get up and go

for the older and wiser February 2012

magnificent one

Robert Vaughn: from 60s icon to soap star Old and proud

Yellow fever

Vive la France!

Hunter Davies – the best is yet to come for this modern oldie

Everyone is buying gold. Will it be a solid investment for you?

Great food, great wine, great weather – what’s not to love?

Produced and published by Lyonsdown who take sole responsibility for the contents

mygetupandgo.co.uk

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Get up and go · February 2012

From the editor

Publisher Bradley Scheffer info@mygetupandgo.co.uk Managing Editor Lucie Carrington lucie@mygetupandgo.co.uk Editor Julie Nightingale editor@mygetupandgo.co.uk Creative Director Martin Nolan Sub Editor Amy Dickson amy@mygetupandgo.co.uk Journal Assistant Natalie Luketic natalie@mygetupandgo.co.uk Project Manager Ben Loftus ben@mygetupandgo.co.uk Nicky Rai nicky@mygetupandgo.co.uk Zubair Chowdhury zubair@mygetupandgo.co.uk

For more information on any of our supplements please contact us: Telephone 020 8349 4363 Email info@lyonsdown.co.uk Online lyonsdown.co.uk /contact-us

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Letter from the editor

Media watch

Welcome to your new-look Get up and go

Our pick of age-related stories in the news

W

e’ve had a redesign, creating space for more interviews, news and events, plus an expanded finance section.

And we have a new columnist, the writer and broadcaster Hunter Davies, who will be holding forth on what it’s like to be a grandfather and all round older person in youth-obsessed Britain.

Hunter has worked in Fleet Street for five decades and has no desire to abandon the keyboard to put his feet up – one of his many projects is editing a book of John Lennon’s letters for publication later this year.

Our star interviewee, Robert Vaughn, is similarly occupied with a work schedule of not one but two British TV series and a film on the go. Both in their 70s, slowing down doesn’t occur to either, though both could doubtless afford to.

The notion of more people working past retirement age has been much in the news again lately – see our news round- up for the latest ridiculous acronym it has spawned – but many people, while not wanting to go ‘on and on and on’, recognise that meaningful work helps to give shape to their lives, even if the work is unpaid. Where would schools, museums, hospitals and charities be without the army of volunteers over 60?

Even if the job isn’t glamorous or highlyremunerated, people will often choose to carry on working. It’s having the choice that’s the important bit.

Julie Nightingale Editor

Ageism and stereotyping are alive and well as a widely reported Department for Work and Pensions survey revealed recently. The younger generation apparently believes old age kicks in when a person reaches 54, while 32 marks the end of a person’s youth.

WEARIES is the newly minted acronym for older people still in employment after reaching the recognised retirement age: Working, Entrepreneurial and Active Retirees. It comes courtesy of the Future Foundation thinktank in a report commissioned by Friends Life (The Daily Telegraph).

What’s a QR code?

You will find QR codes at the end of our articles. Scan these with your smart phone camera and you can view additional content, add comments and see what others think – all on our website.

Here’s how to do it: 1. Get an app. Try QRReader for iPhone or QR Droid for Android.

2. Open the app and point the camera at the code.

3. Hey presto! The app will read the code and open the article.

Competence is proving something of a problem among the flower power pensioners in Germany. Hospitals are unsure how to treat the rising number of “opium grandpas”, relics of the 1960s generation who are refusing to kick the drug habits of their youth (The Times).

The things they tweet Queen Latifah & Dolly Parton star in the film Joyful Noise, or as senior citizens call it: one of the benefits of eating extra fiber. [sic] Joan Rivers

Get up and go · February 2012

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Opening thoughts

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In this issue

Odd ones out The magic of War Horse and Hockney not doing it for you? Try something different

5 Golden years We oldies are set to inherit the earth, says

Hunter Davies in the first of his new column

Sparked by the boom in the homemade stuff, the first National Marmalade Week (February 25-March 3) has been launched by the people behind the World’s Original Marmalade Awards and Festival at Dalemain Mansion and Gardens in the Lake District. The festival has workshops, a marmalade concert and a marmalade church service.

Entries are invited for the awards in categories homemade, artisan, B&B and hotel. Visit www.marmaladeawards.com

6 Retire in luxury The uninspiring notion of the ‘retirement

community’ has had a makeover

7 The French connection France has overtaken Spain as Britons’

favourite bolt hole

8 Solid gold In times of trouble, investors stay loyal to the

yellow metal. But what can it do for you?

9 Funding your future Do you know how you are going to pay

for care home fees later in life?

CELEBRITY INTERVIEW

Robert Vaughn

Page 13

The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee is inspiring concert tours and galas in abundance. Former BBC royal correspondent Jennie Bond is taking to the road to host an evening of patriotic numbers, TV and radio favourites and music from across Britain with the London and Manchester concert orchestras.

The tour starts in Bournemouth on February 4. For dates nationwide, visit www.raymondgubbay.co.uk/whatson/ happy-and-glorious

Tom McIntosh

Page 8

13 Still going strong There’s nothing shy or retiring about

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veteran actor, Robert Vaughn

14 Safety in numbers Peace of mind comes at a high price

when buying travel insurance

15 Don’t suffer in silence Prostate cancer doesn’t have to mean

Prostate cancer

Page 15

the end of life as you know it

I couldn’t live without… My gadgets DJ Tony Blackburn, the first voice on Radio 1 We thought you’d choose an old Temptations record, but you’re waxing lyrical about the iPhone.

Keeping up to date has kept me going. Years ago, I had one of the first satellite dishes in the country; it was 1.9 metres across and it revolved in the garden. My neighbours reported me to the authorities as a spy. Now some DJs want a return to the days of vinyl!

I like the hard drive and downloading – I haven’t been in a record shop for years. The iPhone allows me to listen to my favourite New York radio station when I’m in the car. I really wish I hadn’t just turned 69 because I want to know what’s going to happen in 30 years’ time.

Do you ever reflect fondly on your pretechnology days?

Back in the 1960s before satnav, I was forever travelling around doing discos at night, getting lost in the middle of nowhere because I was reading a map. You must never

close your mind to anything. My dad got one of the first domestic radios and rang his father to say that he was listening to signals through the air. My grandfather apparently said: “Don’t be so stupid”, and hung up.

Do you still feel excited about new music?

Of course. A lot of people say “Oh, they don’t write songs like they used to.” Too right. A lot of them are so much better. There was great music around in the 1960s but there was also an enormous amount of rubbish you don’t hear anymore.

What invention are you waiting for next?

The self-drive electric car. I’d also like to fly into Radio 2 with a jetpack, particularly with the Olympics on the horizon. I’m dreading that – the traffic will be horrible.

Please reassure us that your jokes are safely stored and backed-up somewhere for the nation.

When I was on the pirate ships, I used to write them down in exercise books.

I still have them, but I can’t tell you where they are for security reasons.

Actually, I don’t tell many gags on air anymore. I’ve changed the humour a bit but no-one seems to notice.

Tony Blackburn presents BBC Radio 2’s Pick of the Pops (Saturdays, 1-3pm).

Interview by John Holt

Jewish Book Week (18-26 February) brings together literary figures, scholars, historians and philosophers, including Umberto Eco and Simon Schama, to debate topics ranging from international justice to the role of the artist.

Events are at King’s Place, York Way, London N1. Visit www.jewishbookweek.com

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Get Up And Go 路 February 2012

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Hunter Davies

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5

hunter davies

Senior moment

W

hen my wife was pregnant with our first child, back in – can’t have been that long ago, impossible, seems like yesterday, let me think, using both hands – back in l964, I got a call from the Royal Free Hospital to ask if I would like to come along to something brand new they were just starting: fathers’ classes.

My first reaction was not great. I can learn about this wonderful act of nature and help my dear wife but, hurrah, that must be 1,000 words. Which it was. I did a piece for The Sunday Times’ women’s pages about fathers’ classes. Don’t remember how much I got for it, but I was well pleased.

Don’t remember much about the birth either. It took forever and I got awfully hungry, so I decided to pop out and have a pie. When I got back, my wife had given birth – to Caitlin, and I had missed it all. I’ve never been forgiven.

Our second child, a boy, was born in 1966, and he never slept for five years.

That’s how it seemed at the time. Almost every night he appeared to have decided to fight the world, determined under no circumstances to give in and close his wretched eyes.

Why didn’t a father have his say? It was called Father’s Day and somehow it ran for 10 years and even became a TV series.

But I made one awful mistake. In this series of article I always used the family’s real names, for I hated and still do columnists who use silly made-up names like Treasure, He Who Must Be Obeyed, Yummy Mummy, Alpha Dad or The Old Trout. Hold on, it was me who referred to my wife as The Old Trout, so delete that example.

Made-up names always sound so, well, made-up, so you can’t believe anything they write. I wanted my little domestic saga to be genuine, to be the truth, as much as you ever can, or ever want to tell the truth.

There was a time when Jake got really furious when masters at his school made snide remarks in the corridor about something I had written, which of course he had not read. Why would he be interested in such rubbish? So for a while I had to change his name to James, till he forgot about it.

The problem with using real names, and real ages, is that they grow up. You can’t keep them at the same age and place and stage for ever the way Richmal Crompton could with Just William. So in the end, I ran out of copy. At least copy about my dear family and what it was like being their dear father.

Which brings me to now. It has taken me a long time to admit to myself that I am old, which of course I half do not really believe, I am just saying it for effect, for you to say: “Really? I don’t believe it”.

But from this year I will be forced to go along with the prevailing perception that someone of 75 must surely, I eventually did an article, about all undoubtedly, be – OLD. the ruses we had tried, and failed with, Actually, that’s a fib. I was 76 on which was called Jake the Wake. It got January 7. See, still lying to myself.

500 letters in response. Letters? Came When I woke up that morning, I in rectangular bits of folded paper called thought: “Hmm, that is old, I’ll have to envelopes. Now you remember them. admit it from now on.” But then I didn’t After a gap of some eight years, we immediately go on to think: “Oh no, had a third child, Flora – our little flower, whatever will become of me? This new who, of course, quickly grew up, so by knee really has not worked. It’s downhill the time she was eight she was desperate from now on with far worse to come – to be 16. Or at least a teenager, like her which old folks’ home should I put my big brother and sister and do all the name down for, or should I just book awful teenage things they were enjoying. myself into that place in Switzerland?”

And she wanted to be 16 NOW, not have Nope, I thought none of those to wait another eight boring years. boring, depressing, thoughts. What I I did a sequence of books about honestly, genuinely did think to myself her – long out of print, so I might as on admitting I was old was: “THINK OF well mention them – about a girl called ALL THE COPY!” Flossie Teacake who, by a piece of magic, There are now more people over 60 can go from eight to 16. At one time, than under 16 – I just made that figure they were bestsellers in Japan. up, but it looks right – which means Meanwhile, I had started a series of there are 10m people roughly like me, articles in Punch – now also gone – about another fabricated figure but who’s my three children. It was suggested to counting? me by the then editor, Alan Coren, who The point is that there are far more had observed that on the women’s pages of us oldies than ever before. We are all it was always mothers grinding on about living longer, and we will continue to their family and their funny little ways. live longer.

On the scrapheap at 70?

Not me. I’m enjoying my golden years – and long may they continue

And we have all the money. Oh yes. Young people, har har, don’t have nuffink, not got two houses to rub together, hardly ever take swish Caribbean holidays or run a Jaguar or manage two luxury cruises a year or spend small fortunes on their potty football collections like some people I know.

They don’t even have jobs, so many

of our young people, far less any savings.

Serves ‘em right, I have to stop myself saying, for being young and attractive with unwrinkled skin and no liver spots.

We are so lucky, we modern oldies, luckier than any other oldies who ever lived, with so much to look forward to. I got 10 years out of Father’s Day. If I can’t get 10 years out of writing about being a granddad, I’ll be spitting.

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Why settle for anything less?

Chester city: easily accessible from Boughton Hall

Today’s retirement homes go beyond the idea of small and functional. From stately homes to wildflower meadows, there’s something to suit the tastes of even the most discerning retiree

T

o the uninitiated, a “retirement community” conjures up images of identical homes lacking character and individuality. To those in the know, however, it means quite the reverse – and they point to new schemes coming out in the next few months to prove their case.

Boughton Hall shows that these communities are often brilliantly located in some of the most sought-after areas, with this one just a mile from Chester city centre and sitting on its own four acres of grounds. The original Grade II-listed house, which is a former Barnardo’s children’s home, has been restored and extended by developer Enterprise Retirement Living to host a restaurant, beauty salon, gym, bar, lounge and library. Some apartments are in this building, but most – including 28 being added this year – are in the grounds.

In more rural Oxfordshire, the final phase of Richmond Villages’ 36-acre Letcombe

Regis scheme is taking shape. The village employs 150 people and the next 34 homes, now under construction, are tailored to customers’ needs.

“We listened carefully to our residents, who told us they wanted a large living space and up to two bedrooms, especially important if they’re downsizing,” says Richmond’s managing director Paddy Brice.

As its name suggests, Urban Renaissance Villages – another retirement developer – specialises in schemes that provide quality homes for older owners while also improving the wider environment of the locations in which they are based. Its Durrants Village of two- and three-bedroom homes is on a 30-acre site at Faygate, West Sussex, and replaced a dilapidated saw mill complex. In its place is a clubhouse with a pool, gym, library, medical centre and restaurant.

Meanwhile, Churchill Retirement Living

specialises in building communities for the over-55s, with security as a key priority.

The firm’s newest schemes are on sale this year in Bournemouth, Sutton Coldfield and Hindhead in Surrey, and all feature a 24hour Careline emergency monitoring link, a camera entry system which can be accessed from the television, and an intruder alarm in every apartment. There is also a lodge manager on site at each development to help with problems and deliveries – or just on hand for a friendly chat.

For retirees who believe life outside the home is as important as life inside, Beechcroft’s Frenchlands Gate development

of two- three- and four-bedroom homes at East Horsley, Surrey, has extensive landscaping. “We take as much care designing our gardens as designing our properties and invest in creating gardens that look mature from a very early stage,” says Beechcroft sales director Angela South.

“Each development offers something special – a lake or pond, wildflower meadow, water feature or formal garden.”

Prime locations, refurbished period gems, large grounds, state-of-the-art security, stunning landscapes – so retirement communities all look the same do they? No, they do not.

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Say goodbye to Blighty Today’s retirees are looking for more than a quiet life on the coast. For many, a Gallic lifestyle offers that certain je ne sais quoi…

R

etirement used to mean buying a bungalow on the British coast, but many of today’s active older homeowners prefer the thought of a gîte or a finca in the sun.

There are no official figures on how many Britons own abroad, but accountant firm Grant Thornton says it could be 1.2m. They are mostly 50 and over – the peak time people to buy abroad, ahead of retirement.

The Office for National Statistics says there are 665,000 UK retirees living overseas permanently and receiving their UK state pension.

The favourite location is France followed

by Spain, Australia and New Zealand, the US – chiefly Florida – and then Italy, Canada and Portugal.

There are plenty of popular French locations. Wealthy retirees head for the Cote d’Azur while Languedoc-Roussillon is within easy reach for visiting families thanks to budget airline services to Carcassonne, Montpellier and Perpignan. Small houses in Normandy and Brittany in northern France are very good value, although often suffer British-style weather.

“France has overtaken Spain as Britons’

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favourite,” says Rebecca Gill of estate agent Savills. “Prices fell 20 per cent from 2007 to 2009 but they’re on the way back. Even so, they’re often a third cheaper than similar properties in the UK.” FNAIM, the French estate agents’ trade body, reports an average five per cent rise across France in 2011.

It’s wise to do your homework if you’re planning to move permanently to France, and over50s often take several financial precautions.

First, they see if their private or state UK pension can be enhanced by integrating it with an international pension scheme called QROPS, the Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pensions Scheme. Second, many take out private health insurance: the cost will vary according to age and health, but for many 50-yearolds it

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UK retirees often make French wills to avoid dispute or uncertainty over the details of their wills back home

can be around £1,100 a year.

UK retirees often make French wills to avoid dispute or uncertainty over the details of their wills back home and finally, they typically consult financial advisers in the UK about the best way to structure their tax and other liabilities.

“It sounds complicated but I did it all in three months,” says retired carpet businessman Simon Wheale.

In 2007 he left Solihull to live in Villefranche-de-Conflent near Perpignan – and his preparation extended to choosing his location with great care. “I knew the broad area where I wanted to live, but I put my belongings in storage and spent another three months renting, to find the villages with the best facilities.”

Aside from the French lifestyle, Wheale enjoys more than 250 days of sunshine a year. He puts it this way: “That’s quite a lot more than I might have in Margate or Worthing.”

Buying in France

English-language estate agents such as www.my-french-house.com, www.aplaceinbrittany.com and www.cognacproperty.com can help you if your French is more rusty than fluent.

When you find your ideal home, you sign a contract in front of a legal notaire and then commission a survey – even though the French often don’t bother.

Once you are happy, you pay 10 per cent deposit, kept by the seller if you stop the purchase without good reason.

Expect to pay between nine and 12 per cent of the purchase price in stamp duty, legal fees and taxes. If you buy a brand new home, you pay VAT on it, too.

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Get up and go · February 2012

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Tom McIntosh

Are you sold on gold?

G

old has its own special allure. Brides, Bond villains and Olympic hopefuls all covet it. Spandau Ballet rhapsodised about it. Gordon Brown was less fond of it but investors have remained steadfastly loyal. It is the metal that people have turned to in times of economic, financial or political uncertainty as a way of trying to protect their hard-won wealth.

Since the current turmoil began in 2007, the price of gold has risen from around $600 (£390) an ounce to peak in September 2011 at more than $1,900 (£1,230) an ounce. It’s now currently around $1,620 (£1,050) – so is it still a shining prospect?

There’s also a wide range of gold funds that are generally liquid and have more moderate costs – but there are some disadvantages with these, too The basic investment purpose of holding gold is to diversify a portfolio and to preserve capital over the longer term while avoiding the purchasing power of money being eroded.

At the moment, real interest rates remain low so there’s little joy there for savers and governments worldwide that

are pumping liquidity into the system by a variety of methods. All this activity risks inflation in the future – backing up the fundamental arguments for investing gold.

Using gold as an investment can be done in a variety of ways. The most obvious is to buy gold bullion, but this can be expensive: the retail pricing mark- up, insurance and storage costs can add up to 10 or 15 per cent in fees.

There’s a wide range of gold funds that are generally liquid and have more moderate costs – but there are some disadvantages with these, too. First, most funds trade in gold on the London market and this gold is unallocated – which means the fund is not registered as the owner of specific bars, but only holds the right to require the delivery of certain amounts of gold.

Unallocated gold is not the investor’s property so the investor is lending the gold to the bank, rather like a cash deposit but without deposit protection.

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) – an investment fund traded on stock exchanges, in the same way as stocks and shares – offer a relatively cheap way to access the gold market. On the other hand, they are paper assets, effectively just a pledge in paper form for gold bullion ownership. If the body

providing the ETF failed, it would leave you – the investor – as a creditor. You could take physical delivery of gold though it is not encouraged – bad idea to have gold bars lying around the house however vigilant your Neighbourhood Watch is.

For an investment in gold to truly be worth the while, holders should ensure that they have “undiluted exposure to the physical commodity” – in other words, your fund does not mix an investment in bullion with gold mining company shares, gold futures or other precious metals or their derivatives.

If possible, it should be in allocated

SPONSORED FEATURE

The near perfect asset With a track record of consistent growth, forestry is a stable and attractive alternative for forward-thinking investors

I

f you are one of the millions of people in the UK who are wondering what to do to rescue your pension, or are looking for a high-return investment for your savings plan or family trust, then you may wish to consider a forestry investment.

Leading UK forestry investment specialists Ethical Forestry offer a range of investments that are seemingly leaving other companies in the shade.

An £18,000 investment over 12 years projects a total return of £104,189, and regular payouts from year four. The products are HMRC-compliant and approved for SIPPs (self-invested personal pension) by a long list of pension trustees who have carried out thorough due

diligence before approving them.

Sustainable forestry investments ultimately produce valuable timber, a commodity constantly in demand and used globally on a daily basis as a building material, for paper manufacture and as a fuel source.

The demand for timber is projected to rise in-line with the global population, thus implying a 55 per cent increase by 2050, according to the United Nations. Basic economics tells us that this growing demand, combined with a diminishing supply, will only make this commodity rise exponentially in value.

Forestry has a proven track record of producing consistent growth for investors

due to of a number of simple factors. The first being biological growth. As trees grow they become inherently more valuable.

Secondly, the value of timber has historically risen above global inflation and has been the only asset class in existence that has risen in three out of the four market collapses of the 20th century.

Combine these factors with the rising global demand and it’s understandable why forestry is regarded as the near perfect asset.

As the tumultuous stock market continues to take investors’ money for a nerve-racking ride, thankfully, new stable alternative investments such as forestry are providing better investments for forward thinkers in an ever-changing world.

0800 075 3010 www.ethicalforestry.com

form – uniquely identifiable bars of gold, regularly audited, that the customer can visit, touch and that is segregated from other metal held in the dealer’s vault – so that the risks from the failure of counterparties are kept to a minimum.

Tom McIntosh may have an interest in any of the investment topics he writes about.

More from Tom online…

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Handle with care

Now is the time to take control of funding care for later life, says Linda Whitney

I

t’s something many of us are thinking about – how our care in later life is managed and funded.

A social care overhaul is in the offing, with the government due to give a progress report on last year’s Dilnot Commission on the subject. Whether ministers act on the Dilnot advice whole or piecemeal, one certainty is that many more of us will have to cover the cost of care ourselves, possibly through dedicated investments.

How to go about it can be confusing, and it doesn’t help when big players in the field make mistakes.

Last December HSBC was fined £10.5m after its subsidiary, Nursing Home Fees Agency, mis-sold investments to people who were more likely to die than reap the benefits.

It’s enough to worry even the savviest investor, but with care home fees in the South East, for example, averaging around £29,000 a year – £42,000 with nursing care – the funding question must be faced.

Firstly, check whether you are entitled to free care, or some help with fees – charity Age UK can help here (call them on 0800 169 6565).

If you are self-funding, consult an independent financial adviser about options – and ensure that he or she has the CF8 qualification in long-term care funding advice.

An immediate needs annuity – available from

Partnership and Friends Life only – is the most commonly recommended route. The annuity is paid direct to the care provider, so is free of income tax, and the payments are usually higher than pension payments for healthy people.

The annuity is guaranteed to pay out until you die and there are indexlinked options which allow for the increasing costs of care (rising by about 5 per cent annually). Insurance that pays all or part of the money back if you die in the first year is available.

If you require an annuity to cover immediate care needs, there will be a one-off premium to pay. There are provider charges, too, and usually about 4 per cent of the premium is paid to the adviser as commission.

“The average premium for these annuities that we have arranged over the past year was £115,000,” says Andrew DixsonSmith of Care Fees Investment, a member of the Society of Later Life

With care home fees in the South East averaging around £29,000 a year – and £42,000 with nursing care – the funding question must be faced Advisers.

Raising the money may mean selling your house, though if your estate is worth more than the inheritance tax threshold – currently £325,000 – the annuity can be deducted from your estate, helping to reduce the 40 per cent inheritance tax bill.

So what income can an annuity provide? The cost is based on age, gender and medical circumstances, but on average a £115,000 annuity will generate about £24,000 in care home fees payments annually – it’s usually bought to bridge the gap between care fees and other income from a pension and any state benefits.

Investments can be used to pay care fees, but choice is limited and your minimum life expectancy should be at least five years.

For under five years’ life expectancy, the choice should be nothing riskier than a savings account. However, with the best rate on a monthly income account currently under four per cent, you would have to invest hundreds of thousands to make enough to cover most or all of your care home fees without eroding your capital.

Tax cash from Constable

Y

our next tax payment could be hanging on your wall. A scheme to be introduced in the 2012 budget will allow you to pay tax bills with historical objects or works of art.

Individual donors can cut their income and capital gains tax bills by up to 30 per cent of the value of the object they donate.

“If you donate, say, a Turner worth £10m, you will be able to claim £3m off capital gains or income tax,” says Robert Blower of law firm Charles Russell.

The scheme will be similar to the long-standing Acceptance in Lieu (AiL) scheme, which allows people to donate pre-eminent objects in return for a reduction in their inheritance tax bill.

However, the new scheme will allow donations in the giver’s lifetime and the tax cut can be spread over five years.

Financially, art owners might be better off selling their pre-eminent

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Tax break: Constable’s Stratford Mill

objects, says Blower. “If you sold your Turner at auction for £10m, you would receive about £7m after capital gains and auctioneer’s commission, whereas if you donate it, you will only get the £3m in tax reduction. However, the capital gains on the sale will be set aside, and you will get the satisfaction of donating something to the nation.”

Pre-eminent object can include pictures, manuscripts, pieces of furniture, photographs, heritage objects and historic documents. Even

entire houses may be considered.

Items accepted under AiL, for instance, include John Constable’s Stratford Mill, painted in 1820, accepted in 1986 and now in the National Gallery, Clive of India’s elephant armour, now in the Royal Armouries, and Seaton Delaval, Sir John Vanburgh’s baroque house in Northumberland, now run by the National Trust.

Objects will be accepted on a firstcome, first-served basis and passed on to an institution to put them on public view. However, donors can express a preference for where they want their objects to go.

A panel of experts will make the decision whether or not to accept an item and at what value. There is no limit to the tax reduction available for each object or donor, but the overall limit of tax deductions for the new scheme and AiL combined will be £30m. Linda Whitney

9

SPONSORED FEATURE

Here’s how to stop worrying about your retirement finances Investors Chronicle recommends RetireEasy in their Tips of the Year 2012

Don’t Worry, Be Happy

“I

f you have a large budget, you could get a chartered financial planner to do a holistic portfolio review,” says Moira O’Neill from Investors Chronicle.

“Alternatively, a cheaper service is available from www.retireeasy.co.uk. The online software programme enables you to input all your financial details. It then models whether, with different inflation or investment outcomes, your money will last you for whatever time period you choose.”

RetireEasy was developed by someone with a long career in finance, and who faced the dilemma of not knowing when the money would run out.

Richard Collinson, CEO of RetireEasy, says: “I could easily prepare spreadsheets showing where I was at a given point – with known interest rates, historic stock market performance and fixed outgoings.

“But in a time of great volatility, I needed something far more flexible. I wanted to make the very most of my retirement years by being sure that I had enough money put aside for the lifestyle I wanted to lead.”

Collinson called in retirement experts and computer programmers, and told them what he and millions of others need to give us peace of mind. The result is an easy-to-use programme where you feed in all of your assets, incomes and outgoings, allow for future scenarios – such as inheritances, downsizing or gifts to family – and receive a precise picture of how your assets will fare. Tax rates are built-in and automatically updated.

By varying the parameters – such as interest rates and stock market performance – you can get the reassurance you were looking for and plan your future. If you spot potential shortfalls, you can take advice or preventative action well ahead of time.

Bring your finances and your future under your control. Visit www.retireeasy.co.uk today and claim your 20% discount. (Enter code ST 112) Offer ends February 29, 2012.

10

Get up and go · February 2012

Money

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Priceless history The landmark events of 2012 are an ideal opportunity to begin your journey into the rewarding world of coin collecting

A

ll eyes are on us in 2012 for what is guaranteed to be a landmark year for British history, celebrated across the world.

The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games offer a rare opportunity to celebrate a significant year with commemorative coins, and perhaps to start a collection.

As a nation of collectors, Britons’ take great pride in acquiring and storing away memorabilia. However, mugs break, t-shirts tire, and posters fade. In a year of such historical significance, a coin is one souvenir that is set to survive the decades.

“People often commemorate the year of their wedding or the birth of a baby by buying sets of coins,” says Dr Kevin Clancy, director of The Royal Mint Museum. How many of us have a 1977 silver Jubilee crown, or a Churchill crown tucked away in a drawer, bringing back not only memories of the event but also the doting aunt or loving grandfather who gave it to us?

This summer the nation will rejoice as the Queen becomes only the second monarch in British history to celebrate a Diamond Jubilee. To mark the occasion, The Royal Mint has issued a new 2012 UK

coin – the first ever struck to commemorate a Diamond Jubilee. The Queen’s official £5 Diamond Jubilee Coin features a new portrait specially created for 2012.

Coins tell many stories about social and cultural history. For example, coins have not always depicted the head of state. “In Medieval Britain the coins simply bore a crude image of a man, rather than a likeness

People often commemorate the year of their wedding or the birth of a baby by buying sets of coins.

Dr Kevin Clancy of the monarch,” says Clancy, “It was only from the start of the Tudor dynasty that British coins bore the monarch’s image.”

Coins were also the first form of mass communication. “They were produced in larger quantities than any other item, and were usually the only way that subjects knew

Heads and tales of collecting The beauty is in the detail, says one enthusiast

An expert’s guide to becoming a serious collector

C

S

oin collector David Andrews [not real name] says: “I love coins because they are miniature works of art that you can easily handle.”

David‘s enthusiasm for coin collecting started early. “My parents bought me proof sets of the pre-decimal coins and the then-new coins when I was about seven. My family regarded them as precious, so mostly they were locked away, but occasionally I could persuade my mum to get them out and let me look at them.”

Andrews now collects ancient coins from biblical times, and sets of new proof coins bought direct from The Royal Mint.

“It’s a contrast. With the biblical coins I like to think about who has held them and where they have travelled. With the proof sets I love the intricate details of the design and the shining faces.”

Andrews likes to collect proof sets of new coins that are issued to go into circulation.

“Proof sets allow you to see the beauty and intricacy of design of everyday coins that most of the time is simply overlooked,” he says.

As a member of Mint Marque, an

invitation-only club for selected Royal Mint coin collectors, he has been invited to events that enable him to explore his interest in coin design.

Andrews has also taken up invitations to visit The Royal Mint to see the minting process, and The Royal Mint Museum, which is not open to the general public.

Andrews advises others considering starting a coin collection: “This is a good time to do it because there is such a wide range of proof coins available this year. There is likely to be something that suits your interests, from royalty to sport, literature and wildlife,” he says.

“The only thing to beware of is overenthusiasm that can lead you to want everything, so be selective and watch your budget.”

With the proof sets I love the intricate details of the design and the shining faces.

David Andrews

tarting a coin collection is easy. Ideally your collection should have a theme, otherwise it risks getting out of hand.

“You can be a magpie and buy whatever attracts you at first, and your specialist interest will develop from that,” says Graham Dyer, past president of the British Numismatic Society and a collector since the age of six or seven.

You could collect the coins from a particular reign, those bearing particular emblems such as ships, or examples of the penny from eras throughout history.

Research your subject. Get hold of a good book on coins that suits your theme, such as Coins of England and the United Kingdom available from leading coin and medal dealer, Spink. “Even just flicking through the pictures regularly will teach you a lot,” says Dyer.

Visit important coin collections to see examples of coins. The British Museum is the largest collection nationally but there are others such as the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, the National Museum Wales and the National Museums of Scotland.

Visit coin fairs to see – and ideally handle – a wide range of coins to familiarise yourself with their appearance and range of conditions you could find them in.

Always buy coins in the best condition you can afford, ideally uncirculated (never issued for public use).

“Get to know the grading system and aim to buy only coins that are in VF (very fine) or EF (extremely fine) condition or above, unless

Graham Dyer, past president of the British Numismatic Society they are great rarities and worth buying,” says Dyer.

Never clean your coins, as this will wear away the detail that makes them so fascinating.

Join a local numismatic society.

“Members will be delighted to share their enthusiasm,” says Dyer. Later you can graduate to the British Numismatic Society (www.britnumsoc.org) or the Royal Numismatic Society (www.numismatics.org.uk).

Get up and go · February 2012

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what their rulers looked like,” he says.

This historical legacy is part of the appeal of coin collecting, also known as numismatics. A coin can be a direct link between an historical occasion and personal family history. “A coin is on a hand-to-hand journey through history. Collectors often like to speculate about who previously held a coin in their hand,” says Clancy.

Today there are millions of coin collectors worldwide, drawn in by the fundamental

Below: The commemorative silver proof Diamond Jubilee crown

Far left: Olympic and Paralympic £5 crown Right: Head of the Armed Forces coin from the Diamond Jubilee Silver Collection attraction underlying all collecting: the thrill of the chase. You can start by searching through the coins in your pocket.

The 50p coin that explains football’s offside rule is expected to be especially popular with people who collect circulated coins (and will be a major point of discussion over pub tables).

Those who collect the full 50p Sports Collection – created to commemorate the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games – will have to track down all 29 designs.

Alternatively, The Royal Mint sells the coins in uncirculated condition for £2.99 each, in a colourful presentation card.

At the other end of the scale, 2012 marks the issue of the UK’s first-ever kilo coins.

The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games Gold Kilo Coin, designed by sculptor Sir Anthony Caro, is being released in a limited edition of just 60. Minted in .999 fine gold, it costs £100,000.

Without doubt, 2012 will be a year to remember for generations to come. Don’t miss out on getting your own piece of history that you can hold in your hand – and that will last forever.

Money

11

12

Get Up And Go 路 February 2012

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This life

13

This life robert vaughn

‘I’m busier than ever, but I’ll carry on as long as I’m vertical and reasonably articulate’ He’s played presidents, conmen and spies. Off-set, Robert Vaughn tells Maureen Paton how he is equally happy in a variety of roles – author, teacher and, most of all, actor

E

ven by the very starry standards set by celebrity CVs, Robert Vaughn’s employment record is something of a blockbuster in its own right.

He’s the star of some 150 movies, most notably The Magnificent Seven and Bullitt, and almost as many TV shows – from Bonanza and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. to The Protectors and The A Team.

It’s a prodigious output and one to make even fellow Hollywood long-stayers like Michael Caine or Clint Eastwood look like work-shy underachievers. And Vaughn’s not finished yet.

A committed Anglophile, he’s currently appearing in the final series of BBC1’s conmen caper Hustle and has squeezed in a cameo in Coronation Street, where he’s currently doing a turn as the wealthy new American beau of Sylvia Goodwin (Stephanie Cole).

And when I catch up with the 79-year-old at his Connecticut mansion, he is enjoying a wellearned break before his next film, which will mean crossing the Atlantic once more. Why, given he could surely afford to have retired long ago, does he continue to do it?

He quotes the opening of his 2009 autobiography, A Fortunate Life: “A wise man once remarked, ‘If you do the thing you love, you’ll never have to work a day in your life.’ I did, and I haven’t.

“I’m busier than ever, but I’ll carry on as long as I’m vertical and reasonably articulate.”

His breakthrough role came in 1959 when he appeared opposite Paul Newman in The Young Philadelphians, a role which earned him an Oscar nomination, but it was as suave secret agent Napoleon Solo in the 1960s TV hit The Man From U.N.C.L.E. in which he first achieved worldwide fame.

And there’s quite a symmetry to

Vaughn’s six-decade career, since he describes his role of scamsterin-chief Albert Stroller in Hustle as “a retired Napoleon Solo – no more cars and girls, but he still finds life exciting as a con-man”.

No wonder that the young Hustle cast see their “Mr V” as something of a guru, yet he doesn’t seem to take his status as an elder statesman too seriously.

Significantly, he hesitates slightly before confirming his age to me, since performers often don’t act their age on stage and screen but simply ask directors how old they want them to be.

But in an industry that is always reinventing itself, he stays ahead of the game with offbeat acting projects such as playing Paul Getty II in the US version of that well-known career-rebooter, Little Britain, explaining he likes to work with people who make him laugh.

As for the advantages of seniority, “I don’t think age confers any new freedoms as you get older, but people do tend to think you are wiser than you are,” he says.

Vaughn’s lack of pomposity is one of his charms, and also the reason why he continues to stay

I get up every morning anxious to read the papers, curiousity about life is what drives me healthily alert and interested in the world beyond what he calls in his autobiography “the peculiar self-absorption of an actor”.

Vaughn teaches masterclasses in acting at Yale from time to time and has a PhD in communications.

However, the very ungrand Vaughn insists: “I’m only Dr Vaughn to my students.”

There have been quite a few

future A-listers among those pupils over the years, including a young Jack Nicholson, whom Vaughn taught in his Sunday-afternoon Players’ Ring acting class in LA in the mid-1950s. Despite the mere five-year age gap, he assumed the mentor role and found himself urging a disheartened Nicholson not to give up the business in 1967.

Two years later, Nicholson shot to fame in Easy Rider.

If acting hadn’t worked out, Vaughn’s original plan B was to go into sports journalism, and when he was drafted into the army, he became a drill instructor.

Keeping fit continues to be very important to him. Neither does he neglect intellectual workouts, believing in a healthy mind as well as a healthy body. “I get up every morning anxious to read the papers, because curiosity about life is what drives me,” he says. “My wife has just bought me a Kindle and I’m going to read a biography of Spencer Tracy and a book by Condoleezza Rice on it.”

He married actress Linda Staab in 1974 and they have two adopted children, Cassidy, 35, who works in the motor industry, and Caitlin, 30, an animal anaesthetist.

The Kindle should prove a useful companion between takes, for the last surviving member of The Magnificent Seven has just begun shooting a new British indie comedy film called The Magnificent Eleven for what one imagines is well below Vaughn’s usual pay scale, simply because the title, and the concept, tickled him so much. Instead of arriving on a horse, he turns up in a limo.

And with this latest series of Hustle the final one, what next for the rather magnificently multitasking Mr V? “Well,” he muses, “I might write another book . . .”

Hustle continues on BBC1 on Friday nights at 9pm.

More from Robert online…

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Get up and go · February 2012

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Margaret Stone

New York: getting insured isn’t a walk in the park

Travel insurance you can bank on

I

t’s that time of year – no-one can escape the advertisements, supplements and features about holidays and travel. The holiday rotas are beginning to appear in the workplace and dates of school holidays are already pencilled in.

If you’re retired and not governed by the work or domestic diary, holidays can be taken as and when you like – and for as long as you like. Extended visits to families overseas are possible, and trips to holiday homes abroad can last for a month or three.

There is a catch, though… if arranging the trips abroad is easy, arranging the travel insurance is not There is a catch, though, for people in their 60s and 70s who enjoy such a flexible, globe-trotting lifestyle. If arranging the trips abroad is easy, arranging the travel insurance is not.

And the cost rises with the years. The typical cost for an annual European travel policy for an 18-54 year-old is £52; for someone age 70, it triples to £152.

There are insurers which refuse to

cover travellers and holidaymakers over 65, and for anyone over 70 it can be even more difficult to obtain cover. Single trip cover is still readily available, but annual multi-trip policies are not – and if you want to travel for more than 31 days, the standard period covered, then you’ve almost had it.

But there is help at hand, from an improbable source. Bashing the banks is a popular pastime, yet the best deals in travel insurance for older people are now to be found attached to some of the premium current accounts offered by high-street banks.

Lloyds’ Gold Account costs £12.95 a month and among a range of benefits is annual worldwide travel insurance for a couple up to the age of 80 for a trip of up to 31 consecutive days. Viewed solely as a travel policy, the annual cost of £155.40 is just beaten (by only a few pounds) by only one specialist travel insurer on the Go Compare website. For a further £100, it is possible to extend the cover from 31 days to three months.

NatWest’s Advantage account similarly costs £12.95 a month (£155.40 a year) and also provides annual worldwide travel insurance for 31 days.

That can be extended, at a cost of £187, for 90 days (the cost varies according to the length of time requested). Once one of the couple is over 70, there is an extra charge of £50 – and by holiday insurance standards, that is a modest charge.

The cost quoted by specialist travel insurance broker Delta Insurance for

a 70-year-old couple with no adverse medical history needing a worldwide annual, multi-trip policy with extended cover for up to 90 days was £435.20, or £332.80 for a more restricted economy policy – with no extension available.

The Go Compare site was able to include extended cover for a similar couple – but at a cost. The cheapest quote offered was £425.77 from Explorer – and the most expensive, from Club Direct, a staggering £1,070.58.

More from Margaret online…

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SPONSORED FEATURE

See it to believe it Cataracts affect the quality of life for 60 per cent of over-60s.

Now, a pioneering surgery offers a safer, more effective alternative to cataract removal

J

onathan Hatley has struggled with poor eyesight since the onset of cataracts – but a revolutionary approach to eye surgery changed everything.

Mr Hatley is a fit and active 70 year-old. He is a keen skier and golfer, yet was suddenly having to contemplate a life without either because of deteriorating eyesight. Even driving was becoming difficult, and he feared his days behind the wheel were numbered.

Jonathan went to see Bobby Qureshi at Harley Street’s London Eye Hospital, the UK’s leading private eye hospital. Qureshi suggested a new

cataract removal laser treatment – he is the first surgeon to perform this procedure in the UK. The Femtosecond cataract laser machine, with the help of a sophisticated surgeon-guided computer, uses a laser to dissolve a cataract, using perfect precision, within seconds.

This new cataract technology has a much faster healing and recovery time compared with conventional surgery, and is statistically much safer. Cataracts affect more than 60 per cent of people over the age of 60. “This is the greatest breakthrough in cataract surgery in nearly 30 years,” says Qureshi. “For years, many

people have accepted cataracts as an unavoidable part of getting older, but that no longer needs to be the case. With this new surgery, we now offer a quick, safe and effective alternative for cataract removal.”

“It was honestly a miracle,” says Hatley.

“Although I had become accustomed to living with poor eyesight, I suppose I didn’t realise how much worse my vision had become. The difference took my breath away. The treatment that I received at the London Eye Hospital was top-notch from start to finish,” he said.

“Before going to see Mr Qureshi, my vision was so bad that I was considering giving up driving altogether, but now I don’t need to. Instead, I’m already planning a ski trip and expect to play a lot more golf. The whole experience has been completely life-changing.”

Tel: 0207 060 2602 Tel: 0800 612 2021 admin@londoneyehospital.com www.londoneyehospital.com

The real deal Online investment guru Mike Walters, 70, spends part of the year in Florida. He had to find travel insurance as his previous cover stopped when he reached 70.

Walters’s wife, Maggie, researched the options and found that by upping her NatWest bank account to its premium account, she was not only able to get travel insurance thrown in as part of the £155.40 annual cost plus £50, but was also able to extend the cover to 90 days for £187 – a total of £392.40 .

“Most policies won’t even quote for 90 days for anyone over 70 – so it’s a very good deal,” she says.

Mr Bobby Qureshi Consultant ophthalmic surgeon

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Let’s talk about cancer Men are reluctant to open up about their health, but with early diagnosis and targeted brachytherapy treatment, prostate cancer doesn’t have to mean the end of the world, says Deborah Wain

I

t was, says William Gillies, like “being hit by a sledgehammer”.

The property landlord was fit and well, had no symptoms when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, following a routine cholesterol check. Like many men, he preferred not to think or talk too much about “that side” of his health, he admits.

Gillies, then 62, faced three treatment options: surgery to remove his prostate gland, having his cancer closely monitored, or a highly-targeted internal radiotherapy called brachytherapy.

Having the cancer cut away felt like the best option initially, but he was warned that surgery could leave him with impotence problems and urinary incontinence. So, after careful thought, he became one of a growing number of people who opt for brachytherapy.

Five years on, having been given the all-clear by St Luke’s Cancer Centre, Guildford, he has no regrets.

“My thinking was that if the brachytherapy didn’t work I still had other options – but it does work,” he says. “I can’t speak highly enough of the treatment and want men to know about it.”

Every year in the UK, 37,000 men are diagnosed with cancer of the walnut-like prostate gland that sits beneath the bladder and surrounds the urethra, or tube that urine and semen pass through.

Often slow-growing, prostate cancer may never cause harm in a patient’s lifetime and side-effects of treatment can sometimes be worse than problems caused by the disease.

However, it is not always possible to tell how quickly the cancer could grow.

Brachytherapy suits patients whose cancer is expected to be confined to the prostate gland. Unlike external beam radiotherapy (EBT) – usually given five days a week for around two months – brachytherapy is a single procedure. It offers the same chance of a cure as EBT or a radical prostatectomy yet with far fewer side effects.

Brachytherapy involves permanently implanting up to 120 tiny radioactive capsules into the prostate gland using fine needles, guided by ultrasound and 3D computer images. The seeds give off low levels of radiation for up to a year which kills the cancer cells. Most patients are home in a day or two and recovery is generally fast.

Every year in the UK, 37,000 men are diagnosed with cancer of the prostate gland The procedure is now available on the NHS at 22 cancer centres.

Graham Robson, 58, from Aberdeen, was also given the all-clear after brachytherapy.

Robson, head of a recruitment business, was planning to opt for surgery until he found out about the newer treatment, and he now represents patients with the Prostate Brachytherapy Advisory Group.

Robson wants to see men take control of decisions after diagnosis, when, he says: “You’re thinking you might die, so quality of life simply means living. It’s human nature to make the best of what you have, but you want to be making good decisions.”

Consultant urologist Professor Stephen Langley co-founded the renowned Prostate Brachytherapy Centre at St Luke’s, where 2,000 patients have undergone the procedure since 1999. Of the first 700 patients, 92 per cent have been given the allclear. A total of 83 per cent of men who were potent before receiving treatment are able to have an erection afterwards and less than 1 per cent report incontinence problems.

Professor Langley stresses that difficulties with sex or incontinence can have an “emotional impact more devastating than one might expect” on a man.

Prostate cancer is only curable if it has not spread beyond the prostate gland, but is almost always symptomless at that stage. A PSA blood test can indicate if there might be a problem. Men aged over 50 are urged to discuss being tested with their GP.

in the next issue 26 February

cover story

Made of mettle

Cherie Lunghi takes to the stage in Steel Magnolias

plus:

Never too old to spoon Marcelle d’Argy-Smith on love in later life Vision on Laser hope for macular disease victims Our regulars Hunter Davies, Margaret Stone and Tom McIntosh

Get up and go · February 2012

Health

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