George McNeil Chartered Financial Planner

03/07/2026

The Best Investors are Dead 🧠

We like to act, we are emotional, and we are scared of losing money. 📉

Fidelity found in 2013 that the best investors using their platform are those who had died and the account remained but with no activity. ⚰️

This is because they can't respond to short term noise and crystallise losses 🗣️

Activity bias, needing to do SOMETHING when prices fluctuate, is not profitable. 🏃‍♂️‍➡️

Slow and steady. 🐢

02/07/2026

Ernie could make you a millionaire! 💷

No, Ernie isn't a hedge fund manager or a brilliant DFM 📈

Ernie picks who wins from Premium Bonds! 🌟

Electronic
Random
Number
Indicator
Equipment

And Ernie has paid tax free prizes of over £30 billion (!) since 1957 🤑 Ernie could make you a millionaire! 💷

No, Ernie isn't a hedge fund manager or a brilliant DFM 📈

Ernie picks who wins from Premium Bonds! 🌟

Electronic
Random
Number
Indicator
Equipment

And Ernie has paid tax free prizes of over £30 billion (!) since 1957 🤑

Article here -

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30/06/2026

🗣 'Yeah, but how do YOU invest your money?'

This comes up from time to time. ❓
The answer: EXACTLY THE SAME! 🤝

There's no secret formula, it's (on the whole) very simple 🔎

We use the same:

1️⃣ Strategy 🖋 (Tax efficient, long term, use allowances, and consistent)

2️⃣ Companies 🏙 (Low cost platforms with modern options)

3️⃣ Investments 📊 (Usually passive, equity heavy, investing in 'real' assets)

Keep it simple, cost-effective, use allowances and plan sensibly. It's no secret, and we take our own medicine. 💊

29/06/2026

I've got a load of pensions I've built up over time; should I consolidate them to one place? 🗣️

We deal with this daily and it's a very common query. 🧠

Currently working with a couple with 8 pensions who were unsure what to do! 😳

So, is there value in consolidating? ❓

Yes, most of the time you will have one standout pension, or none, and it makes sense to sweep the older pensions into a modern pension 'hub' 🧹

Pensions have moved on since the 1980/90s, they are cheaper, have more options, better options on death etc. 📈

Things to check when looking at your existing pensions and seeing value:

1️⃣ Costs and charges. You are being charged an annual fee for the pleasure of keeping your pension money with the provider. Make sure it's reasonable. On a £100k pot, a provider charging 0.2% will take around £200 a year. However, one charging 1.0% will take around £1,000. That compounding over decades is huge. 📉

2️⃣ Death benefits. Some older plans only allow 'return of fund' or 'return of contributions', whereas modern plans allow your beneficiaries to keep the money within pension. ⚰️

3️⃣ Options at retirement. Newer plans allow for Flexi-Access Drawdown usually, whereas some older plans don't offer this. 🤝

4️⃣ Guarantees. Some plans have very valuable guarantees written into them. Examples include Guaranteed Annuity Rates (GARs) or a higher Tax-Free Cash entitlement. These are usually lost on transfer, so it's definitely worth checking! 💵

5️⃣ Investment options. Some older contracts might have limited options for investment, whereas a full fund 'universe' on a modern pension will have thousands of options. 💡

It is worth checking at any age primarily for the charges as this is ever present and is potentially costing you thousands, but coming up to retirement it's essential to make sure you choose the best home for your pension money as you start to take it to fund a happy comfortable retirement. 👴 👵

Any queries give me a shout and I'd be happy to help. 📩

26/06/2026

There's lots of information and advice online, so...where can an adviser actually add proper value in 2026? Here's 5 examples.

1️⃣Asset allocation - 80% of returns are from here. 📈

2️⃣Peace of mind - someone else is dealing with it, some brain space. ✌

3️⃣Protection - many ways, but primarily protection from WORST case scenarios. ⛔

4️⃣Behavioural/emotional coaching - our brains are programmed for caution and for emotional responses. The enemy of long term investing. 👨‍🏫

5️⃣A long term plan to get to a destination - being proactive, not reactive. ⏳

25/06/2026

'You are the Problem!' 🫵

Benjamin Graham said; ‘‘The investor's chief problem, and even his worst enemy, is likely to be himself.’ 🗣️

Our brains are conditioned to be cautious and envious through biology; this isn’t helpful when investing for the long term. 🧠

1️⃣ Panic selling. When investment prices are down our brain is uncomfortable and wants to sell. There is an ‘action bias’ where we feel the need to do *something*. This turns paper losses into REAL losses. 📉

2️⃣ Herd mentality. We want to follow what everyone else is doing and have a fear of missing out. The moment you're rushing into something because there's noise around it you're already too late. 🦬

3️⃣ Overconfidence. Everybody thinks any positive performance is down to them. 🤠

Ignore the noise, put your money into a diversified, passive, portfolio, and bank your returns by not meddling! 📈

Feel free to reach out and I’ll happily have a chat. 📩

24/06/2026

♟️ Recently worked with a couple in their late 50s who were looking to retire as soon as possible. ♟️

They'd done the heavy lifting - they'd saved, worked, invested. 💷

But was it 'enough' to support their expensive retirement expectations? ❓

Here's what we did:

1️⃣ Full Picture 🖼️

- Sent off for information on all their investments and pensions.
- Got the full picture of what they have and where it is held.
- Checked for guarantees, charges, options etc.
- Working out what to keep, what to move, and what to get RID of.

2️⃣ Discussed Attitude to Risk 📛

- Replace 'risk' with volatility.
- Were they happy to take the trade off of a bumpier ride for hopefully greater long term growth?

3️⃣ Consolidated the Pensions and Investments 🧹

- We left the final salary pensions as is (too valuable to lose).
- But we consolidated the pensions and investments to one platform.
- Reason being centralised control for income in retirement primarily.
- But also to reduce charges as with their c£2m in investable assets you can get a discount due to the platform wanting your business.
- Control, better death benefits, and less money being spent on charges, is all win win win.

4️⃣ Sorted Asset Allocation 📈

- Asset allocation is simply where your investments are placed: geographically and in terms of sector.
- It can be made very simple or very complex.
- This couple had invested for years, knew what they were doing, but were taking too many punts on speculative areas.
- We went 'sensible and boring' with a low cost diversified portfolio with a large bias to global passive equity investing.
- You've done the hard work, now it's time to view this as retirement money and not punty employment money where 'there's always another pay day!'.
- What made sense at 35, doesn't at 60!

5️⃣ Cashflow Modelling 📊

- Will we run out of money in retirement? That's the fear.
- We used cashflow modelling technology to map their retired life and show that their money only needed a modest return to give them the life they wanted to live.
- It demonstrated the value of their final salary pensions and 2 full State Pensions.
- Retirement is like jumping out of a plane, and a cashflow model is like having the parachute.

They're now happily retired and travelling and doing all the stuff they wanted to do without the fear of 10 different pots of money and no idea if it's enough. 🫣

Always happy for a free chat. 📩

23/06/2026

Passive investing vs Active investing - what's best? 🥊

Passive investing involves simply following a benchmark, not trying to beat it. 📈

Active investing involves paying a fund manager who is attempting to beat said benchmark. A position is taken where the fund manager thinks they can outperform and earn their salary (and your cost). 📊

Which is best is up for discussion, however...

1️⃣ Over 1 year 76.17% of active US funds underperformed the S&P 500.
3️⃣ Over 3 years it's 90.09%.
5️⃣ Over 5 years it's 85.91%.

Over 10 years it's a staggering 90.08%. 😧

There are success stories, but if saving for the long term I think I'd rather be in the 90% of winners while paying less! 💷

01/05/2026

"I just don't want my estate to have to pay 40% on my money!" 🗣

Clients HATE the idea of Inheritance Tax. 😡

Here are five really easy ways to reduce that bill. 📉

1️⃣ Get married! If you are in love and happy and built a life together then just get the paperwork done. The UK system rewards married couples. 💑

2️⃣ Spend your money. Enjoy it, and there's less to pay tax on! 💷

3️⃣ Give away your money. Enjoy seeing your family/friends having fun and building lives with your help. They get 100% of the value of your £ now, not 60% of your £ on death. 🎁

4️⃣ Use the available allowances. There's a bunch of simple allowances, use them! 📚

5️⃣ Make sure your Will is up to date. The way your money is distributed on death impacts IHT - sort it! ⚰️

There's loads more ideas, but here are 5 simple ones.

30/04/2026

'When am I getting my State Pension???' 💷

⚠️ DID YOU KNOW: The day you get paid your State pension depends on your National Insurance Number ⚠️

🔎 Have a look at your NI number.

If last two digits are:

00-19 - it's Monday 🗓️
20-39 - it's Tuesday 🗓️
40-59 - it's Wednesday 🗓️
60-79 - it's Thursday 🗓️
80-99 - it's Friday 🗓️

I'm a Wednesday person, when are you getting paid? ⁉️