Morrisons is set to fall out of FTSE 100
LEAVING YOUR PENSION SAFELY TO LOVED ONES
SUPERMARKET giant WM Morrison is in danger of being relegated from the FTSE 100 on Wednesday, alongside utilities group Pennon.
Index compiler FTSE Russell will take share prices after the market closes on Tuesday and use them to determine which companies will stay and which will be relegated from Britain’s flagship share index.
The results will be announced on Wednesday and so far only water company Pennon is guaranteed to drop, as it is the least valuable FTSE company with a valuation of £3.8billion. With valuations in excess of £5billion, engineering group Weir and Dr Martens are vying to replace it.
Morrisons has a market capitalisation of £4.2billion, making it the second smallest company in the top flight and flirting with the safety cut-off point of 110th place. Unless its shares surge on Monday and Tuesday, it could go down for the first time since December 2015.
AJ Bell investment director Russ Mould said: “Only one change looks certain this time, which is Pennon is out. That would let Weir or Dr Martens in. Morrisons is on the cusp of automatic relegation and that opens the door for Electrocomponents or Royal Mail, which are all jockeying for position.”
Despite Morrisons’ strong trading last year, Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor, said: “It is perilously near the brink as over the last couple of days it has flitted between 110th/111th.
“The pandemic has not been the slam dunk for supermarkets which many initially assumed.”
MOST PEOPLE think of pensions as the ideal way to generate income for retirement, but they may also be a tax-efficient way to pass wealth on to your loved ones when you die.
Your pensions do not form part of your estate on death, which means you may be able to pass on unused funds free of inheritance tax (IHT), although the recipients may pay income tax.
You also need to plan carefully, to make sure the money goes to the right people in the most tax-efficient way.
Many people assume their pension is covered by their will and automatically goes to their nominated beneficiary, but John Tait, retirement advice specialist at Standard Life, said this is not necessarily the case.
As your pension is not part of your estate, scheme trustees are not bound by your will and have ultimate say over who gets the death benefits.
However, they will take your wishes into account.tait said: “To make sure the right people benefit, complete an Expression of Wish form for each pension scheme, setting out your preferred beneficiaries.”
Anyone can inherit pension savings, not just your dependants. “Choosing which person, charity or trust you want to benefit
can be hard, so take some time,” he said. If your family circumstances change, update your preferences to ensure your money still ends up in the right hands.
Pension providers can apply different rules when you die, for example, some do not offer death benefits and Tait said: “Check what yours offer and consider transferring to a different provider if you are not getting what you need.”
As unused pension escapes IHT, it may be worth drawing income from other retirement savings first, to leave more wealth for your loved ones.
Wealth held in Isas is free of income tax and capital gains tax when you are alive, but may incur IHT when you die.
How your pension is taxed on death depends on your age, and what type of pension you have. If you die before 75,
and have an untouched defined contribution pension, your beneficiaries have two years to claim your entire pot tax-free.
Romi Savova, chief executive of Pensionbee, said: “If you are 75 or older, beneficiaries may face an income tax bill.”
They could pay income tax at 20, 40 or 45 per cent, depending on their income that year, including inherited pension.
If your pension is in drawdown and you die before 75, your beneficiaries may take unused money in your pot as a tax-free lump sum. Or they could opt to receive tax-free drawdown payments.again, if you die after 75, income tax may be due.
Savova said it is harder to pass on a defined benefit final salary pension or an annuity. However, if you died while still working and under 75, beneficiaries will usually receive it as a tax-free lump sum.
Mercedes-benz has a model range that is around 50 strong and Audi isn’t far behind. I can’t be bothered to count them all. It’s a lot to remember, but the one thing that was fairly simple was electric cars.
Audi only made one and that was the e-tron. Unfortunately the days of simplicity are coming to an end.
Audi has just launched its e-tron GT, which is its version of the Porsche Taycan and uses the same hardware.
And now there’s a new version of the original e-tron called the Sportback. It’s essentially an e-tron (which is based on the Q5 SUV) with a coupe-like body style. It’s got a tailgate that’s at more of a slanted angle, more sporty and aggressive bumpers and headlamps that use Audi’s clever LED matrix technology.
It’s a swoopier-looking motor in other words. Intended, you might suppose, to woo customers away from Jaguar’s sporty looking and very fine I-pace. Actually, the Audi’s coefficient of drag is even better than the Jag’s.
One of the reasons for that is the Audi’s optional camera-door mirrors. These dinky arms each contain a camera that projects the view of what’s behind on to small screens on the door panels. Sounds good in theory but in practice the screens are set too low. Save £1,250 and a few kilometres of range and go for
ordinary glass mirrors instead because they’re better.
The wooing has already been going well because the e-tron outsells the I-pace globally by a factor of three. Just shows how much trouble Jaguar is having with its brand image.
There’s a price to pay for the more svelte profile and that’s in both headroom and luggage space. The Sportback loses 20mm of rear accommodation due to the coupestyle roof and also has a boot that is down from 615 litres in the regular
e-tron to 570 litres. That said, it’s still 58 litres more than the I-pace can hold.
Underneath the skin the Sportback is exactly the same as the regularshaped e-tron. That means two electric motors, one at each end of the car, with a 181bhp motor at the front and a 221bhp one at the back. Together they have a combined output of 402bhp. That’s in boost mode, mind, which you can access for a maximum of eight seconds by slotting the gear lever into S. In
normal mode the combined power is 355bhp. The idea is to conserve energy and thereby extend range.
The e-tron is spectacularly quiet. No question, this Audi is a very relaxing method of transport. It’s even fitted with tyres that are foam lined to reduce tyre roar. By electric car standards the e-tron isn’t particularly fast, which is down to its 2.5-tonne weight, but it’ll still do 0-62mph in 5.7sec. That might be a second slower than Jaguar’s I-pace but it’s more than fast enough.
There are several driving modes from Efficient through Comfort, Dynamic and Off-road which raises the suspension by 35mm.
Comfort is the one that you’ll spend most of your time in because Dynamic is harsh and Efficient makes pulling out of junctions a bit hairy as response is sluggish.
The e-tron Sportback isn’t offered in cheaper Technik or Sport trims so your only choice is between S Line or the top Vorsprung version.
While we’re leading up to talking money, the Sportback only comes with the larger 95kwh battery whereas the regular e-tron is available with the smaller (meaning cheaper) 71kwh battery. What this means is that our test Sportback S Line costs a juicy £79,185.
If that’s not dear enough for you Audi has also introduced an e-tron S Sportback that has three electric motors and 496bhp with overboost. That’s a cool £89,450.