Investors are often seduced by the promise of tax-free investment, but in reality there can be many disadvantages. Nick Dewhirst looks to the past to glean some lessons for the future
New, safe and tax-free are the most potent marketing hot buttons in financial services. Their combination is absolutely lethal. By this I mean that investors lose their senses and become easy prey for sure-fire money losing propositions. In this column I shall focus on the counter-intuitive implications of tax-free investments as the history of the original tax shelter, life insurance, is particularly timely for UK readers given the recent pre-Budget, but also an object lesson internationally. As usual the story starts with some worthy objective that government wants to promote, but can...
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