HJP’s 12 Financial Tips for Christmas

If you’re a business owner or director, your New Year’s resolutions aren’t just about personal goals - they’re also a great opportunity to reset and refocus your business for the year ahead. As you plan for the New Year, it’s worth including a few financial resolutions that support both your business growth and your personal wellbeing.

Here are some of our top financial planning resolutions to help you start 2026 strong.

Tip One: A Financial Spring Clean

Have a detailed look through both your personal and business bank statements to make sure you are not paying for old subscriptions or services you forgot to cancel.

Tip Two: Is your Will up to date?

It’s important to regularly review your Will as circumstances change, to ensure it still reflects your wishes. For example, if you have minor children, have you appointed guardians? Has your Will been reviewed to take account of recent budget or legislative changes?

Tip Three: Consider your Lasting Powers of Attorney

If you run a business, do you have a succession plan in place should something happen to you? Who would run the company if you were unable to do so yourself? A business sale could fall through if no one is appointed to sign on behalf of a seller who has become incapacitated.

Tip Four: Expressions of Wishes

Check whether your workplace pension has an Expression of Wish form registered. Without this in place, your loved ones could end up paying income tax on your entire pension fund in a single tax year.

Tip Five: Review your insurance policies

Are your insurance policies written in trust? If not, HMRC could take up to 40% of the payout as inheritance tax.

Tip Six: How are you paying for your life insurance?

If you run a business and pay for life insurance personally, those premiums come out of your post-tax income. Instead, consider having your company pay for the policy. This can save you up to 48%* of the premium and is tax deductible for the company. This is known as a Relevant Life Policy.

Tip Seven: Key Person Insurance

What would the impact on your business be if a co-owner or key employee dies or suffers a serious illness? If there is anyone whose expertise, knowledge, or client relationships could not easily be replaced, this type of cover can help safeguard your business.

Tip Eight: Considerations for joint business owners

Do you have insurance in place to protect the ongoing future of the business? Who would you end up in business with if one of your partners passed away? Setting up Shareholder Protection Insurance can safeguard both the business and the surviving owners.

Tip Nine: Consider Income Protection

We insure our homes and our cars, but not always ourselves. Your future income is quite likely your biggest asset – especially as a business owner. Protecting it ensures financial stability for you and your family.

Tip Ten: Cash Management

Most corporate cash is still held with high street banks, often earning little to no interest. Review your cash management strategy to ensure optimal returns.

Tip Eleven: Profit Extraction

Regular pension contributions are one of the most tax-efficient ways to extract profits from your business. You don’t pay income or capital gains tax on the contributions, and your company receives corporation tax relief on them.

Tip Twelve: Staff wellbeing

Providing financial education and advice can help improve peace of mind among employees. We run a series of finance workshops for everyone from local primary school children to the staff of our corporate clients

*If the employee is a higher rate taxpayer. Basic rate taxpayer figure could be up to 40%

The value of an investment with St. James's Place will be directly linked to the performance of the funds you select and the value can therefore go down as well as up. You may get back less than you invested. Investing does not provide the security of capital associated with a deposit account with a bank or building society.

The levels and bases of taxation, and reliefs from taxation, can change at any time. The value of any tax relief depends on individual circumstances.

Will writing and Powers of Attorney involve the referral to a service that is separate and distinct to those offered by St. James's Place and are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.