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Merryn Somerset Webb

Personal finance & investment commentator
Merryn Somerset Webb started her career at Japan’s public broadcaster NHK in Tokyo before moving to be an institutional broker for what was then SBC Warburg. Back in the UK she became launch editor of Moneyweek in 2000 and is now Editor in chief. She is also a non-executive director of two investment trusts, Murray Income and Blackrock Throgmorton Trust, and of wealth management firm Netwealth. She is a non-executive adviser to the investment committee of UK platform Interactive Investor.
Email Merryn Somerset Webb @MerrynSW  on Twitter (link opens in a new browser window)
Email Merryn Somerset Webb @MerrynSW  on Twitter (link opens in a new browser window)

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  • Thursday, 21 July, 2022
    Personal Finance Advice & Comment
    Pensions — a Roman legacy needing reform

    Increasing longevity means we need more in our retirement savings and more advice

  • Friday, 15 July, 2022
    Personal Finance Advice & Comment
    Take cover and look for dividends

    In unsettled markets, consider income-focused investment trusts

  • Friday, 8 July, 2022
    Personal Finance Advice & Comment
    Uncomfortable echoes of the 1970s

    Time to look again at a difficult decade with the help of some summer holiday books

  • Friday, 1 July, 2022
    Personal Finance Advice & Comment
    Why we need to make pensions interesting

    Take-up of saving has improved no end — but millions still have no idea about their retirement options

  • Friday, 24 June, 2022
    Markets
    Investors are on recession watch

    The combination of a bear market and an economic downturn has historically been ugly

  • Friday, 17 June, 2022
    Personal Finance Advice & Comment
    Time to cut your stock market losses — or not?

    Bear market history suggests staying invested beats cashing out

  • Friday, 10 June, 2022
    Personal Finance Advice & Comment
    To investors seeking income — there’s still plenty of it about

    Interest on cash deposits remains paltry, but some companies are throwing off dividends in the here and now

  • Friday, 27 May, 2022
    Equities
    A good tale can tempt us to forget the truth about markets

    Stories have driven an unnatural division between growth stocks and value stocks

  • Friday, 20 May, 2022
    Personal Finance Advice & Comment
    What are investors supposed to trust in now?

    Equity and bond markets appear to be imploding at the same time

  • Friday, 13 May, 2022
    Personal Finance Advice & Comment
    Growth stocks almost look cheap

    Buying opportunities are starting to emerge

  • Friday, 6 May, 2022
    Personal Finance Advice & Comment
    Passive funds are no place to hide from a bear market

    The world has changed — and so should our portfolios

  • Friday, 29 April, 2022
    ESG investing
    There is far too much groupthink in ESG investing

    Definitions are at once so fluid and so rigid as to be almost nonsensical

  • Friday, 22 April, 2022
    Personal Finance Advice & Comment
    Better pensions await generation rent

    Many younger savers lack own homes but have better retirement funds

  • Friday, 15 April, 2022
    Personal Finance Advice & Comment
    House prices to fall? Definitely, but not quite yet

    While values are high, real interest rates are negative, making homes surprisingly affordable

  • Monday, 11 April, 2022
    Personal Finance
    FT reader event: An evening with Merryn Somerset Webb

    Meet our investment columnist at the FT’s historic Bracken House headquarters

  • Friday, 1 April, 2022
    Corporate governance
    Nagging is still the best way to make boards more active

    Retail investors continue to have few means of effectively demanding any change

  • Friday, 25 March, 2022
    Personal Finance Advice & Comment
    Alas poor Rishi, in charge of fixing the unfixable

    Most of our underlying problems are well beyond the reach of the chancellor

  • Friday, 18 March, 2022
    Personal Finance Advice & Comment
    Retirement could be on hold if you follow the misery index

    Gloomy forecasts for inflation and unemployment over the next few years

  • Friday, 11 March, 2022
    Personal Finance Advice & Comment
    An energy shock and high inflation: are the 1970s reborn?

    One thing is for sure. We won’t be going back to the 2010s

  • Friday, 4 March, 2022
    Personal Finance Advice & Comment
    Are defence stocks now ESG?

    Surely supplying weapons to the invaded underdog in an unprovoked fight is a social good

  • Friday, 25 February, 2022
    War in Ukraine
    The crisis in Ukraine adds a further dose of uncertainty to markets

    Investors have ridden out previous geopolitical tremors, but this one might be different

  • Friday, 18 February, 2022
    ReviewEconomics books
    Share Power by Merryn Somerset Webb — held to account

    This book calls for individual investors to have more say in the running of the companies they own and offers solutions

  • Friday, 18 February, 2022
    Personal Finance Advice & Comment
    Divesting fossil fuel stocks? That’s so last year

    How investors can stay green by turning brown

  • Friday, 11 February, 2022
    Personal Finance Advice & Comment
    Mining stocks: dig deep for good dividends

    In inflationary times, look at income-rich resources stocks

  • Friday, 4 February, 2022
    UK agriculture
    Growth potential in the natural capital of farmland

    The emergence of new income streams adds value to land

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