investment

National Savings & Investments has increased the rates it pays out, in line with the 0.25% increase announced recently by the Bank of England.

Trustees and actuaries of pension schemes which have an investment strategy which is "too safe" could be open to claims of negligence.

With latest research suggesting advisers intend to pile into the UK Reits market when it opens in January, it is perhaps time to pause for reflection.

Figures published by Reita suggest advisers are expressing increasing interest in the vehicles ahead of the opening of the UK Reits market in January.

Ed Balls, economic secretary to the Treasury, actually talked some sense for once at the PIMA conference the other week.

Stocks in the UK gained this morning after analysts recommended investors buy Vodafone, sending the FTSE 100 index up 30.1 points to 6,216.70.

Philip Marsden, director of Vantis Corporate Finance, the business and tax advisory group, says despite record amounts being invested through private equity deals it remains the case it is tricky to strike deals with IFA businesses.

Figures from Winterthur Life UK for the first nine months of 2006 suggest the provider has made some strong gains according to its preferred method of counting its business.

Royal London has reported sales are up across its business lines in the first three quarter of this year, but the figures also suggest success has not been uniform.

Onshore investment trusts could be at a theoretical tax disadvantage under further Reits regulations just published, according to law firm Nabarro Nathanson.