Understanding Pension Annuities
Annuities can offer a steady, guaranteed income for a fixed period or for life, helping to secure your financial stability. Because this choice is often irreversible, it’s vital to fully understand your options, choose the most suitable type of annuity for your situation and seek professional financial advice.
Market Update: Slowdown? What slowdown?
Rate cuts and record highs for markets last week. As wholly expected, the US Federal Reserve voted to decrease interest rates by 0.25 percentage points to 4% (the effective rate is about 4.1%), and signalled further cuts before the year end. The Fed gave investors what they wanted, leading to gains for small cap stocks in particular. The Bank of England was less forthcoming on Thursday – holding interest rates steady – but it announced some welcome adjustments to its bond selling program. All in all, this environment is very supportive for global stocks.
Market Update: Bond’s Split Personality
It had been another slightly confusing week for some investors. Markets mulled over last Friday’s weaker than expected US jobs report, but stocks kept climbing higher virtually everywhere. There were two big market action stories: a sizable fall in long-term government bond yields, and the outperformance of small cap stocks. These trends might seem in conflict but we think they are consistent.
Market Update: Damp back to school week
The ‘Back to School’ week often gets a lot of attention. Traders return from their holidays and reassess their market outlooks. So, after the summer’s strong equity rally, it is no surprise that investors are doing a bit of soul searching. There is no shortage of economic or political narratives to latch on to this week, but in the end relatively little change in stock markets to report. Most major indices are roughly where they were last Friday.
Exploring Your Pension Choices: Smart Decisions for a Secure and Flexible Retirement
Since the introduction of pension freedoms in 2015, savers have been given more choice than ever before in how they shape their retirement income. This flexibility presents exciting opportunities, but also important decisions that will impact your financial security for years to come.
Market Update: Stock market consolidation for now
Markets have had another relatively quiet week. The news, on the other hand, was full of debt panic and more Trump destabilisation. As noted in the past few weeks, investors seem to have become desensitised to these events. The things traders typically care the most about – important updates to company earnings and interest rates – had more muted consequences than usual. When markets rallied earlier in the summer, commentators sometimes strained for an explanation. We now have plenty of explanations – but not much market movement that needs explaining.
Market Update: End of the smooth summer ride?
The Bloomberg World stock market index has gained 0.5% for the week as we write, bond prices are mixed (UK yields are up). Underneath that, US large cap stocks did less well, while China and the UK have risen, to the point where the FTSE 100 continues to make new all-time highs. The broader financial media came up with a number of explanations for the different moves, but from our vantage point of view we are not convinced that it was much more than a typical summer lull. The exception from the norm is that this one comes after a...
Market Update: Earnings trump Trump
The good times keep coming for global stocks. This week, markets’ optimism was backed up by a fundamentally bullish outlook – the continued improvement of corporate earnings expectations in almost all major markets. And, with US interest rate cuts even more likely, small and mid-cap stocks joined in the fun.
Seven Steps to Secure the Retirement You Deserve
Preparing for retirement is one of life’s biggest milestones. It’s your opportunity to step away from work and enjoy the rewards of decades of effort, but comfort in later life doesn’t just happen. It takes planning, clarity, and the right actions now.
Market Update: Poor Switzerland, poor statisticians, oblivious investors
After last Friday afternoon’s wobble, markets regained their footing. Global stocks mostly recovered and are back within touching distance of all-time highs. Investor sentiment was aided by the slew of US trade deals – either signed or pending.
5 Principles of Successful Investing in an Uncertain World
The world of investing can seem intimidating - constant market shifts, headline-grabbing news, and a flood of investment choices leave many feeling overwhelmed. Yet, despite all the noise, the foundations of successful investing remain refreshingly simple. Here are five timeless principles to help you build lasting wealth with confidence:
March Team August 2025
Hello and a very warm welcome to the Vizion Wealth Team News. We hope you have all managed to enjoy some of the recent lovely weather, and maybe have some exciting summer holidays to look forward to.
Market Update: Markets revisit risk-off
This has been one of the busiest weeks for potentially market moving information in a long time. We’ll start with market moves, and see what that tells us about the way in which the information has added up, and what are currently the most important factors.
Market Update: A $500bn sweetener from Japan
Last week had lots of quite important information but no single aspect has dominated. Equity markets are higher again, bond yields are stable and companies tell us that, on balance, things are difficult but okay. US retail investors are choosing to back riskier “meme” stocks. June’s UK consumption growth was soft and government finances remain under pressure, partly because people are choosing saving over spending.
Achieving Early Retirement and Living Life to The Fullest
For many, the dream of early retirement is about much more than stepping away from work. It's about embracing freedom - to travel, pursue passions, or spend precious time with loved ones. But turning that dream into reality takes careful thought, strategic planning, and a solid financial foundation.
Market Update: Flowing with the tide
Markets keep rising steadily and gently, on an incoming tide of liquidity. Investors appear to have plenty of cash and are happy to deploy it into risk assets, largely thanks to expectations of interest rate cuts. Both intraday and day-to-day stock market volatility (average price movements) are back to lows. Markets are also increasingly optimistic about economic growth, especially in the US. If that sounds like the exact same description as last week, that is because it is. Markets’ summer love-in continues.
Market Update: Trump turns nasty; markets turn nice
It felt like the first week of summer holidays. Stock market volatility dropped again – both in measured and implied terms – and the 9 July deadline on Donald Trump’s tariff moratorium was no deadline at all. The US president pushed back tariff implementation, initially warning 14 countries (mostly in Asia) that they will face higher import taxes unless trade deals are signed by the start of August. Today, he expanded those threats to Europe and Canada.
Protecting Your Business Through Shareholder and Partnership Protection
Running a business involves more than just managing operations and pursuing growth, it also requires planning for the unexpected. Shareholder and partnership protection is one often overlooked but vital element of safeguarding a business’s continuity and financial stability.
Market Update: Markets bask in the sunshine
Sunshine and all-time highs last week. US stocks started their 4th of July holiday in fine spirits. Encouragingly, smaller and mid-cap American companies have outperformed the ‘Magnificent Seven’ tech stocks over the last fortnight, and were buoyed again by Thursday’s strong jobs market report. It got lost in all the negative coverage of UK politics and bond troubles but, remarkably, our equity market set a new all-time high too.
Market Update: Markets recalibrate to Trump 2.0
What a week. No sooner had the US shocked the world by bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities than President Trump declared a ceasefire and subsequent end of the Israel-Iran war. More astonishing still was that the Israeli and Iranian governments obeyed, albeit only after their strikes made ‘the Donald’ lose his rag in the most unpresidential manner the White House lawn has ever witnessed in public.