Advice - need an IFA

freaksaver

Hi All

We are trying to decide whether we should remortgage to by a rental property - it gets confusing when you have to consider tax, capital gains etc to see whether it will actually be beneficial.

We also need to work out whether we should stop paying into our pensions to fund more properties as we are paying around £800 per month into our pension pots from our salaries?

Our life insurance needs reviewing etc etc, we have recently moved in together and have step children etc so things are not all that straight forward hence needing a professional to guide us.

Any suggestions of the best people to approach who wont rip us off ?

Thanks in advance fellow moneysavers

colsten

You want somebody local who you can look in the eye. Ask friends, colleagues, neighbours for recommendations. If all else fails: http://www.unbiased.co.uk/

Just one point on your pension: presumably you would lose your employers' contributions to your pensions if you stopped yours? That could be a very bad decision.

Your_Hero

Best to find a local IFA from unbiased. Speak to at least 2 or 3, although it may be time-consuming and repetitive but then again you can get a sense of the work required and fees involved.

My first thought was that it doesn't sound like a good investment plan to stop paying into your pension, remortgage for more debt on your main residence to buy a rental property.

From a tax perspective it's almost certainly a lose-lose situation. First, a loss of tax-relief on pension, as well as any employer contributions. Second, interest from the remortgage is not tax deductible since it is not a BTL mortgage. And third, income tax and CGT on the rental and profit from subsequent sale.

gadgetmind

An IFA could certainly help regards life insurance, and provide pension projections to let you know if you're paying in too little or (very unlikely) too much.

However, their knowledge of CGT and tax regards rental income is likely to be patchy as that's not what they do, and even if you did find one who knew anything about it, I'm not at all sure they'd be allowed to provide regulated advice in this area.

You say "more properties". Are you already in the rental business?