Introduction
This newsletter has the following subjects each of
which you can jump to by clicking on the headings below.
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Newsletter Library
We keep a library of previous issues which can be accessed by the link below.
Newsletter Library
Please remember that the information contained in these archives items is not subject to ongoing review or comment.
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Investment Management Service
We have recently released a new range of services to complement our existing 'Strategic Advice' services.
The clarityPORTFOLIO range is an investment specific service, providing you with additional features aimed at enhancing risk
management and your portfolio’s performance over the long term.
Service features
- Regular portfolio re- balancing (either annually or quarterly) of your agreed asset allocation targets to effectively manage portfolio risk and avoid allocation drift.
- Clear and regular fund switch recommendations that tie in with the rebalancing events.
- Regular correspondence with graphical representations of any imbalance and the necessary documentation for you to
correct that imbalance (should you wish). All you need to do is sign; we do the rest.
- A clear fee basis of charging. Any fee is offset by 100% of any trail income produced from funds held under management.
This means that the cost of the Investment Management Service is only a small margin (if any) over existing costs but those
costs are much clearer to you.
- The ability to be able to monitor your portfolio through the clarity website.
Our full brochure can be found below. If you would like to discuss the service with one of our advisers please use the
contact link below.
 IMS Brochure
Contact Us
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Annuity Rate Trends
In our recent news and views article Daniel Smith discussed Annuity rate trends in recent years. A sample extract is
given below:
Annuity rates have been falling as insurers have had to grapple with rising life expectancy and falling
interest rates. At age 65, life expectancy is now at its highest level ever. The average 65 year old man and woman can
expect to live a further 6.4 years and 5 years respectively than they would have just 25 years ago.
The full article is available in the news and views section of the clarity website or by clicking the
link below.
Read Full Article
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End Of Tax Year Checklist
The end of tax year 2009/10 is fast approaching. As well as ensuring use of the current year’s tax allowances, now is
a good time to consider strategies for 2010/11 and onward, particularly for those on higher incomes, for whom tax rates
are set to increase.
Our recent News & Views article looks at the areas we feel clients should consider as a priority in the leadup to the
end of the tax year. Areas discussed in the article include:
- Pension Planning
- Personal Allowances
- ISA Allowances
- Capital Gains Tax exemptions
- Inheritance Tax Planning
To read the full article please use the following link
Read Full Article
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Minimum Retirement Ages
From the 6th April 2010 the minimum age for taking beneftis from a registered pension scheme will be
increased to 55.
If you were born between the 6th April 1955 and 5th April 1960 and you are considering taking your pension
benefits please read our full news and views article on the subject as this covers how you will be affected.
The full article can be found in the news and views section of our webiste or by clicking the link below.
Read Full Article
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Awards 2009
We are pleased to announce that we have once again been awarded the Gold Standard Award for Independant
Financial Advice. The awards are designed to identify companies that not only have strong structures and procedures in place,
but are going above and beyond standard business practices to offer clients the best possible products and services. For more
information about the awards please visit the official website detailed below.
 Gold Standard Awards
We were also successful in the Employee Benefits awards picking up the 'Most Effective Use Of Financial
Education In The Workplace' award following our work with Schlumberger providing financial education to their workforce
including expatriate employees and international commuters. A link to the awards website can be found below.
Employee Benefits Awards
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Self Invested Personal Pensions (SIPPs)
The attached link provides further information on SIPPs. Many individuals should consider the
appropriateness of SIPPs in light of the Pension Regime introduced with effect from 6 April 2006 and the need to monitor
their pension investment/strategy more closely. Further advice should be sought from your usual clarity adviser.
Types of Pensions
Please see the attached SIPP Comparison Document, which compares SIPP Products provided by FundsNetwork &
Cofunds. If you are thinking of utilising a Self Invested Personal Pension for managing your benefits, and
would like advice on the subject, please contact one of our advisers for further information.
SIPP Product Comparison
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Consolidated Online Valuations
We have been providing clarity clients with online valuations for a number of years, and we continue to
rely on client feedback to help develop the online services further. For those clients who have never made use of our online
valuation service, please see the link below for full details of our Consolidated Valuation Service. If you already use our
online valuation services you may be interested to read about some of the new developments to our online services.
About Online Valuations
Consolidated online valuations are currently available to those clients with holdings in Cofunds,
FundsNetwork and also those clients with Cofunds holdings within their James Hay SIPP. Please note that we don't currently
receive the cash information from James Hay. If you wish to view an online valuation of your Cash Account or other non-Cofunds
holdings within your SIPP you can register directly with James Hay using the link below.
James Hay Online Valuations
If you have any difficulties setting up your online valuation we have produced a troubleshooting page to
assist clients with some common problems. If you cannot find the answer on our troubleshooting page then a member of our Web
team would be happy to talk things through with you on the phone (0870 242 2043) or via e-mail enquiries@clarityglobal.com.
View Your Valuation
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clarityApp
We now have an iPhone application clarityAPP for viewing your valuations, transaction history, news articles
and best rates. We will continue to develop the app alongside the main clarity website so you can expect to see further
development to the clarityAPP in the future.
You can download the clarityAPP from the iTunes store on your iPhone and/or on your computer. Please note
that you will need to download iTunes on your PC before you can access the iTunes store.
The clarityAPP can be downloaded from the App Store using the link below.
Download the App
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Online Portfolio Management
The new Portfolio Management area of our website contains a number of new features to complement our
existing online valuation service including a Risk Profiler, Asset allocation reporting and transaction history data.
A brief introduction to each service is given below along with links to the services themselves.
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Risk Profiling
Our Risk Profiling tool can help you to determine your attitude to investment risk. The risk profiler
questionnaire takes a few minutes to answer and will use your answers to generate a suggested target asset allocation. If
you are not happy with the suggested tragets you can enter your own targets and save the data to your financial planning
page. The data stored on your financial planning page can then be used in the asset allocation tool described below.
More information about the risk profiler can be found on the following pages:
clarity Risk Profiler
Frequently Asked Questions
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Asset Allocation Reporting
The asset allocation reporting page uses the data shown on your annual valuation combined with data provided
by financial express to give a detailed asset allocation report and a number of graphs to give a more graphical interpretation
of the data. This information becomes even more powerful when compared against benchmark data stored on your financial planning
page by the Risk Profiler tool. The information can then be used to plan investments by highlighting asset classes and regions
where you are over/underweight.
Asset allocation targets are covered in greater detail in our Asset Allocation research note.
Asset Allocation Research Note
If you have setup your online valuations on the clarity website you can now view your Asset Allocation
report using the following link. Example graphs and data will be displayed for those users that do not currently use the
online valuation service.
Asset Allocation Reporting Page
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Cofunds Transaction History
We now record transaction history data for clients with Cofunds holdings included in their online
valautions. The transaction history page gives a summary of the past 3 months worth of transactions. A search facility
is also available to view data between specific dates.
For a preview of the transaction history page please use the following link.
Transaction History Preview
The data shown on your transaction history page can also be downloaded in PDF format, this can then be
saved to your local machine for future reference. For more information about the transaction history service please view
our FAQ using the link below.
Transaction History FAQ
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Cofunds
We continue to suggest the Cofunds platform for all ISA and unit trust investments going forward. You can
also use Cofunds to hold all your existing PEPs, ISAs and Unit Trusts/OEICs. The benefits are that you are able to access a
consolidated valuation, transaction history, asset allocation model and risk profile through ALL your holdings....and there
is no additional annual charge! Please see the attached link for further information on Cofunds.
Cofunds Explanation
For those clients who are interested in transferring their holdings to the Cofunds platform, we are offering
a FREE administration service, to assist with the completion of forms and to help the process of transferring your holdings to
Cofunds run as smoothly and as quickly as possible. For further information please see the article below.
Cofunds Administration Service Details
If individuals do not wish to utilise the Cofunds platform there are other alternative routes of
investment. Please contact your usual clarity adviser to discuss matters further.
Online dealing in ISA, OEICs and Unit Trusts via Cofunds (no initial commission and significant discounts)
is also available.
Cofunds Online Dealing
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Fund Management Updates
The attached News Articles detail some recent fund changes which you should be aware of. If as a result of
these you feel that you may wish to switch fund holdings, please contact your usual clarity adviser.
Schroder Income Fund
M&G Corporate Bond Fund
First State Greater China Growth Fund
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Pension Choices
As a number of clients will now have SIPP investments, we will no longer be tracking the insured funds as
we have done previously. If you wish to discuss specific insured fund choices or discuss SIPP selection, then please do get
in touch. For those with Legal & General or Norwich Union policies, there are some links here to our buy notes for these
funds if you wish to refresh your understanding of the asset allocation.
Legal & General UK Index Tracker
Legal & General Global Equity Fixed Weights Index
Legal & General Managed Fund
Aviva Balanced Managed Fund
Aviva Defensive Managed Fund
Aviva Sustainable Future Global Growth Fund
Aviva UK Equity Fund
For spouses / partners and children who have Stakeholder Pensions plans, or who are interested in acquiring
a stakeholder policy, the link on the right will take you to the stakeholder buy list which has been researched by clarity,
this includes the current suggested funds for stakeholders.
Stakeholder Buy List
Individuals with access to Group Arrangements via their employer should consider their options before
proceeding further.
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Unit Trust/OEIC/ISA Choices
Below is a link to our list of suggested funds. You should ensure that you consider utilisation of your
ISA allowances. Please do not forget ISA allowances for spouses and children over the age of 16 for a cash ISA and 18 for
an equity ISA.
Buy List
The clarity buy list provides further information on the specific funds & managers, together with details
of the charges. The list covers both Unit Trust and ISAs.
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Unit Trust/OEIC/ISA Research
Here are some useful links to sites where you can research your fund selection. Do make sure, however, that
you transact via clarity to make sure you get the nil initial commission terms.
Individuals should note that if they access the following links they will be leaving the clarity website.
www.lipperweb.com
www.morningstar.co.uk
www.ft.com/fundratings
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Unit Trust/OEIC/ISA Transactions
All individuals are eligible to use our nil initial commission, discounted service, whether or not advice
is taken from us. Forms for Unit Trust/ISAs can be downloaded through this website by selecting the link here.
Pick Up Unit Trust/ISA Forms
We suggest that all deals are placed through the "Cofunds" dealing platform. This not only allows access
to the existing range of funds on similar or better terms, but also gives consolidated valuations and geographical analysis.
If interested, you can deal now on this basis. Please contact us for details or ask for the "Cofunds Pack" when requesting
forms. Please see the Cofunds section for further
information.
 enquiries@clarityglobal.com
Unit Trust Application Form
ISA Application Form
Key Features - General
Key Features - Fund Specific
If individuals do not wish to utilise the Cofunds platform there are other alternative routes of investment.
Please contact your usual clarity adviser to discuss matters further.
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Cash Investment
Indicative rates for those holding money in cash. Remember that long term cash has historically performed
poorly relative to other asset classes.
Cash Investment Rates
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Mortgage Rates
The linked page provides a summary of the rates currently available.
Mortgage Rates
Please note that the mortgage market is competitive and subject to change. Individuals should check that
the rates are still current before proceeding further.
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Advisers
The link provides further information on the clarity team.
Adviser Details
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Risk Warnings/Suitability
Investments transacted by clarity as a result of this Newsletter are treated as "Direct Offer" investments. Whilst we have offered generic
product details, you have personally decided whether the investment is suitable to your circumstances and is affordable. Please see the
detailed note and also Terms of Business and Key Facts documents. It is important to read the full notes.
Risk Warnings
Terms Of Business
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