Skywalker's light sabre cuts through dull pension landscape

Whatever the reason, the stark reality is that pensions need re-branding for the iPod generation. There is no doubt that the content and language of this highly regulated area of financial planning is hard to make engaging. Each successive government has made saving into pensions schemes less attractive through hidden taxation. The value of pensions savings for most people, has either shrunk or grown at a minimal rate over the past few years and it is the worst of these cases that the press sensationalises.

The Holy Grail is to find ways of explaining pensions and investment options, in a way that motivates action, to a disenchanted generation with a very short attention span. What could be more "sexy" and "cool" than investing in a film company that have three films planned with award winning writers, producers, directors and A-lister stars, with the legendary Mark Hamill, Luke Skywalker (and his light sabre!) involved in the entire project? With a minimum £25,000 investment, it may be hard to see how this links to pensions and the generation turned-off by them!

How about not having to put your hand in your pocket or raid your bank account? If all you had to do was entertain the possibility of rejuggling pension savings you have already committed would you want to hear more? And if you met or exceeded the 25k threshold for investment by simply redirecting a sensible part of your pre-tax earnings you had already waved goodbye to till retirement, wouldn't that be even more amazing?

Orchid Financial Services and SolutionsForce are seeking investors on behalf of Berkeley Square Films launched by Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker fame) and involving such industry leaders as Michael Uslan, Owner and Executive Producer of the Batman film franchise. For those looking for an alternative way to grow their pension funds, the three films predicted to range between good returns and blockbuster revenues by the industry gurus at Nash, have received EIS (Enterprise Investment Scheme) approval so tax advantages are already in place for would be EIS investors.

Working with Montpelier Group, a leading SIPPs administrator and wealth management company, Orchid Financial Services and SolutionsForce have added a new channel for investment through a SIPP (Self Invested Personal Pension) This will provide an exciting investment opportunity with a way of "wrapping" or introducing the subject of pensions to a disenfranchised generation, giving an alluring alternative investment for those with a more adventurous attitude to risk.

For further information, contact the investment team on:

+44 (0)20 3130 4767

www.berkeleysquarefilms.com

David Berkoff at The Business Club launches his own blogging site!

David Berkoff has grown his brand through The Business Club North London and met so many contacts he is now embracing social media to the extent that he is launching his very own blogging site! :

"With the cyber world at my finger tips, I have a dream of creating the most wonderful blog site ever."

My vision was to create a site where consumers can tell us what they think of Advertising and Design issues. Specifically, famous TV commercials and well known logo designs.
The idea developed when I thought of a name and logo design for the site. The name being “Blogo’s, Design and Advertising.”
The next stage was to research. So I set a question on Linkedin asking “What makes a good blog site and show me examples”. I had responses from all four corners of the world and this was hugely informative.
Once I was clear on what makes a good blog site, I then called on expertise from my copywriter, Stephen Barnard of the Write Line. Stephen work with me on the content and copywriting side and his background as copy head for the Readers Digest was invaluable.
I then wanted an objective opinion on the concept and advice on how best to structure the site. It was through Thornton Holmes at the Business Club North London who introduced me to Kush Shukla of Aviva. And 3 hours spent with Kush helped me to formulate ideas for the content and strategy to launch the blog site. He was thought provoking and rightly challenged me on where and how to proceed in a logical and structured way.
Having established the content, it was time to design and build the site. Adrian Kinloch my web designer and programmer based in New York recommended and set me up with Word Press. But it was another Business Club contact Suraj Shah who gave me training and helped me build the site. Suraj is currently helping with the voting programming, final design tweaks and emarketing strategies prior to launch.
So, from a dream to reality I am now almost ready to launch the site to the world and await your votes and comments.
I will be updating the site regularly with new voting polls and comments, so why not go now to :

www.berkoffdesign.co.uk/blog

to see how the site is progressing and what all the fuss is about!

With special thanks to and links to:
Aviva www.arivu.co.uk
 Adrian Kinloch www.conceptmechanics.com
 Suraj Shah www.surajshah.com

Stephen Barnard www.write-line.co.uk
 Thornton Holmes www.businessnetworklondon.co.uk

Solutionsforce Workshop

Paola Bradley always runs interactive and entertaining business events so don't miss the next Business Club meeting at Hendon Hall! :

thebusinessclub-North London next club meeting :

DATE: Wednesday 4th August

VENUE : Hendon Hall Hotel

TIME : 6pm for 6.30pm meet. 7pm start.

Business Builder Free to members Incl Buffet (Non Members may attend two meetings before joining at a charge of £10 per meeting)

Presents:

A 'SOLUTIONSFORCE WORKSHOP'

An evening of interactive entertainment centred around business related issues. Learn to self evaluate, improve upon your strategies for success and take your business to the next level!

SolutionsForce is a family run business which specialises in helping businesses grow. They coach business leaders to align the business' strengths with what their clients' need and create compelling communication to put this into action. This ranges from business fundraising and introducing them to key networks, to marketing and PR campaigns.

Paola has worked in and with very large and small businesses. Her background is very diverse & unusual and is reflected in the way she interacts with people and we guarantee you will have an entertaining and informative evening coupled with an opportunity to network with a range of different businesses!

The unavoidable budget.............main points

Details of an emergency Budget predicted to contain some of the toughest measures since the end of the Second World War have been announced by the new Chancellor of the Exchequer. In what he called 'The Unavoidable Budget', George Osborne claims lower Government spending rather than higher taxes form the basis of the changes. Here is what the new coalition Government has decided should be done to try and drag the public finances back into some kind of order and an early indication of what it means for you.

• VAT is to rise from 17.5% to 20% from January next year. The Chancellor says that by the end of the parliament, this move will have generated £13bn in extra revenues. However, those items that do not currently attract VAT, such as children's clothing, newspapers and books, will remain exempt from the tax.

• Capital gains tax is to remain at 18% for low and middle income savers who pay the basic rate of tax. From midnight tonight, however, the rate for higher rate tax payers is to increase to 28%. The threshold for capital gains tax remains unchanged at £10,100.

• As had been widely reported, the income tax personal allowance is to be increased by £1,000, taking around 880,000 low earners out of the tax system. The rise in the threshold to £7,475 from April next year will be worth around £170 a year to 23 million basic rate taxpayers.

• No new increases were announced to the taxes payable on tobacco, alcohol or fuel.

• Public sector workers face a two year pay freeze, although the 1.7 million workers who earn less than £21K will be protected through a flat rise of £250 each year.

• A rise in the state pension age to 66 is to be fast tracked. The Chancellor has also promised to re-link rises in the basic state pension to earnings from April next year. A 'triple-lock' guarantee will see the pension rise by the greater of earnings, prices or 2.5%.

• The consumer prices index, rather than retail prices, will be used to work out rises in benefits, tax credits and public service pensions. However, pension and pension credit increase will remain linked to RPI.

• Tax credits to families earning over £40K will be reduced, while child benefit will be frozen for the next three years. However, the child element of child tax credit will increase by £150 above inflation next year.

• From January next year, banks will be charged a levy which is expected to generate £2bn in annual revenues for the Government. A green investment bank is also to be introduced.

Thornton Holmes.

Orchid Financial Services Ltd &

The Business Club North London

Visibility, Credibility, Profitability....

The fundamentals of face to face networking.

Video Link : EDUCATION SLOT

BNI Education slot transcript :

Thornton Holmes, your Education Co-ordinator. This week I would like to talk about something that’s been mentioned a few times and the long standing members will probably be very aware of it – VCP. Anybody know what it stands for? One does. Essential for BNI. Visibility. First process in BNI – visibility. What we’re all doing here today. It’s about our branding, about our websites, about our business cards, how we present ourselves, how we’re perceived by others. Very, very important. Because once you get this right, it will lead onto, credibility. By being here every week, by giving out referrals, by embracing everybody else’s brands, by promoting your own, by continually doing what we do week in and week out, acting as sales people for each other’s businesses, we’re going to build credibility.
That will lead to profitability. Over time, through the credibility, through building up the confidence, it’s going to lead to sales, it’s going to lead to referrals, it’s going to lead to profit. What I’m interested in, and this was key, I think we’ve bought the book, we might be buying the book for the chapter, I’ve got a copy if people want to borrow it, and it’s called ‘The Speed of Trust’ by Stephen Covey. If you get chance, get hold of that book. I’ve got a copy if you want to borrow it.
What was interesting really, for me was the relationship between the visibility, the credibility and the profitability and it was all dependent on one thing. It was all dependent upon this – speed of trust. Low trust is the greatest cost in life and business. High trust produces speed and speed produces results and building all of this is part of your education.
The speed of trust increases re-orders, it compels people to recommend you and it turns you customers into promoters. So think about trust when you’re thinking about credibility. When you’re trying to build the credibility, think about building the trust. The faster you build the trust, the quicker you’ll gain credibility and the more profitability that’ll give you for your business.
If you want to read about it in depth, ask me and I’ll lend you the book. Hopefully the chapter is going to get a copy and you can read it. It’s very difficult to do all this in two minutes, but it’s given you an overview.

Thornton Holmes
Education Co-Ordinator
BNI Synergy

How do the banks set interest rates?

A very useful article posted by Deborah Hyde on Citywire! :

"The Bank of England interest rate has been at record lows for over a year now but few of us have felt the benefit as lenders are lifting rates on borrowing but have passed the cut on to savers. The Bank of England cut rates so why haven't I felt the benefit? The Bank of England's interest rate known as the Bank Rate is not an instruction to banks about what rate they should charge. Instead it is the rate it charges banks and other financial institutions who want to borrow from it.
According to the Bank's website one of the things this is meant to do is affect the whole range of interest rates set by commercial banks, building societies and other institutions for their own savers and borrowers as well as the price of other things such as shares, the exchange rate and house prices. Lowering or raising interest rates is one way the Bank hopes to affect spending in the economy. The bank tries to control price increases as it tries to keep prices steady. But the move to cut the Bank Rate to 0.5% last year was a response to an extraordinary level of panic in the markets rather than a routine move to keep price rises in check. It was meant to help banks struggling to find anyone to lend money to them, to restore confidence and keep money flowing through the economy.

So why didn't the move help me?

Some people did feel an immediate benefit. People on tracker mortgages saw repayments fall giving them more cash. But for most borrowers rates rose as banks and other lenders passed on rising costs and tried to limit their losses as rising numbers of businesses and individuals declared themselves bankrupt and unable to pay. There is a widening gap between the rates charged to different customers. A new report from HSBC shows that people with plenty of equity in their home - i.e. where the value of their home is substantially above the amount they owe on a mortgage - are being charged much better rates. If you had savings the impact was almost immediate as banks sought to maximise profits by cutting savings rates.

If the Bank of England's rate is lower why are banks charging borrowers more?

Events in Greece and in other southern European nations have reminded people that the financial crisis has not been resolved despite all the stimulus put in place by central banks and governments. Many countries in the developed world are being hobbled by levels of debt that will be difficult to reduce without massive cost-cutting, businesses are still failing, unemployment is between 8 and 20% in the West and economic growth is still anemic in most European countries. The rate banks say they pay for three-month loans in dollars rose above 0.5% on Monday for the first time in 10 months amid concern that the creditworthiness of financial institutions is deteriorating - adding to costs. Others report that not only are costs on the rise but also the market remains closed for all but the safest banks. There are also moves afoot in most countries to force banks to hold more cash and to take less risk. Uncertainty about how much governments will tax the banking sector is adding to nervousness in the sector. All of which means cash is thin on the ground and anyone lending is charging higher rates. There has also been a widespread review of risk. When house prices were soaring, lenders believed that it was relatively safe to lend. Some went as far as lending more than a house was worth because they were confident that their lending was backed by an asset whose value was increasing. The downturn has changed that and there is less confidence around that property prices will rise - which means lenders feel lending has become riskier which in turn means they are charging more.

My credit card rate is nearly 18%, how can that be justified?

The average interest rate being charged by credit card companies has climbed to record highs in recent months. Basically, you are being charged against the risk that you or other people will not be able to pay back what they borrowed. Since credit card lending is unsecured, the companies cannot seize your assets if you cannot or won't pay them back and so they lose all the money that is not paid back. Figures from the Bank of England show that the amount of money credit card companies have had to accept they will not get back has soared in the recession. Since credit card companies often don't have savings businesses that also adds to their risks and their costs, adding to their reasons for charging more.

But why is my saving account paying so little interest?

Unfortunately, the rate banks pay savers does closely reflect the Bank of England Bank Rate. In fact, banks and building societies say they are being generous because they are losing money on what they pay to savers. With lenders worried about funding and in desperate need of deposits, rates are higher for people willing to tie their money up for a few years.

Where will rates go next?

It is highly unlikely that rates for borrowers will fall.
With inflation proving sticky there is increasingly pressure on the Bank of England to lift the Bank rate. A number of members of the bank's rate-setting committee believe it is irresponsible to keep rates so low with prices rising so fast. If the Bank does lift its rate that will be passed onto borrowers - except anyone on a fixed rate. Chancellor George Osborne is hopeful rates will stay low and so far the Bank has indicated there is no likelihood it will lift rates over the next few months. Even so, lenders will keep rates at current levels and may even begin to lift them as new rules come in and banks try to prop up profits and margins. If the wholesale market continues to worry about debt that could also add to the costs for banks and lead to higher rates for borrowers. But some - including former MPC member Charles Goodhart - believe that savers may eventually see rates rise as new rules mean that banks will be desperate to bring in cash to help pay for their lending."

Another great speaker at The Business Club!!

The Business Club North London next club meeting :
DATE: Wednesday 19th May 2010
VENUE : Hendon Hall Hotel, Ashley Lane, Hendon, London NW4 1HF
TIME : 6pm for 6.30pm meet. 7pm start.
Business Builder Free to members Incl Buffet (Non Members may attend two meetings before joining at a charge of £10 per meeting)Presents:

"Taking advantage of the Economic Recovery
and what really CAUSED the recession in the first place."

SPEAKER: Brett Alegre-Wood

* His predictions of what will happen over the next 2-5 years in the property market.

* Why the banks aren't lending and when they are likely to come back for small business.

* Why small business owners should be very careful about the income they declare.

* Explain how the FSA has turned consumer debt into a very dirty word.

* Why you may have already missed the cheapest property prices.

Brett was born and educated in Australia, he now lives and works in London. In Australia he owned one of the largest personal development companies with over 700 distributors. In 2002, he arrived in the UK and his passion for education and property led him to build the largest free property investment education websites in the world www.yourpropertyclub.com. He currently has a team of over 50 and in 2009 despite the recession sold over £80 million of UK property.

Call us now to book your place! - 08432 181672