DB News Update – just stuff we’ve been working on…

Travel with protection…

Someone much wiser than me once said “we travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us”.

Those sentiments seem even more relevant post-pandemic, where many of us haven’t yet ventured back to visit other places and cultures. Its not quite as easy as it was three and a bit years ago. There wasn’t the need to worry about your vaccination status, travel locator forms, or your bags actually turning up after you land. Speaking from recent experience having travelled to and from Spain though, things are certainly getting easier once again.

An important lesson for all of us is that in order to enjoy our travel, it really helps to have peace of mind. We can’t solve all the frictions, but we can help to ensure you are fully protected when abroad.  To that end we recently started a strategic partnership with Sun World Travel, backed by AXA, to provide an annual travel insurance policy that will provide cover to any destination worldwide. In many places Covid is still a significant travel restriction, so importantly these policies include full covid cover as standard (described by Which Magazine as superior) as well as cover for most pre-existing medical conditions, should the need arise as well.

We often talk about investments on this blog, and Travel is an investment in yourself. If you are looking to get those suitcases packed in the near future, please feel free to contact us to discuss how this policy can help.

Dan Zemontas, Insurance Team

Private Medical Cover is becoming more valuable…

When then Minister of Health, Aneurin Bevan, first set up the National Health Service back in 1948 he could only have hoped that it would turn out to be the success that it has been to date. His vision at that time was to create three core principles; that it meets the needs of everyone, that it be free at the point of delivery, and that it be based on clinical need, not ability to pay.

We are very fortunate to have so many great professionals working in the NHS on our behalf, though in recent years the burden seems to have reached breaking point.

We’ve all heard statistics that try to put in perspective the NHS’s struggles. A&E wait times are consistently over 4 hours, and often up to 8, and just as worryingly is the target for treating cancer patients within 62 days of an urgent GP referral has not been met for over 5 years. (Source;  health.org.uk)

Is it unsurprising that more and more people are turning to the Private Sector for all of their medical requirements?

With speedy access to professional specialists, full in and out patient coverage, additional benefits such as diagnostic testing for dental, optical protection, mental health pathways, and 24 hours access to a virtual GP, you can see why this is proving more and more popular across all sectors of the general public.

It is of course very different to those core principles first delivered by the NHS, but sometimes that cost is worth paying for. We have built strong relationships with the likes of Vitality, Aviva and AXA, so if you’d like to hear more about the options, we can tailor a solution to your requirements.

Dan Zemontas, Insurance Team

Making your cash work harder…

Across most of the last decade, there has been very little interest available from holding savings in cash accounts. Even 6 months ago it was hard to find an account paying more than 2% interest unless you locked your savings away for a long period of time.

Today you can find much better rates, with around 3% available on instant access, and 4% on fixed term accounts. These seem attractive, and they are, though there is the all-important tax angle to consider.

Here it is worth remembering that interest is always quoted “gross”. For basic rate taxpayers you have a savings allowance of £1k for interest, and higher rate £500, but after that it is taxed at your marginal rate, so from 20% to 45% will be deducted from the gross rates, which is significant.

Our investment and planning teams are currently building a solution to take all the benefits of current cash rates and sort the tax bit too.

The DB Wood Money Market fund, which we will cover in more detail in an upcoming blog, will provide cash-returns of 3.2-3.5%, with less than 10 working day access, and importantly the interest will accrue in a more tax efficient tax wrapper than a bank account (ISA, Pension, Offshore Bond etc.). This will allow you to benefit from all the advantages of better cash rates, but in a way that is tailored to your planning.