When you say the word investment, stocks and bonds immediately spring to mind. However, you can also be investing in real assets, such as infrastructure, to build a diversified portfolio and provide an inflation-linked source of income.

Real asset investment includes anything that’s tangible.

Over the next three years, the UK will change its entire retirement planning model, by taking Auto enrolment steps for the majority of employees into a workplace pension scheme.

Thousands of the UK’s largest employers have already staged for Auto enrolment, and now it's the turn of smaller businesses.

We offer our clients a summer regular financial review as part of our service.

It’s a great opportunity to take stock on your financial planning situation, measure the progress you’re making towards your goals, and put together an action list for the next 12 months.

We talk often about financial planning. But what is it, what does it achieve and what does it include? The truth is that financial planning is an individual process, and it looks very different for different people at different times.

Financial Planning is about understanding your dreams and life goals, knowing the resources you have available, and what you need to generate to help you achieve them.

Stock markets have had an awful start to the year – down 20% from their April 2015 high in some cases – so it’s even more important than ever to be in funds where the fund manager is earning their fee, and making your money grow.

If you have money in an investment fund, you can’t guarantee it will perform well year in year out.

We can’t escape taxes in this life, but do we really have to pay them when we’re dead?

Unfortunately, for a growing number of us, the answer is ‘yes’. Inheritance tax is catching more and more of us every year, mainly due to the ever growing price of property, pushing the value of our estates past the £325,000 threshold where the tax cuts in.

It was a tough start to the year for investors. We went straight into a Bear market, where the stock market fell significantly, and the FTSE 100 has fallen by a massive 20% from its April 2015 highs.

So is now the time to look for buying opportunities and invest in more shares?

Watching the value of your investments collapse in a big market sell-off is an alarming experience, and all the more so if you are hoping your portfolio will fund your retirement.

Understanding your risk profile - When you sit down with your adviser to talk over how to invest your retirement savings, chances are he or she will give you a questionnaire about your risk tolerance and financial goals. We look at what that's all about and why it is so important for you to get it right.

Getting ready to become an entrepreneur? The entrepreneurial lifestyle looks appealing; come and go as you please, make all the decisions and answer to nobody. Of course, if things go well, you can look forward to wealth too – but beware. All those benefits could be in reach - but to actually achieve them takes a lot of time, money and above all hard work.

Inheritance Tax - IHT - is one tax we never like to think about. But your family and other beneficiaries could lose a lot of money to the taxman if you don’t take the right steps now.

We all know there here’s no escaping death or taxes – but by understanding what is involved in IHT and some forward planning, it’s possible to make the latter a little less of a nightmare for those we leave behind.