Scotsman Money podcast: from personal finance wish lists to consumer concerns
In the podcast, Tom Ham, group CEO at Calton, and Alison Gay, senior public affairs consultant at The Lang Cat debate the personal finance issues of the day. In response to what he would like to see from whoever is in power at Westminster, Ham says consistency is key. “Primarily we're financial planners at Calton, and it’s often retirement, succession or Inheritance Tax planning that we’re discussing. That's really long-term, multi-generational stuff. So, actually, what I'd like is a bit of consistency instead of what we tend to get from new governments who come in and tear things up to show that they're different to their predecessors,” he explains.
He would also like to see something being done to help more people access financial advice, referring to figures that show only about 10 per cent of adults currently receive advice.
Gay points out - without making any assumptions about which party will win the Election - that Labour is already planning for two terms, not just one. “This would give them the time to step back and look at things. One of the things that they're planning on doing is a fairly broad review of retirement and savings. I think they could be even broader than they have suggested in their proposals and take in things like equity release and property. This is where we might actually see some quite interesting and innovative thinking.”
Ham says that clients’ main concerns haven’t changed much over the years and the perennial question is “will I have enough?” when it comes to savings and being able to pass something onto the next generation. “I always say, you don't have a money problem, you've got a trust problem. You need to find someone to trust, who you can trust to work with.” he says.