Occupational pensions schemes (OPS) are provided by your employer. There are two types - final salary and money purchase. Read more...

Investment trusts raise money for investing by issuing shares. Generally, this happens once - when the trust is created. This makes investment trusts closed-ended: the number of shares the trust issues, and therefore the amount of money it raises to invest, is fixed at the start. Knowing this amount of money is fixed enables fund managers to plan ahead. Read more...

Although PEPs have now been superceded by ISAs, existing PEP portfolios can still be actively managed and can be transferred from one PEP manager to another. Read more...

Many family businesses are excellent wealth generators, and entrepreneurs may consider the risk of having all their financial eggs in one basket to be an inevitable consequence of building a business that they control. Read more...

Under the current rules, investors can transfer from one ISA manager to another at any time they wish, whether this be their current-year ISA subscriptions (and related income) or all or part of their previous years’ subscriptions. While subscriptions to stocks and shares ISAs can only be transferred to another stocks and shares ISA, subscriptions to a cash ISA can be switched to either a cash ISA or a stocks and shares ISA. Read more...

Five years on from the first vouchers being issued, the introduction of the CTF has revolutionised long-term savings for children. Since the beginning of 2005, the parents of all babies born in the UK on or after 1 September 2002 have been eligible to receive Child Trust Fund vouchers, worth £250 (£500 for low-income families), from the government. Further vouchers for the same amount are sent to parents when their children reach the age of seven. Read more...

As ever, the investment goals of the investor are the vital starting point. For example, a 30-year-old investor is likely to have a very different investment outlook to a 65-year-old facing retirement. For those who are more risk-averse, it is perhaps better to stick with cash ISAs, where capital will be safe and the decision on where to invest the money is based largely on the highest rates. Read more...

Income can be gleaned from a wide range of assets, including equities, bonds, cash and property and, like any other portfolio, investments for income should be diversified, giving exposure to different instrument types and sectors. Indeed, diversifying risk might be seen as especially important in an income portfolio since you may be reliant on the regular payments. Read more...