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Trusts.

Pennies From Heaven

What is a Trust? A trust is a collection of assets (something of value). Many kinds of trusts are available, and it’s possible to customize them to meet your individual needs.

Trusts aren’t just for ultra-wealthy and famous.

A trust can help manage and protect hard-earned assets for:

A homeowner

A business

An investor

It’s possible to place almost anything of value in the trust, including:

Cash

Mutual funds

Equity shares

Bonds

Real estate

Trusts are useful and practical financial tools that almost anyone can use.

Advantages

Save money

Avoid high taxes and legal fees

Prevent probate (the court process for a will)

Provide funds for educational purposes for family members

For instance, your grandfather saved for your college education by setting aside money in a trust. When you start going to college, your trust kicks in and you can use it to pay for expenses like tuition and books.

Trust basics

Trusts include three parties:

Grantor–the person who sets up and puts assets into the trust. The grantor sets the terms about how the assets in the trust will be managed. You are the grantor if you are arranging a trust for someone else.

Beneficiary–the grantor creates the trust for the beneficiary, the person who benefits from the trust. The trust’s assets don’t technically belong to the beneficiary, but they’re managed for his or her benefit according to the rules the grantor put in place. You are the beneficiary when someone else arranges a trust for you.

Trustee –the grantor identifies a person or managing institution, like a bank or trust company, or even several advisors to oversee the trust. Appointing several advisors can help protect the beneficiary’s interests. The trustee’s duties are outlined in the trust document and by the law.

Calculator: How much will you have at retirement?

The grantor may choose to pay the trustee(s) a “management fee.” In some situations, the trustee is made responsible for managing the assets in the trust but in other situations the trustee can assign other investment professionals to manage the assets in the trust.

Types of trusts

Revocable trusts

Irrevocable trusts

Credit shelter trusts

Generation-skipping trusts

Qualified personal residence trusts

Irrevocable life insurance trusts

Qualified terminable interest property trusts

How are trust structured?

Trusts are legal structures, and there are many different ways to set them up. Some states offer advantages to grantors and, depending on what the grantor wants to accomplish, setting up a trust in one of those states can make good financial sense. Discuss these options with an experienced trusts and estates attorney:

Perpetual trust–a type of trust that can continue on an indefinite basis or ‘forever.’ Some states forbid grantors from creating these types of trusts because they don’t want to encourage future generations of trust fund babies. For instance, the states of New York and Massachusetts don’t allow you to establish wealth in perpetuity for your heirs. Nearby New Jersey and New Hampshire are fine with the idea.

‘Spendthrift’ Clause–grantors add this provision to a trust when they don’t want the beneficiary to use trust assets in an irresponsible manner. For instance, the beneficiary can’t use his or her trust funds to pay gambling debts if the trust has a spendthrift clause (a clause that prevents the beneficiary from using trust fund money wastefully). Sadly, casino creditors probably can’t touch the assets if the beneficiary loses money in Vegas.

Why you need a trust

Trusts offer valuable protection from creditors, but consider these additional reasons to use them.

You don’t know what the future will bring. How do you know if your children will follow your wishes after you’re gone? By electing one or more third-party trustee(s), you don’t need to worry. For instance, if you leave a 500-acre ranch to your daughter and don’t want her to sell the land when developers call, you can put a rule in the trust to keep her from selling.

You can support a charity. Arranging a Charitable Annuity or Charitable Remainder Trust can save your estate a lot of money if you fund a special charity. In addition, your trust can allow you to avoid certain estate taxes to provide more cash for your heirs.

Provide for a child or grandchild’s education. An educational trust is one way to save for college. An educational trust pays for expenses like tuition and books, and hands over whatever money is left after graduation.

Build a legacy. Let’s say you built a start-up and it’s a wild success. Using a trust allows you to give profits from the business to your children even if they don’t want to take over when you retire. You protect the business by electing one or more trustees to ensure that the business lives on.

Get creative with Estate Planning. Trusts allow you to do interesting and wonderful things with your money. For instance, you purchase a life insurance policy and place it in a trust to provide for your spouse and children in case you die. At your death, the proceeds from the policy distribute to the trust and your family can then use the money to support themselves, tax-free.

Trusts are valuable financial tools that almost everyone can use. There are many different kinds of trusts so, depending on your financial goals, it’s best to discuss trust options with an attorney.

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Many carriers haven't had enough passengers to justify flying during the pandemic, and have opted to store their planes.

Asia Pacific Airline Storage is storing 94 planes at Alice Springs, and will store more in Southeast Queensland.

Analysts say it's a sign of how difficult conditions have become for airlines.

Singapore Airlines and Cathay Pacific as well as their subsidiaries are storing planes in Alice Springs, as are Fiji Air and Cebu Pacific.

Asia Pacific Airline Storage (APAS) has an additional sixteen slots on site, but they are already booked with existing customers.

The site has become a local landmark in the remote town of about 25,000 people.

The company has plans to expand the facility from its current 110 slots to accommodate 160-200 aircraft.

Until the expansion is ready, APAS needs to find extra space elsewhere.

"To manage some additional storage requirements we've started to store some aircraft at Wellcamp in Toowoomba," Tom Vincent, the company's managing director, told the BBC.

At the moment, there are only two planes at the new facility in Southeast Queensland, but more are due to arrive this week.

Rigorous maintenance

Desert conditions are widely regarded by manufacturers and airlines as preferable for storing planes because it is easier to protect against corrosion in dry weather.

While they are in storage, the planes have to undergo a rigorous maintenance schedule.

"People have this misconception that you just park an aircraft and it sits there until you want to activate it again," said Mr Vincent.

In fact, APAS now has 70 employees ensuring the planes are properly looked after until the airlines need them again.

Mr Vincent said he always expected to expand the facility, but the pandemic has dramatically increased demand.

And while there has been a very slow trickle of planes returning to service, the vast majority have been entering rather than leaving storage.

The facility is not an airline "boneyard" where old planes are stripped for reusable parts, but Mr Vincent suggested that might become part of the business if the industry continues to face headwinds.

'Extremely difficult situation'

One industry analyst said the facility's expansion is a clear indication of the difficulty airlines are facing during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Flightglobal's Asia Editor Greg Waldron said times are tough for Singapore Airlines and Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific - which are both using the facility.

Neither airline has domestic flights, which will likely be the first to reopen, he said.

"If you're something like Cathay Pacific, where you don't have that domestic market, you're in an extremely difficult situation," he said.

However, he said the air freight business remains strong, and will help many airlines stay afloat.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has just downgraded its 2020 traffic forecasts.

The association now says it expects traffic to be 66% below the level it was in 2019.

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Caesars Entertainment, the Las Vegas casino-owner, has struck a £2.9bn deal to take over UK betting firm William Hill.

The boards of the US firm and William Hill agreed a cash offer of 272p a share subject to shareholders voting in favour.

US private equity firm Apollo had also made a bid to take over William Hill.

But Caesars said that if the UK company chose Apollo, it would jeopardise a joint venture between them.

Caesars owns a 20% stake in William Hill's US operations, which also have exclusive rights to operate sports betting under the Caesars brand.

The US firm, which owns Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas, is particularly interested in William Hill's US bookmaking business which currently has 170 retail sites in 13 different states.

In August William Hill said it would not be reopening 119 of its UK High Street betting shops after the coronavirus shutdown, saying it did not expect customers to return in the numbers seen before the pandemic.

William Hill said its directors would "unanimously and unconditionally" recommend that shareholders accept the deal.

The Caesars Palace owner intends to find other owners for William Hill's non-US businesses, including its more than 1,400 UK betting shops.

It said it would integrate the US business into Caesars with minimal job cuts.

The agreement comes soon after William Hill said it was inclined to recommend Caesars' offer.

Roger Devlin, chairman of William Hill, said: "The William Hill board believes this is the best option for William Hill at an attractive price for shareholders."

Caesars chief executive Tom Reeg said: "The opportunity to combine our land based-casinos, sports betting and online gaming in the US is a truly exciting prospect."

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Opportunity Cost.

What is an opportunity cost?

An opportunity cost is a profit or value of something that must be given up to acquire or achieve something else—the cost of missing an opportunity.

Every choice you make in life has an opportunity cost because you could have been doing something else instead. It can also be thought of as a trade-off.

Uses

Estimating an opportunity cost can be used to make countless day-to-day choices like grocery shopping or eating out, but can be especially helpful when dealing with more important financial decisions. From determining whether to abandon your 9-to-5 job to start a business or deciding to buy your first home, it is an important method for choosing the best alternative. Without considering the opportunity cost, a better choice might go completely unnoticed.

Formula

OPPORTUNITY COST = MOST LUCRATIVE OPTION – CHOSEN OPTION

Example

If you spend $30,000 on a new car, you missed out on the opportunity to invest that money, which over many years could bring in a return of thousands of dollars.

Calculator: How fast can your money grow?

With a credit card, there are two opportunity costs. First, your future income is reduced by the price of whatever you purchase; you can’t use that money to buy other things. Additionally, you missed out on the opportunity to save that money and have it earn interest. The money that is not saved and could be earning interest would be considered a loss affecting your spending budget in the future.

When starting a business, there are many opportunity costs to consider. You could use the capital for investing instead of putting it into the business. An investment will more likely earn interest or increase in value if you invest in the market, whereas a startup has more risk and is more likely to fail. Additionally, the time you put into the business has value. The money you could otherwise earn as a salaried employee is also an opportunity cost.

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Rishi Sunak's new jobs support scheme will slow but not stop, "major" job losses, influential think tank the Resolution Foundation has warned.

The chancellor said he hoped the new plan, announced on Thursday, would "benefit large numbers".

But the Resolution Foundation said the fact firms had to pay employees for hours not worked meant many would have "little or no incentive" to use it.

The plan "will not significantly reduce the rise in unemployment," it said.

The Foundation also highlighted that around six million of the UK's poorest households could see their incomes cut by £20 a week from next April, when the government's temporary boost to basic benefits comes to an end.

The Job Support Scheme, which will replace the furlough scheme, will see workers get three quarters of their normal salaries for six months.

To be eligible, employees must work for at least one third of their normal hours.

For the hours not worked, the government and employer will each pay one-third of the remaining wages.

Torsten Bell, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, said the higher contribution required from firms, compared to the furlough scheme, meant the new Job Support Scheme "will not live up to its promise to significantly reduce the rise in unemployment."

At the start of the pandemic the government sought to reduce the economic impact of lockdown measures by temporarily boosting the standard allowance you collect if you claim benefits by £20 to £94.25 a week.

That served to soften the income shock endured by workers moving from a job to benefits, which pay less than a fifth of the average wage.

The Resolution Foundation's analysis points out that the Chancellor Rishi Sunak has chosen not to extend that temporary boost beyond April next year.

That means that in April, at a time when unemployment is likely to be rising quickly, well over six million families already on benefits will see their incomes cut by £20 a week.

And because they'd be forced to spend less, it would also reduce the overall level of demand in the economy, making more job losses more likely.

The Foundation's report notes, for example, that it would cost a firm £1,500 to employ one full-time worker on £17,000, but more than £2,000 a month to employ two half-time workers on the same full-time equivalent salary.

One full-time worker on £10,000 would cost £800 a month, compared with £1,100 a month for two half-time workers.

The government has stressed the scheme has been gratefully received in many quarters.

The chief secretary to the Treasury, Steve Barclay, told BBC Breakfast that "many employers value the flexibility of being able to tailor how much time employees are working as we go through uncertainty of winter months".

Mr Barclay said the scheme has been "so warmly welcomed" by the likes of the CBI, FSB, business leaders and trade unions, as well as sectors such as aerospace and hospitality,

He said that businesses want to retain their skills and expertise of the labour market, and "wanted the ability to bring people back on a part time basis".

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Tesco has become the latest supermarket to place limits on the number of items shoppers can buy, following a similar move by rival Morrisons.

It now has a three-items per customer limit on flour, dried pasta, toilet roll, baby wipes and some wet wipes.

The supermarkets are acting to prevent a repeat of the panic-buying that led to shortages in March.

The managing director of Iceland told the BBC he is urging shoppers to "calm down and carry on as normal".

Richard Walker said his supermarket chain was not currently considering limiting purchases on any lines. He said there had been a small uptick in interest in the "usual suspect products" like toilet roll, but it was "nothing like last time".

Mr Walker said that, in March and April, this had resulted in elderly and vulnerable people, as well as NHS workers, being faced with empty shelves. He described panic buying as socially divisive, only an option to those who can afford it.

'Good availability'

Tesco said it had "introduced bulk-buy limits on a small number of products".

It said this was to "ensure that everyone can keep buying what they need".

"We have good availability, with plenty of stock to go round, and we would encourage our customers to shop as normal," it said.

The supermarket has introduced additional limits for a small number of products online, such as rice and canned veg.

Morrisons introduced a limit of three items per customer on some ranges on Thursday, including toilet rolls and disinfectant products.

It said stock levels "were good", but it wanted to "make sure they were available for everyone".

No shortages

In March, UK supermarkets were forced to take steps to prevent shoppers from panic-buying around the height of the pandemic.

Many introduced limits on the number of certain items that customers could buy, such as flour, pasta or toilet roll.

Enhanced measures introduced in recent weeks have not triggered stock-piling by customers, according to several supermarkets approached by the BBC earlier this week.Tesco joins Morrisons to limit sales of some items

Asda said it still had good availability in-store and online, while Waitrose said it had "good levels" of stock and that it had also looked at the items people bought early in lockdown and planned ahead accordingly.

"We would like to reassure customers that there is no need to worry about buying more than they need," a spokesperson said.

The British Retail Consortium said supply chains were good and has urged consumers to "shop as you normally would".

Director of food and sustainability at the BRC, Andrew Opie, said: "Supply chains are stronger than ever before and we do not anticipate any issues in the availability of food or other goods under a future lockdown.

"Nonetheless, we urge consumers to be considerate of others."

Aldi boss Giles Hurley has written to customers saying: "There is no need to buy more than you usually would. I would like to reassure you that our stores remain fully stocked and ask that you continue to shop considerately."

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Ending VAT-free shopping 'will hit UK tourism and retail’.

A government plan to end VAT-free shopping for international visitors at the end of the year could cost the UK billions of pounds in lost income, travel and retail bosses have warned.

In a letter to the chancellor, the heads of firms such as Marks & Spencer, Heathrow and Selfridges said the move also put 70,000 jobs at risk.

About £3.5bn in tax-free sales are made to non-EU tourists each year.

The Treasury says the tax relief is costly and vulnerable to fraud.

Under the VAT Retail Export Scheme (VAT RES), international visitors to the UK can reclaim the VAT they pay on goods purchased but not consumed in the UK.

It benefits tourist hotspots like London and Edinburgh, as well as the famous Bicester shopping village in Oxfordshire, which attracts visitors seeking bargains.

But earlier this month the government said it would abolish VAT RES on 31 December, when the Brexit transition period ends, arguing it offered little benefit to many parts of the UK and was inconsistent with international norms.

Critics say the Treasury fears that, under World Trade Organisation rules, the UK would also have had to extend the scheme to EU visitors after the transition period, creating an overwhelming administrative burden on the tax authorities.

The Association of International Retail (AIR), which co-wrote the letter, urged the chancellor to "look again at this devastating decision".

It warned the UK will become the only European country not to offer VAT-free shopping for international visitors. This would hurt the tourism, retail and leisure industries at a time when they are "already reeling from the impact of Covid-19"

"Madrid, Milan and Paris are rubbing their hands with glee at this self-inflicted wound," said AIR boss Paul Barnes.

"If we charge a fifth more for the same goods, international visitors will not hesitate to switch their city breaks to other countries, and the stores and jobs will follow within months."

According to Visit Britain, international tourists spent £6bn on shopping in the UK in 2018. Of those transactions, £3.5bn were registered as tax free sales, although VAT was only reclaimed on £2.5bn.

'Tremendous disadvantage' Thierry Andretta, boss of handbag maker of Mulberry which also signed the letter, accused the government of being "short-sighted".

"It will destroy the UK's ability to remain competitive with Continental Europe and... place us at a tremendous disadvantage, not to mention have a material impact on jobs and manufacturing in this sector."

A Treasury spokesman said: "We're making use of the end of the transition period to bring our personal duty and tax systems in line with international norms.

"This was subject to a full consultation, and VAT-free shopping is still available because retailers are able to offer it to overseas visitors who purchase items in store and have them sent directly to their home addresses."

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What is an ETF?

An ETF (Exchange-Traded Fund) is a collection of stocks, bonds, or other assets that are brought together to replicate the movements of a certain market, industry, or even country.

Shareholders own shares in the fund and can trade, purchase, or short them. An ETF trades like a stock, which means it can be traded throughout the day.

Shares of ETFs can be bought and sold on the open market or stock exchange, hence the name.

ETFs vs. Mutual funds Many similarities but one main difference

Shares of an ETF can be bought and sold anytime of the day on a stock exchange Mutual funds trade only once a day—after the close of trading Both mutual funds and ETFs are ��baskets of securities,” meaning they invest in many different underlying assets and then add up the value of those assets and subtract expenses to determine the value of the fund. The price per share, or Net Asset Value (NAV), is determined by dividing the total value of the fund by the number of existing shares. ETFs Fees Annual management fees are low, but investors pay a commission to a stock broker to buy and sell ETFs. Commissions are usually fixed at $4 to $10, so the smaller the investment, the higher the commission is as a percentage of the investment.

If investors buy and sell ETFs often, the commissions will add up too.

Tax More efficient based on the nature of acquisition/selling of shares.

Liquidity Large ETFs have lots of liquidity, as there is a constant supply of buy and sell orders in the market. Smaller funds and ETFs invested in illiquid shares can present liquidity problems.

Management Style Most ETFs are passively managed, which means they are designed to replicate an index. Small adjustments may be made every three months if the index is adjusted.

Mutual funds Fees Mutual funds charge higher annual management fees, as they are actively managed by professional portfolio managers. Investors do not have to pay a commission to invest in a mutual fund if they invest directly with the management company.

Tax Greater tax on capital gains than ETFs.

Liquidity Investors have no direct liquidity problems, although fund values may suffer if the fund manager encounters liquidity problems when buying and selling shares.

Management Style Some mutual funds are passively managed, but most are actively managed. Actively managed funds are managed by professional portfolio managers who decide which stocks to invest in and which stocks to sell.

Benefits of ETFs Minimum Investment: The price of one share. Fees: Typically lower than mutual funds; brokerage may charge a commission on trades, just like stocks. Active ETFs can be pricey. Diversification: Allows investors to buy exposure to the whole market or a specific industry with just one investment. Easier and cheaper than creating a diversified portfolio of individual securities.

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Prince Charles calls for 'swift' action on climate change.

The Prince of Wales has warned the climate crisis will "dwarf" the impact of coronavirus.

In a recorded message, to be played at the virtual opening of Climate Week on Monday, Prince Charles said "swift and immediate action" was needed.

The prince said Covid-19 provided a "window of opportunity" to reset the economy for a more "sustainable and inclusive future".

He added that the pandemic was "a wake-up call we cannot ignore".

In his message, recorded from Birkhall in the grounds of Balmoral, Prince Charles said: "Without swift and immediate action, at an unprecedented pace and scale, we will miss the window of opportunity to 'reset' for... a more sustainable and inclusive future."

"[The environmental] crisis has been with us for far too many years - decried, denigrated and denied," he said.

"It is now rapidly becoming a comprehensive catastrophe that will dwarf the impact of the coronavirus pandemic."

His comments come as a new poll suggests there is growing concern among citizens all over the world about climate change, although there are big differences about the level of urgency required to tackle the issue. Charles, 71, tested positive for coronavirus in March after displaying mild symptoms.

He has been championing environmental causes for decades and has previously called for members of the Commonwealth to work together to tackle climate change.

In January, he urged business and political leaders to embrace a sustainable future at the Davos summit, where he also met teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg.

The global lockdown led to a dramatic drop in greenhouse gases and air pollutants but a study last month suggested this would have a "negligible" impact on rising temperatures.

The analysis suggested that by 2030, global temperatures would only be 0.01C lower than expected.

But the researchers, led by the University of Leeds, stressed that a green recovery could significantly alter the long term outlook and keep the world from exceeding 1.5C of warming by the middle of this century.

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HSBC moved Ponzi scheme millions despite warning.

HSBC allowed fraudsters to transfer millions of dollars around the world even after it had learned of their scam, leaked secret files show.

Britain's biggest bank moved the money through its US business to HSBC accounts in Hong Kong in 2013 and 2014.

Its role in the $80m (£62m) fraud is detailed in a leak of documents - banks' "suspicious activity reports" - that have been called the FinCEN Files.

HSBC says it has always met its legal duties on reporting such activity.

The files show the investment scam, known as a Ponzi scheme, started soon after the bank was fined $1.9bn (£1.4bn) in the US over money laundering. It had promised to clamp down on these sorts of practices.

Lawyers for duped investors say the bank should have acted sooner to close the fraudsters' accounts.

The documents leak includes a series of other revelations - such as the suggestion one of the biggest banks in the US may have helped a notorious mobster to move more than $1bn.

What are the FinCEN Files? The FinCEN Files are a leak of 2,657 documents, at the heart of which are 2,100 suspicious activity reports, or SARs.

SARs are not evidence of wrongdoing - banks send them to the authorities if they suspect customers could be up to no good.

By law, they have to know who their clients are - it's not enough to file SARs and keep taking dirty money from clients while expecting enforcers to deal with the problem. If they have evidence of criminal activity, they should stop moving the cash.

The leak shows how money was laundered through some of the world's biggest banks and how criminals used anonymous British companies to hide their money.

The SARs were leaked to the Buzzfeed website and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). Panorama led the research for the BBC as part of a global probe. The ICIJ led the reporting of the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers leaks - secret files detailing the offshore activities of the wealthy and the famous.

Fergus Shiel, from the consortium, said the FinCEN Files are an "insight into what banks know about the vast flows of dirty money across the globe… [The] system that is meant to regulate the flows of tainted money is broken".

The leaked SARs had been submitted to the US Financial Crimes Investigation Network, or FinCEN between 2000 and 2017 and cover transactions worth about $2 trillion. FinCEN said the leak could impact US national security, risk investigations, and threaten the safety of those who file the reports.

But last week it announced proposals to overhaul its anti-money laundering programmes.

The UK also unveiled plans to reform its register of company information to clamp down on fraud and money laundering.

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What is blockchain technology?

A blockchain is an open source list of transactions much like an online spreadsheet. It’s also decentralized, which means it is not stored in one place but on thousands of computers around the world.

The original blockchain was developed to support Bitcoin, but a blockchain can also be used for any type of transaction requiring trust.

Easier transactions Blockchains allow people who don’t know one another to safely transact. The most important function of a blockchain is to avoid duplicate transactions, such as “double spending” of digital currencies.

Transactions are added to a blockchain by “miners” who agree on the most recent batch of transactions before adding them to the blockchain.

Blockchain is essentially an online spreadsheet that anyone can view and that miners can verify and update. How the bitcoin blockchain works Miners create “blocks” by solving complex math problems using computing power.

The process of mining is basically the process of competing to solve the puzzle of the current block. Everything on the bitcoin blockchain happens anonymously. Proof of work is required to deter spam and fraud. Because miners must use significant computing power, solving the puzzle is their “proof of work.”

The miner who solves the puzzle first adds the next block to the blockchain and earns new bitcoins as a reward. Since each block is tied to a previous block, the collection of blocks forms a chain.

The blockchain is therefore a collection of blocks that are time-stamped. Each time stamp is public, universal, and cannot be modified or changed by anyone, which makes it very powerful because it can prove when something was created and identify it. Why important?

Removes the middleman So, for example, when making international transfers or payments, it reduces fees paid to a banking institution or third party. Trust The blockchain limits fraud. Transactions are secure and protected and do not need to be monitored and overseen by another party. This makes it much easier to do business or make contracts peer to Decentralized Blockchains like the bitcoin blockchain are not controlled by a single entity, which means they cannot be manipulated and are trusted by people who do not trust governments or financial institutions. Protocol value In technology, a protocol is a convention used to transfer data. Blockchains give value to the protocols rather than the applications that run on them. This encourages developers to create new and better protocols.

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Rolls-Royce considers tapping investors for £2.5bn

Rolls-Royce is considering tapping investors for £2.5bn to boost its finances as coronavirus continues to wreak havoc on global travel.

The firm, which makes engines for planes, said it is "evaluating" raising the sum and is looking at a number of options including a rights issue.

Rolls-Royce has previously said it does not expect demand to return to pre-pandemic levels for five years.

It has already announced 9,000 job cuts as part of a major restructure.

The Financial Times first reported that Rolls-Royce was considering raising £2.5bn and is in talks with a number of sovereign wealth funds including Singapore's GIC.

The company said: "We continue to review all funding options to enhance balance sheet resilience and strength.

"Amongst other options, we are evaluating the merits of raising equity of up to £2.5bn, through a variety of structures including a rights issue and potentially other forms of equity issuance. Our review also includes new debt issuance."

It added that no final decisions have been taken "as to whether or when to proceed with any of these options or as to the precise amount that may be raised".

The government holds a "golden share" in Rolls-Royce which prevents the company - which is deemed to be of strategic interest to the UK - from coming under foreign control. Record loss In August, Rolls-Royce announced a record £5.4bn loss for the first half of its financial year.

The global travel industry has ground to a virtual halt because of the pandemic. Hopes of a pick-up in activity have been dashed due to changes in which countries are on a quarantine list that require travellers to the UK to self-isolate. Under a "power by hour" model, Rolls-Royce makes money every time a plane using one of its engines is flown. It generates around £4bn a year through this model.

However, it expects flying hours to halve for this financial year.

Some 3,000 jobs are being cut in the UK and it is reducing the number of its sites worldwide from 11 to six, including the closure of factories in Nottinghamshire and Lancashire.

It hopes a restructure of its civil aerospace division will result in savings of over £1.3bn by the end of 2022.

Rolls-Royce is also aiming to raise more than £2bn through selling off parts of the group, including its ITP Aero turbine-making business in Spain.

Last month, the company finalised a £2bn loan which was partly backed by UK Export Finance, a government agency.

While Rolls-Royce's civil aerospace business has been impacted by the pandemic, the company said its defence division remains resilient and in its most recent results, reported a 2% rise in revenues.

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Volatility.

Volatility describes how much an investment bounces around in price. More volatile investments zigzag in price more dramatically, while less volatile investments show smoother price changes. Why important It’s important to understand the volatility of any investment you’re considering making as part of making sure that the investment is a good fit for you.

For example, if you’re investing money that you’ve saved up for a down payment on a home—and you’re planning to purchase a home in the next year—you probably want to invest that money in something with very low volatility. That way you can be sure the money will be there when you need it.

On the other hand, perhaps you’re looking to make a bet on an investment that could win big. In that case, you probably want to invest in something with high volatility—though you’ll also have to accept the risk of losing what you invest.

Volatility and risk Volatility is an important measure of an investment’s risk. In most cases:

The higher the volatility, the riskier the investment. The lower the volatility, the less risky the investment. In investing, risk and reward usually go hand in hand. If you want the chance at an investment that could double in a month, you may also have to accept the possibility that it could drop to zero in a month. And if you want to be sure of avoiding losses, you have to give up the chance of big gains. What it is and what it isn’t Volatility is a good shortcut for thinking about risk, but many experts argue it misses out on some important types of risk. Here are a few of the ways it can fall short:

Doesn’t capture inflation risk Money in your bank account doesn’t bounce around in value at all, so it has zero volatility. But that doesn’t mean it’s without risk—it loses value to inflation over time. Ignores whether an investment goes up or down in value Technically, an investment that smoothly loses money could have low or no volatility. But it would still be a terrible investment. Misses the full picture One warning sign in fraudster Bernie Madoff’s client accounts was that the accounts showed incredibly smooth, positive performance year after year. Sometimes, overly low volatility is a clue that something fishy is going on. Ignores whether an investment is cheap or expensive Suppose that one day a stock is trading for $50 per share, but then the market has a hiccup, and it falls to $35. At $35 per share, the stock is actually cheaper than it was at $50 (because you can buy the same ownership stake for less money). Buying investments cheaply is safer than buying them when they’re expensive. But measured by volatility alone, the stock would look riskier at $35 than at $50. How to tell Although there are complicated quantitative ways of describing volatility (the main one being the metric “standard deviation”), some rules of thumb and common sense can be just as useful as any fancy math.

By and large, you can sort the major categories of investments into different buckets of volatility (which, again, is similar to different buckets of risk).

Cryptocurrency → Very high ↓ Stocks → High to moderate ↓ Bonds → Moderate to low ↓ Cash, savings accounts, CDs → Rock bottom

Within each of those categories, here are a few ways you can separate the more volatile and less volatile investments:

Conclusion Volatility describes the size and frequency of an investment’s price swings. It’s important to understand the volatility of your investments because volatility is one of the most important measures of risk. It’s not necessarily better to only invest in low- or high-volatility investments. Instead, what’s most important is to make sure that the whole mix of your portfolio has the right level of volatility for you.

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People in England who refuse an order to self-isolate could be fined up to £10,000, the government has said.

The new legal duty requires people to self-isolate if they test positive for coronavirus, or are traced as a close contact, from 28 September.

New measures also include a one-off £500 support payment for those on lower incomes, and a penalty for employers who punish those told to self-isolate.

It comes as the PM considers tightening restrictions after a surge in cases.

A further 4,422 new Covid-19 cases and 27 deaths were reported on Saturday.

There were 350 new cases reported in Scotland, the highest daily increase since May, 212 new cases in Wales, and 222 in Northern Ireland.

Fines will initially start at £1,000 rising to £10,000 for repeat offenders, and for "the most egregious breaches". Up until now, advice to self-isolate has been guidance only.

Announcing the new rules for England, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the best way to fight the virus was for everyone to follow the rules.

"So nobody underestimates just how important this is, new regulations will mean you are legally obliged to do so if you have the virus or have been asked to do so by NHS Test and Trace. People who choose to ignore the rules will face significant fines.

"We need to do all we can to control the spread of this virus, to prevent the most vulnerable people from becoming infected, and to protect the NHS and save lives", he said.

More than 19,000 fines have been issued in England and Wales for alleged breaches of coronavirus laws, the attorney general said earlier this week, but more than half have not been paid so far. At-a-glance: What are the new rules? People in England who are told to self-isolate by NHS Test and Trace face fines of £1,000 - up to £10,000 for the worst offenders - if they fail to do so This includes those who test positive and those identified as close contacts of confirmed cases

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As climate change becomes a focus of the US election, energy companies stand accused of trying to downplay their contribution to global warming.

In June, Minnesota's Attorney General sued ExxonMobil, among others, for launching a "campaign of deception" which deliberately tried to undermine the science supporting global warming. So what's behind these claims? And what links them to how the tobacco industry tried to dismiss the harms of smoking decades earlier? To understand what's happening today, we need to go back nearly 40 years. Marty Hoffert leaned closer to his computer screen. He couldn't quite believe what he was seeing. It was 1981, and he was working in an area of science considered niche. "We were just a group of geeks with some great computers," he says now, recalling that moment. But his findings were alarming. "I created a model that showed the Earth would be warming very significantly. And the warming would introduce climatic changes that would be unprecedented in human history. That blew my mind."

Marty Hoffert was one of the first scientists to create a model which predicted the effects of man-made climate change. And he did so while working for Exxon, one of the world's largest oil companies, which would later merge with another, Mobil. At the time Exxon was spending millions of dollars on ground-breaking research. It wanted to lead the charge as scientists grappled with the emerging understanding that the warming planet could cause the climate to change in ways that could make life pretty difficult for humans. Hoffert shared his predictions with his managers, showing them what might happen if we continued burning fossil fuels in our cars, trucks and planes. But he noticed a clash between Exxon's own findings, and public statements made by company bosses, such as the then chief executive Lee Raymond, who said that "currently, the scientific evidence is inconclusive as to whether human activities are having a significant effect on the global climate". "They were saying things that were contradicting their own world-class research groups," said Hoffert. Angry, he left Exxon, and went on to become a leading academic in the field. "What they did was immoral. They spread doubt about the dangers of climate change when their own researchers were confirming how serious a threat it was." So what changed? The record-breaking hot summer of 1988 was key. Big news in America, it gave extra weight to warnings from Nasa scientist Dr Jim Hansen that "the greenhouse effect has been detected, and is changing our climate now". Political leaders took notice. Then UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher acknowledged the great new global threat: "The environmental challenge which confronts the whole world demands an equivalent response from the whole world." In 1989, Exxon's strategy chief Duane Levine drew up a confidential presentation for the company's board, one of thousands of documents in the company's archive which were later donated to The University of Texas at Austin. Levine's presentation is an important document, often cited by researchers investigating Exxon's record on climate change science. "We're starting to hear the inevitable call for action," it said, which risked what it called "irreversible and costly draconian steps". "More rational responses will require efforts to extend the science and increase emphasis on costs and political realities." Kert Davies has scoured through Exxon's archive. He used to work as a research director at the environmental pressure group Greenpeace, where he looked into corporate opposition to climate change. This inspired him to set up The Climate Investigations Centre. He explains why this Exxon presentation mattered: "They are worried the public will take this on, and enact radical changes in the way we use energy and affect their business, that's the bottom line." He says this fear can also be seen in another document from the archive that sets out the so-called "Exxon position", which was to "emphasise the uncertainty" regarding climate change.

Researchers argue this was just the start of a decades-long campaign to shape public opinion and to spread doubt about climate change. In June 2020, the General Attorney of Minnesota Keith Ellison sued ExxonMobil, the American Petroleum Institute (API) and Koch Industries for misleading the public over climate change. The lawsuit claims that "previously unknown internal documents confirm that the defendant well understood the devastating effects that their products would cause to the climate". It says that despite this knowledge, the industry "engaged in a public-relations campaign that was not only false, but also highly effective," which served to "deliberately [undermine] the science" of climate change. The accusations against Exxon and others - which the company has called "baseless and without merit" - build on years of painstaking research by people like Kert Davies and Naomi Oreskes, professor of the history of science at Harvard University and co-author of Merchants of Doubt. "Rather than accept the scientific evidence, they made the decision to fight the facts," she said. But this isn't just about Exxon's past actions. In the same year as the Levine presentation, 1989, many energy companies and fossil fuel dependent industries came together to form the Global Climate Coalition, which aggressively lobbied US politicians and media. Then in 1991, the trade body that represents electrical companies in the US, the Edison Electric Institute, created a campaign called the Information Council for the Environment (ICE) which aimed to "Reposition global warming as theory (not fact)". Some details of the campaign were leaked to the New York Times. "They ran advertising campaigns designed to undermine public support, cherry picking the data to say, 'Well if the world is warming up, why is Kentucky getting colder?' They asked rhetorical questions designed to create confusion, to create doubt," argued Naomi Oreskes. The ICE campaign identified two groups which would be most susceptible to its messaging. The first was "older, lesser educated males from larger households who are not typically information seekers". The second group was "younger, low-income women," who could be targeted with bespoke adverts which would liken those who talked about climate change to a hysterical doom-saying cartoon chicken. The Edison Electric Institute didn't respond to questions about ICE, but told the BBC that its members are "leading a clean energy transformation, and are united in their commitment to get the energy they provide as clean as they can, as fast as they can". But back in the 1990 there were many campaigns like this. "Unless 'climate change' becomes a non-issue," says another, leaked to the New York Times in 1997, "there may be no moment when we can declare victory".

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New fear grips Europe as cases top 30m worldwide.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases across the globe has surpassed 30 million, according to figures by America's Johns Hopkins University.

More than 940,000 have died with Covid-19 since the outbreak began in China late last year.

The US, India and Brazil have the most confirmed cases, but there is a renewed spike in infections across Europe.

Many northern hemisphere countries are now bracing for a second wave of the pandemic as winter approaches. In the UK, the government is considering taking further England-wide measures including a short period of restrictions to try to slow a second surge of infections.

Outside Europe, Israel brings in a second nationwide lockdown later on Friday - the first nation to do so.

Africa has recorded more than a million confirmed cases, although the true extent of the pandemic in the continent is not known. Testing rates are reported to be low, which could distort official figures.

What is happening in key countries? A team of infectious disease experts at Johns Hopkins University, in the US city of Baltimore, have been documenting the global spread of Covid-19 on its tracking website.

According to their data, the US remains by far the worst-hit country in terms of sheer numbers, with more than 6.6 million confirmed infections, and over 197,000 deaths.

The number of new daily infections has been dropping, though, after a spike in July.

Earlier this week, President Donald Trump denied downplaying the seriousness of Covid-19, despite admitting in a recorded interview to having done that.

In India, the number of known infections climbed above five million this week - the second-highest caseload in the world.

When comparing figures from different countries it is important to bear in mind factors such as population size and density. For instance, India has a population of 1.3bn people.

However, the virus appears to be spreading much faster in India than any other country, with daily cases topping 90,000 in recent days. More than 80,000 people have died, amid reports of shortages of intensive care beds and oxygen supplies. What is the situation in Europe? Surging coronavirus figures on the continent should serve as "a wake-up call", the World Health Organization's regional director has said.

Speaking in Copenhagen on Thursday, Hans Kluge said in the past two weeks the number of new cases had doubled in more than half of European member states.

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𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀?

A dividend is money paid regularly by a company to its shareholders, usually as a distribution of profits. Dividends can be issued as cash payments, shares of stock, or other property.

A company’s net profits can be distributed to shareholders as dividends or kept within the company as retained earnings.

Who pays them? Companies that pay strong dividends are often the more mature, established, and well-known brand names, such as:

Coca-Cola Nestle Johnson & Johnson Pfizer Procter & Gamble Microsoft Why issue dividends? Many investors like having the steady income associated with dividends, so they will be more likely to invest in a company that issues them.

Investors also see dividend payments as a sign of a company’s strength. If a company has a history of past payments, a decrease in the amount may indicate that the company could be in trouble. An unexpected increase in the rate, however, might be a positive signal to the market.

Younger companies that are still growing may choose not to pay dividends because they want to invest as much as they can for future growth. Companies that don’t pay dividends can use that money to:

Start a new project Acquire new assets Repurchase some of their shares Buy out another company

Benefits Dividends allow investors to get cash out of the market without selling stock and paying excessive trading fees, which is especially beneficial during retirement years when investors want to continue to generate income from their portfolio.

Dividend tax rates Qualified dividends, such as most of those paid on corporate stocks, are taxed at long-term capital gains rates, which are lower than ordinary income tax rates. Nonqualified dividends, however, are taxed at the higher ordinary income tax rates.

Payout policies Companies that issue dividends can distribute them in numerous ways:

Stable dividend policy—maintains a steady dividend payout Constant payout ratio—pays out a specific percentage of its earnings each year as dividends Residual dividend model—based on the amount of residual earnings left after the company pays all its expenses and obligations The board of directors decides the amount and timing of the dividend.