I found out today that I had passed a further 3 exams that I recently sat through the Chartered Insurance ...   more »

Today saw Britannic Place Financial Management Limited receive its first piece of media coverage in the local press. Worcester News ...   more »

Following on from my previous article, I feel that a small excerpt from Fidelity International's second white paper "Improving Britain's ...   more »

Fidelity, the largest fund manager in the world, has revealed in new research that 70% of people aged over 55 who have not yet retired have no idea how much they might withdraw from their savings. Most of the remainder are apparently set to dip into their savings at potentially unsustainable rates.

Financial modelling by Fidelity indicates that people should not withdraw more than 4% a year from their savings, inflation adjusted, if they want their income level to stand a reasonable chance of keeping pace with inflation for the remainder of their life. And even at this level, under certain economic conditions, they could exhaust their savings before they die.

Simon Fraser, president of institutional business at Fidelity International, warns that "people approaching retirement have not yet to fully grasp the implications of their increased longevity".

"Todays 65 year old has a 50:50 chance of reaching 87 and a couple retiring at 65 face a one-in-six chance that one of them will live to 100. People could find themselves in retirement for up to 35 years", said Fraser.

Building on research that Fidelity has done over the past year the fund manager argues that pensioners should retain a big weighting to equities. Its data shows defensive portfolios with high cash and gilt allocations fare poorly in both extended bear markets and average market conditions. By contrast growth (70% equities) and balanced portfolios might last 23 and 27 years in a down market. In average conditions a growth portfolio might last 51 years and a balanced portfolio 42 years.