Portfolio management

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12. Tips for married couples

If you are married, you should consider making full use of your spouse's allowances as well as your own.

• Once your own ISA is fully funded for the year, you could open another one in your spouse's name and put as much as you can into that too.
• Treat both as part of a single portfolio. You do not need to design them as individual, separate portfolios. You could hold, say, just one unit trust in each and still have adequate diversification overall. This will help cut dealing costs.
• If you make a big taxable gain outside your ISAs, remember to consider both your individual CGT allowances. If necessary, transfer shares into your spouse's name to eliminate or reduce the tax bill.

1. First things first 2. Should you invest before paying off your mortgage? 3. Do you want growth or income? 4. Diversification: summary 5. Diversification: Safe custody 6. Diversification: asset allocation 7. Diversification: shares 8. Diversification: sectors 9. Diversification: countries 10. Balancing your portfolio 11. What should you hold where? 12. Tips for married couples 13. Lump sum or drip feed? 14. The role of cash 15. Rebalancing your portfolio 16. What to do with dividends 17. All about bonds 18. What to do if you inherit a portfolio 19. Benchmarking performance 20. Setting up a portfolio spreadsheet 21. Conclusion

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