Sarah Coles is AJ Bell’s Head of Personal Finance. She’s passionate about helping people get to grips with their money, so they have more freedom to do the things that really matter to them in life.
Sarah regularly provides insight and analysis for the press, writes columns and articles and appears on TV and radio. She covers everything from savings and investments to pensions and tax.
Sarah is an award winning former financial journalist, spending almost 20 years working for publications from Bloomberg to Moneywise and AOL Money.
Sarah has worked as a financial spokesperson for the past nine years, and most recently won Headline Money’s Expert of the Year award.
7 July 2026
Four steps to make passing down estates less painfulDealing with the loss of a family member is an extremely taxing process that most people know too well. While dealing with the grief, there is unfortunately also a legal side that needs to be handled to distribute their estate, which often falls to a family member. This includes tasks like gaining the legal right to deal with the departed's estate...
1 July 2026
Nine ways to beat the energy price hikeEnergy bills are rising as of 1 July, with the arrival of a new, more painful, price cap. We’re paying the price of higher wholesale gas prices after the outbreak of the Iran war, and despite the pull back since the ceasefire, today’s hike was already baked in.
The fact this is hitting at a warmer time of year means we may not feel the full impact...
24 June 2026
Three key lessons the birthday lottery tells us about investing for childrenThe lottery of birth has a massive impact on Junior ISA (JISA) and Child Trust Fund growth over the years. If you were one of the first children to receive money from the government in February 2005, and your parents topped it up to £1,000, by the time you reached the age of 18 it would have grown into an impressive nest egg of £5,172.**
However...
19 June 2026
How to protect yourself if your partner is bad with moneyIn the early days of a relationship, it’s hard to bring up the subject of money. You may not want to...
18 June 2026
Brexit 10 years on: what's the impact on your money?The impact of Brexit in the 10 years since the referendum is hard to untangle from everything else that has been going on over the past decade.
We’ve faced a global pandemic, runaway inflation prompted by war, and a bond crisis precipitated by a disastrous mini-Budget. However, there are some aspects of our finances that were clearly impacted by...
18 June 2026
Iran peace deal: what does it mean for your finances?After three and a half months of war between the US and Iran, a peace deal has been agreed that would include an extended ceasefire and reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
Nothing can be guaranteed in this peace process, and with some terms of the agreement still unclear, there’s the chance that something could break in the fragile deal between the...
17 June 2026
Frozen thresholds drag 7 million into income tax net and 5,000 into IHTIncome tax thresholds have been frozen to the spot since April 2021, and inheritance tax bands since April 2020 – both were three prime ministers ago. These tax rules are set to stay until 2031 – and it’s anyone’s guess how many PMs may come and go in the interim. The number of additional taxpayers created by both freezes is impossible to ignore...
17 June 2026
How can I make the most of my last years working?Ask the experts. Sarah Coles is on hand to answer your personal finance questions. If you’d like a question considered for a future edition send it in now .
Or alternatively leave a rating for the article and include your question in the comment box.
I retire soon and want to make the most of the time I have left earning a regular salary. I’m...
16 June 2026
13 things you should know about inheritance taxInheritance tax is positively Byzantine in its complexity, so while most people have got to grips with some of the basics, there will be a myriad of rules they have no idea at all about.
Some of these will be niche areas that only the most dedicated of tax nerds will delve into. It’s why it can be incredibly helpful to have a professional to guide...
15 June 2026
What an Andy Burnham win in crunch by-election could mean for your financesOn 18 June all eyes will be on the Makerfield byelection where mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham faces one of the biggest steps in his potential route to Number 10.
Standing to become an MP has allowed him to be grilled on what he might do if he eventually became prime minister, although we don't have much specific detail yet.
He has been...
