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Kia Commodore founded financial education platform Pennies to Pounds at the age of 21, when she realised there was a major gap in her own knowledge: money matters.

She has since grown a significant social following and worked with the likes of Barclays, Natwest, Santander and Legal and General, the BBC and the Financial Times on her mission to demystify personal finance.

So she was the perfect candidate to discuss the things you need to know but were afraid to ask about retirement planning and pensions, as part of our series on ‘How to make the most of your money’ sponsored by Cohort Invest.

We covered topics including:

• Why you can’t just rely on the state pension and auto enrollment
• How to take control of your financial future and get start planning for your retirement
• How to avoid common mistakes, and why now is the time to start thinking about pensions, if you haven’t already
• The tax benefits of diverting income to your pension
• De-mystifying the jargon, from triple lock to SIPPs
• My personal favourite: FIRE, and how to be part of this global movement.

Sponsor website: https://cohortinvest.co.uk/
Guest website: https://www.penniestopounds.co.uk/
Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kia-commodore-34205a11a/
Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/
Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

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Ann-Marie Atkins is a Managing Partner and award-winning Financial Planner at Evelyn Partners. She came on the podcast as part of our series on ‘How to make the most of your money’ sponsored by Cohort Invest, to discuss the things you need to know but were afraid to ask about inheritance.

We covered topics including:

• What exemptions are available for Inheritance Tax
• Trusts, Family Investment Companies and other structures which mean you don’t need to pay Inheritance Tax
• When should you start thinking about your Will, and what happens if you don’t
• Tips and tricks for how to have awkward conversations, to avoid stress and drama later
• How to protect and pass on wealth under a Labour government

Sponsor website: https://cohortinvest.co.uk/
Guest website: https://www.evelyn.com/
Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annmariebanks/
Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/
Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

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I spoke to Allen Chilten, Global Head of Capital Formation at the £750bn Schroders Capital, previously Head of Funds at Patrizia.

In this episode we covered topics like:

• What kind of returns, and what magnitude do investors expect from Living?
• How do returns from different UK Living strategies compare with one another, and the returns available from other geographies? What are the factors that investors consider significant?
• What makes a best-in-class ‘living’ platform, which others can learn from?

Guest website: https://www.schroderscapital.com/en/global/professional/

Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allen-chilten-48ab596/

Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/

Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

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I chatted with Grainne Gilmore, Director of Research & Insights at real assets advisory firm Cluttons about digital connectivity, one of their key expertise areas.

We covered:

• What digital connectivity actually is, from phone masts to broadband capacity.
• Why capacity and speed are so important, for example playing a critical role in urgent healthcare delivery, facilitating the achievement of corporate ESG targets through IOT devices, or enabling families to connect with their communities.
• What we need to do in order to remain internationally competitive, including planning system capacity upgrades and public information campaigns.

Grainne shared examples of what works in local communities, and I shared my thoughts on how the definition of infrastructure needs to change to align with what the UK really needs in the years to 2050.

Guest website: https://www.cluttons.com/

Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grainnegilmore/

Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/

Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

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I chatted with Elizabeth Froude, Group Chief Executive of Platform Housing Group, one of the largest Housing Associations in the Midlands with 49,000 homes as part of a collaboration with UKREiiF (The UK’s Real Estate and Infrastructure Forum).

We talked about topics including:

• How to attract institutional capital to decarbonise existing social housing stock when the substantial upfront capital required doesn’t always result in higher rents (e.g. where rents are capped)
• What is the benefit to the exchequer of spending on social housing
• How is Social Housing being used to catalyse supply chains for retrofit

Guest website: https://www.platformhg.com/

Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-froude-43b40262/

Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/

Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

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I spoke to Gemma Bourne, Managing Director at Better Society Capital (formerly Big Society Capital) as part of a collaboration with UKREiiF (The UK’s Real Estate and Infrastructure Forum).

We talked about topics including:

• Where the UK’s leading social impact investor gets its capital from, including dormant bank accounts
• What other organisations can learn from 10 years of impact investing, including how to avoid ‘impact blinkers’ that distract from thorough due diligence
• What a career in impact investing involves, career pathways and advice on how to shift into a career with impact, from any starting point.

Guest website: https://bettersocietycapital.com/

Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gemma-bourne-69808544/

Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/

Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

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I chatted to Richard Donnell, Executive Director at Houseful which is the Business to Business part of Zoopla.

We covered:

• Rent growth - at its lowest for 30 months
• The supply-demand imbalance - which is still over 2 x pre-pandemic levels
• What investor opportunities exist in the current market - notably existing homes
• What the election means for the housing and rental markets

Guest website: https://houseful.co.uk/

Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-donnell/

Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/

Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/

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I chatted to Jamie Broderick, Deputy Chair of the non-profit Impact Investing Institute about place-based impact investing - as part of a collaboration with UKREiiF (The UK’s Real Estate and Infrastructure Forum).

We covered:

• What actually is impact investing, and what is place-based impact investing?
• Who is still investing in an environment of higher interest rates, and what do they want?
• Blended finance and the use of public funding to crowd in private capital
• Net Zero Neighbourhoods and the importance of community for both commercial viability and practical success of retrofit.

Guest website: https://www.impactinvest.org.uk/

Guest LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamiebroderick1/

Host LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/annaclareharper/

Host website: https://www.greenresi.com/