, is the ISA season nonsense. This is where the talking heads of the investment industry describe to you what they think you should be investing your money in. Now if you’ve followed our Smart TV updates in the past you will by now probably understand that I don’t have much regard for these people, and don’t think very much of the recommendations and I’m absolutely certain that if in general you follow them you will end up probably worse off than if you hadn’t done anything at all, because of the rational that they take to what they recommend.