James Brooke

Firstly, congratulations.
The amount you need to put aside will depend on the timescale available between now and when you first want to start sending your child to a private school. It will also depend on the rate of return that you can achieve on the investment, which in turn will, to an extent, be dictated by the amount of risk you are prepared to take.
There are many investment options available to consider and you will want to use the most tax efficient ones for your circumstances first, so this will normally be an ISA. You and your partner can each put £10,200 per annum into an ISA. After using your ISA allowances in full each year it will then depend on your personal situations. For example, if you do not use your Capital Gains Tax allowance in full each year then it makes sense to aim to do that.
As a new father you will also need to consider where the money would come from for this private education if you were no longer around to make the savings and investments.
a full, comprehensive, and integrated financial planning assessment is what you really need now.

As the rates change on an almost daily basis, probably the best way to research this is on the internet. There are many websites that can help you with this research. Amongst the better ones are www.moneyfacts.co.uk and www.moneysupermarket.com

The historical risk (standard deviation) and real (above inflation) return figures for each of the asset classes (since 1955 and derived from the data sources shown in brackets, unless otherwise stated) are as follows:

Cash (UK 91 Day T-Bills) risk 3.13% return 1.80%
UK Fixed Income (UK 5 Year Bonds) 3.25% 3.64%
Global Fixed Income (JP Morgan Global Gov't Bond) 13.09% 3.52%
Global Property (Citi Global Property since 1990) 27.96% 2.97%
UK Equity (MSCI UK) 28.66% 6.37%
UK Small Cap Equity (MSCI UK Small Cap) 30.08% 9.44%
Global Equity (MSCI World) 20.98% 4.60%
Emerging Markets (MSCI Emerging since 1993) 35.97% 10.97%
Alternatives (C.S. Tremont Hedge Fund Index since 1994) 11.30% 6.79%

Sorry I couldn’t insert this as a table.

From this you can see that long term equities have outperformed fixed income and property by quite a margin. You need to be aware that the shorter term data for Property, Emerging markets and Alternatives mean that these figures are arguably less reliable than the longer term figures.

You do not say if you wish to be involved in rebalancing your portfolio to a selected asset allocation over time or if you just want to let it run. If you are investing on a regular monthly basis then Pound Cost averaging will work in your favour and you will probably be fine to just let it run. If you are investing a lump sum then you will need to look to rebalance to your chosen asset allocation when the portfolio gets sufficiently out of kilter (+ or - say 15% to 20% from norm) or on a yearly basis, which ever come first.

I would suggest that an asset allocation of between 75% and 100% equities and 25% to 0% fixed income might suit you. Indeed in their recent book 'The elements of Investing' by Burton Malkiel and Charles Ellis, Burton recommends 75%-90% in equities and 25% to 10% in fixed income and Charles recommends 100% equities for those in their 20s and 30s.

Don't try and pick active managers, just go for low cost trackers, such as those offered by L&G, HSBC, Vanguard, Dimensional, and others. I would suggest that you invest via a fund supermarket such as FundsNetwork or Co-Funds. Speak to an Independent Financial Adviser for more information.

Dont forget to use the relevant tax wrapper, as mentione previously. I would suggest using an ISA at this stage as you then have access to the money if you need it for wedding, children etc. You can always take the money out of the ISA to pay into a pension and get the tax relief later if that seems to be the better option.

If by change you mean remortage then the answer is no, but you do need to tell your mortgage lender that you are letting out the property and you need to get their permission. This is a normal condition of most residential mortgages.

A very few schools offer their own specific policies, but in general there are no insurance policies that are specifically written for school fees protection.

Having said that, a Family Income Benefit Policy can be designed by an Independent Financial Adviser to do the job brilliantly and at a very competitive premium.

The FIB policy will pay out the amount needed for school fees each term, in today's terms, but can also be index linked, usually to RPI, to protect against inflation.

You can also include critical illness cover on a Family Income Benefit Policy.

You do not say how old your other two daughters are and therefore I have no idea of time scale. The longer the time the scale the more you may want to consider taking some risk because the variablilty of returns, (volatility) reduces with time. However, it is important to remember that the range of outcomes and therefore the risk increases with time.

Sadly, there is no investment plan that give a high return with relatively low risk. Risk and return are closely related. Some structured products purport to give the high returns with low risk, but all you have done is to swap market risk for counterparty risk and, if the counterparty goes bust, you may have lost all of your money rather than just some.

I would have thought that a well constructed portfolio of low cost, index tracking, investments could be what you need. This would be predominantly in fixed income assets and you would want them to be index linked and of short term duration to avoid inflation and interest rate risk as much as possible.

Speak to an Independent Financial Adviser.

If the company you work for has 5 or more employees then, by law, they have to offer you access to a Stakeholder Pension. This is a relatively cheap pension that is run according to certain regulations on price, flexibility, and other factors that were created by the last Labour government.

If that does not fill you with confidence then you will need to find the cheapest plan in the market that offers you access to the range of funds in which you wish to invest.

You will, obviously, need to decide how much you can afford to save on a regular monthly basis.

Speak to an Independent Financial Adviser or Independent Financial planner.

Most lenders will consider taking an average of the last 3 years commissions. If there is a wide annual variation then expect them to only consider a percentage of the 3 year average.

The actual answer is that it depends. For the answer to be YES, you will need to have a regular pattern of part time employment and you will, at the point of any claim, need to be able to prove the last 12 months income. If you can do this then the Friendly Societies will offer you cover and some of the more main stream providers may also consider you.

If you do not have a regular pattern of part tiem employment or you cannot prove your last 12 months income then I am afraid no one will cover you, as youc annot demonstrate to them how much you have actually lost.

Hope that helps.

If you mean the fact that a loan application has been made then the answer is that this will almost certainly show up on a credit check. if you mean the personal details in the application then no, they should not be available to the public as this is personal data and is covered by the data protection act.

You are right to be skeptical. You will only be owed £1,000s if you have paid £1,000s in premiums and IF the policy was also mis-sold to you.
Having said that, if you feel that the policy was mis-sold then you should complain, but do it direct to the company that sold you the PPI. There is no need to use a claims handling company and to pay their fee. If you are not satisifed with the answer you get form the company that sold you the policy you can always complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Simply contact the company that sold you the PPI policy and make a complaint direct to them. There is no need to use a complaints handling company and you will then get to keep all of any compensation that they might pay.
If you are not happy with the response from the company that sold you the policy then you can always refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which is free to the consumer, but which the company about which you are complaining has to pay for.

The Student Loans Company (SLC) will work with HM Revenue and Customs to collect repayments. Repayments are not over a fixed period, but the level of repayments will rise and fall in line with your income.

If you are self-employed, HM Revenue and Customs will collect your loan repayments through the self-assessment system, along with your tax. Your liability will be assessed on all your self-employed income as well as any PAYE income you may also have.
If you are an employee, your employer will take repayments from your pay, at the same time as they take tax and National Insurance contributions. Your employer will work out your payments based on your individual pay periods and not on your total income for a whole year. The repayments will be shown on your wage slip.
If you live outside the UK or are working abroad for a non-UK employer, you will have to tell SLC about this and you will have to make monthly payments direct to SLC. SLC will make alternative arrangements to collect repayments direct from borrowers who are outside the UK tax system.

Unfortunately banks can charge pretty much what they want for foreign exchange (FX) transactions. It is therefore best to use a specialist foreign exchange broker for larger transactions.
Two FX brokers that I have used in the past are Ebury Partners, who will give you a personal service and where you can speak to someone on the phone, and Oanda, who are an on-line only service.
You can contact Ebury Partners on 0845 519 1009 or via the web at http://www.eburypartners.co.uk. Please feel free to mention my name.
You can contact Onada at http://fxglobaltransfer.oanda.com/
Onada also have a useful app for BlackBerry, iPhone, or Android.
You can find them in your app store or at
http://www.oanda.com/mobile/converter/blackberry
http://www.oanda.com/mobile/converter/iphone
http://www.oanda.com/mobile/converter/android
respectively.
These will give you an idea of the charges (up to 4% or more) that you could be charged for a transaction.
I hope helps

Well, the short answer is that you may need all of these, or you may need none of these. The only way to know is to ask the 'what if' question - What if I died? - and to look at the financial consequences. The appropriate solution (or solutions) are those that meet the identified needs. Here are some pointers:

If I died, would I leave a mortgage? If the answer is yes, then you would need a decreasing term insurance to cover a repayment mortgage, or a level term insurance if you have an interest-only mortgage. The right term to choose would be the remaining duration of your mortgage loan.

If I died, would my wife/child need funds for their maintenance? If this answer is yes, then an increasing term insurance would be suitable. In this case the increase is to maintain the purchasing power against future inflation, and the term is for as long as the need is expected to last: I normally suggest up to the age of 21 for the youngest dependent, but you might wish to provide longer-term income for your wife.

Although a lump-sum might be useful, it is worth considering an inflation-linked family income benefit. This is technically a reducing term insurance, which will pay a monthly amount, tax-free under current rules, from the date of claim until the end of the policy term. It is a reducing policy because, as time passes, the total amount potentially payable by the insurance company will reduce (as it will be paid for a shorter time). It can be inflation linked, with benefits (as well as premiums) increasing each year until a claim is made.

The policy you are least likely to need is a whole of life policy, which is mainly used to meet an eventual inheritance tax liability. In that case you might select a joint policy with your life, payable when the second of you dies, equal to your anticipated inheritance tax liability.

This is a very brief run-down. It would be sensible to consider such things as critical illness insurance and long-term sick pay (permanent health insurance) as well, perhaps, as private medical insurance. Insurance is never really cheap, though with your state of health and age you should be able to obtain really competitive rates. As I have said on other answers, do take into account any employer benefits such as death in service payments, and widows/dependents pensions, and make use of independent advice.

For most people, in the tax year 2010-2011, the personal allowance is £6475, unless you are between 65 and 74 in which case it is £9490 and if 75 and over it is £9640. If you have an income of more than this amount you will have to pay income tax.

There are some special rules for married couples where one spouse was born before 6th April 1935 or where you are registered blind.

The advice of pound-cost averaging is based on the long-term, not for short term one-off investments. It is also more about regular saving. For example, if you saved £10,200 over the next 20 years (assuming the ISA allowance is constant), the result is sometimes you will buy shares at a low cost and sometimes high. Ideally, we would all want the stock market to be low when we are buying and high when we need the money, for example at retirement. In the long run, regular savings is probaly going to give you better returns and a better nights sleep rather than the risk of timing the market. Its time in the market, not timing the market.

Mortgage life insurance normally refers to a reducing term policy designed to follow the reducing capital of a repayment mortgage. Life insurance is a broad term covering all kinds of insurance which pay on death, and would include level term insurance, reducing term insurance, whole of life insurance, and others.

Assuming that the policy was set up as a qualifying policy (virtually all endowments were) and has been running for more than 10 years and nothing has been done to the policy to affect its qualifying policy status, then there will be no tax to pay at all.
Qualifying policy rules are complicated but Aviva will be able to tell you if it is a qualifying policy or not.

Setting up a regular premium pension contract is a one off job, unless the adviser is also monitoring and advising on the fund choices, fund management and rebalancing, for which he seems to be being paid 0.5% of the fund value anyway, so I don't see why there is a fixed fee as well, unless the fund value is small.

I would have thought that, as a maximum, a one off fee of between £500 and £1,000 plus say 3% of each premium would be more than enough.

I suspect that you will find that the adviser will want to renew the 'fixed fee' each year, but with some indexation for inflation.

You will need to look at the illustration that the adviser ought to have provided you with to see the shape of the charges, but it certainly seems as though they are bieng front end loaded. May I ask who the recommended provider is?

I suspect that you will find that the 17% applies to the first year of any contribution or any increase in contributions to stop you just waiting for a year and then paying in more. Again, you will need to look at the illustration and documentation to see how the charges are levied and what tiriggers them.

By the way, since pensions give tax deferral not tax relief, unless there is an emplyers pension contribution conditional or you also making a contribution, or you are already using your ISA and Capital Gains Tax Allowances in full, you may find that making pension contributions is not the best thing for you to do with your money, as you probably won't live long enough to get out what you have put in.

I did a piece on BBC Money Box with Martin Lewis trying to explain this on radio (not easy doing maths over the radio) a while ago.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/moneybox/8449832.stm

Please let me know if I can help further.

to be honest mrchris, the "clever" option would have been to look into an electronic transfer from the US in £ as this would normally have given the best outcome at the time. any transaction with foreign currency cheques will nearly always be more expensive than a direct transfer as there will be handling costs.