How to beat financial uncertainty in 2025

If January’s headlines seemed a little anxiety inducing, there is a way through. By focusing on what we can control, we can help you move forward with confidence.

The headlines since the start of 2025 have been full of that dreaded word “uncertainty”.

• Chancellor Rachel Reeves under pressure in the UK due to soaring borrowing costs
• A slump in UK bonds
• Wall Street wondering what Donald Trump’s return to the White House means for the economy
• US tech stocks tumbling to competition from China (Nvidia lost $600 billion off its market value on a single day).

The thing about headlines is they’re often not particularly helpful. We’re not saying ignore them entirely, but pay too much attention to what’s happening right now, and you risk taking your eye off doing what’s right for the long term.

Since last October’s budget, we’ve had lots of conversations with clients about uncertainty. One of the biggest concerns is simply not knowing. They’re worried about the headlines, the potential for change, and whether they’ll be affected.

Focusing on what you know or what you can plan for will help. By drilling into the detail, we often find it’s not as bad as we fear, or the impact is far enough off that we have time to plan and mitigate.

So, what do we know so far?

From April 2027 – rules on pensions and inheritance tax could change

By some margin, this topic has seen the most questions from clients. The government wants most unused pensions and death benefits to be considered as part of your estate for inheritance tax (IHT) purposes. This won’t be in place until April 2027. A 12-week consultation concluded in January, with a formal government response and draft legislation expected later this year. It might be useful to check your Will and see if it needs updating to reflect any possible changes.

From April 2026 – inheritance tax relief rules likely to change

A real headline grabber (in part due to a march on London featuring former Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson). Inheriting agricultural and business property will no longer be completely exempt from IHT. A new £1 million limit will apply. Above this threshold, the rate of relief will be 50%. The government said, in a statement on farming and agricultural property relief, it wants this to apply to wealthier estates and those most valuable farms, expecting around 500 claims a year to be affected. If you own a large business or farm, it’s important to get advice on how to plan for this change.

From 2025 – changes in national insurance contributions and other charges

Employer National Insurance contributions are rising 15% from 6 April. The wage threshold drops substantially from £9,100 to £5,000. As of last month, private school fees are liable for VAT and the government also plans to remove business rates relief from April. Additional stamp duty in England and Northern Ireland is also ceasing from the end of March. These changes will have an impact on your cash flow or transactions, but with help from an adviser we can plan these into any future decisions.

By April 2025 – the deadlines you can’t afford to miss

• Use your ISA allowance – you can pay a maximum of £20,000 into your ISAs (with a separate £9,000 if you’re contributing to someone’s junior ISA). You can’t roll over unused allowances into the next tax year, so it’s a case of ‘use it or lose it’.
• Transfer investments to your spouse or civil partner – these are exempt from capital gains tax (providing they haven’t used up their allowances).
• Maximise your pensions – you can pay £60,000 in a tax year and receive tax relief. You can also carry forward to make large contributions.
• Gifting to reduce IHT liability – you can make gifts of up to £3,000 each year that are exempt from your estate for IHT purposes (you can carry over this allowance into the next year), you’re also allowed to make gifts of up to £250 to as many people as you like as long as they haven’t received a larger gift from you.

Take a wealth check and let us do the worrying for you

Just like getting a health check-up from your GP, taking this time at the start of the year to look at your wealth plans helps you keep on top of your finances. Focusing on these deadlines gives you something concrete to think about and helps diffuse some of the uncertainty.

No one can predict exactly what’s going to happen (no matter what some asset managers want you to think). But if you have the right skills, you can optimise what’s available. Our role as a planner is to do some of that worrying on your behalf. We’re here to be proactive and take action to help you make the most of the opportunities out there.

Please get in touch if you’d like to find out more.