August 10 2010 - The recession has had a significant impact on how people manage their finances, according to a national debt report published recently.

For some people it has been the wake-up call they needed, but for others it has simply made matters worse, according to Payplan, one of the UK’s major providers of free debt solutions.

The ‘Consumers’ Attitude Towards Debt’ report published by leading independent researcher Mintel in July found that 39% of people interviewed are now more careful when it comes to spending money, citing the recession as a welcome ‘wake-up’ call.

April 8 2010 - Lorica has set up an Actuarial and Risk Management division to give employers advice and support on how to manage, reduce or eradicate the risks associated with operating Defined Benefit (DB) pension schemes and other trust based arrangements.

Sean Gilfeather, who has joined Lorica to head its newly established Actuarial team believes "the ever increasing legislative burden surrounding pension schemes, people living longer, taxation changes for high earners and the exacerbation of these issues caused by the recent recession, have led to DB schemes becoming even more out of favour with an increasing trend in employers closing schemes to new members and accrual."

1st April 2010 - UK nationals living and working in the US are continuing to leave themselves open to potential additional UK tax liabilities through adopting the popular US tax planning vehicle known as a ‘Living Trust’. Even US nationals may be caught by the UK tax regime in some circumstances.

Living Trusts are typically taken out during an individual’s lifetime usually to avoid having to apply for probate in the US. However, since the introduction of the 2006 Finance Act and changes to UK trust taxation, a Living Trust in the US may trigger a 20 per cent tax charge in the UK.

The 2006 Finance Act introduced an automatic 20 per cent charge on the creation of a lifetime trust (with few exceptions), with periodic charges to UK inheritance tax every 10 years and exit charges when assets leave the trust.

London, UK, 19 February 2010 – TradeDoubler, the number one pan-European digital marketing company, today announced that is has reached number 405 on the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA 2009, a ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology companies in EMEA. Rankings are based on percentage revenue growth over the five years from 2004 to 2008 inclusive. TradeDoubler achieved 450% growth over this five year period.

Björn Lindberg, COO for TradeDoubler, commented, “This ranking recognises our tremendous growth over the last five years. Having successfully completed the integration of TD Search, our customer offerings and geographic coverage are now unrivalled by any other vendor in this market. We are looking forward to another year of growth and expansion across Europe in 2010, and will continue to develop and invest in our solutions, customer support and market reach.”