Money Marketing
16 August 2006

  • AMI looks at body for equity release

    17 Aug 2006

    The Association of Mortgage Intermediaries is considering setting up a permanent equity-release body to replace the current working group.

  • Fund Distribution Limited reveals 97 per cent of investors accept first distribution offer

    22 Aug 2006

    Fund Distribution Limited has revealed that 97 per cent of investors have accepted its first distribution offer.

  • Marlborough cuts special sits' charge

    17 Aug 2006

    Marlborough Fund Managers is reducing the 5 per cent initial charge to 3.25 per cent on direct investments into its 126m special situations fund until October 31. Managed by Giles Hargreave, the fund has returned 580 per cent since Hargreave took it over in July 1998.

  • A sense of place

    17 Aug 2006

    Fidelity is to start paying 0.5 per cent renewal commission on its offshore fund range, saying IFAs are increasingly seeing offshore funds as mainstream investments.

  • Abbey finally sees red

    17 Aug 2006

    Abbey has bowed to pressure from conservationists and quietly changed the species of squirrel in its advertising from grey to the native red squirrel.The bank last month began using the red species in its savings ads and says it no longer features grey squirrels. The move was met with delight by the UK Red Squirrel Group.Grey squirrels, introduced to the UK in the 19th century, have driven red squirrels almost to extinction by importing disease and competing for food.Money ...

  • Advantage points

    17 Aug 2006

    It is increasingly rare for there to be real innovation in our markets today, with replication the leading force. That is just one of the reasons to welcome Advantage's new shared equity product - that is not what the firm calls it but that is what it does so that is what we will call it.

  • Adviser says IHT 'loophole' could help Revenue

    17 Aug 2006

    Adviser Smith & Williamson says an SSAS inheritance tax "loophole" would benefit tax collection.Standard Life has accused Axa using a SSAS loophole which enables small businesses to pass on assets tax-free, and, in theory, allows family members to set up schemes to bypass IHT.The Revenue has pledged to clamp down on any abuses.But Smith & Williamson national head of pensions Mike Fosberry says SSAS concerns are misplaced and that clients in scheme pensions have ...

  • AFB launches checklist for members on PPI

    17 Aug 2006

    The Association of Finance Brokers has launched a payment protection insurance checklist to give members guidance on PPI sales procedures.

  • Aifa fears IFAs will be trapped in chaser rules

    17 Aug 2006

    Aifa is lobbying the Department for Constitutional Affairs to ensure that IFAs carrying out normal business are not caught up in the regulation of claim management companies.Consultation on the regulation of claim-chasers, to be included in this year's Compensation Bill, closes at the end of August and Aifa is submitt-ing a response amid fears that advisers carrying out proper duty of care will unwittingly fall under the regulations.Policy adviser Vera Cottrell says there is ...

  • AIG Direct delays cancer cover

    17 Aug 2006

    AIG Direct has postponed the launch of its cancer cover product, which was due to be introduced this week. The product is expected to include Red Arc's client support services package.

  • Altmann aims for Labour conference

    17 Aug 2006

    Campaigner Ros Altmann will take the Pension Action Group's cause to the Labour annual conference in the hope of getting the support and publicity that Gate Gourmet workers received at last year's conference.Altmann says the group will be in Manchester for the conference to highlight the Government's behaviour in rejecting the Parliamentary Ombudsman's report and she hopes to get trade union backing to be invited on to the floor.The move gave the workers' cause much needed publicity ...

  • AMI publishes promotions guidance in light of sub prime failings

    21 Aug 2006

    The Association of Mortgage Intermediaries has launched its latest factsheet entitled Financial Promotions for sub-prime or non-conforming mortgage products.

  • Barnard blasts Pru critical plan

    17 Aug 2006

    Dr Marius Barnard, the architect of critical-illness cover, has slammed Prudential's new flexible protection plan, saying it is complicated and gimmicky.Barnard has long campaigned for the introduction of staged payouts based on the severity of a disease, which the Pru product offers, but he says these should only apply to critical diseases, not the myriad of less serious conditions also covered by the Pru product.The Pru plan, developed with South African insurer Discovery, ...

  • Barriers to implementing extranets revealed by Focus

    21 Aug 2006

    Perceived expense and difficult implementation are the key barriers to financial services firms using adviser extranets, according to a survey by Focus Solutions.

  • Base line tactics

    17 Aug 2006

    Borrowers on tracker mortgages have already seen their monthly payments rise after the Bank of England's quarter-point increase in base rate.

  • Basic instinct

    17 Aug 2006

    The Financial Services Compensation Scheme compensates customers of insolvent financial services firms. It gives customers confidence that most of their capital is secure and so helps encourage saving and investment. It has a small staff and resolved nearly 26,000 cases last year.

  • Board reshuffle for Money Quest

    17 Aug 2006

    A board reshuffle at Money Quest has seen managing director Steve Pollard become the company's first chief executive officer and operations director Paul Reynolds move up to become managing director. The firm is taking on 150 new staff as part of expansion pans ahead of a planned flotation within the next couple of years.

  • Broker talkback

    17 Aug 2006

    Will the menu be more useful to your clients after non-advised sales are stripped out of the market-average commission calculations?

  • Brokers expect sub-prime to grow

    17 Aug 2006

    Four in five brokers believe the sub-prime market will grow in the next two years, with 19 per cent thinking it could increase by more than 20 per cent, says Alliance & Leicester.

  • Burke adds blue chips to UK aggressive fund

    17 Aug 2006

    Invesco Perpetual UK aggressive fund manager Ed Burke has more than doubled his large-cap exposure in the last year,He has added Royal Dutch and Shell, BT, Rio Tinto, Barclays, HSBC and ICI to his top 10 holdings, saying he is finding better value in large caps than small and mid-caps.The fund holds 24 stocks, with 65 per cent of the portfolio in the FTSE 100 compared with around 25 per cent three years ago.Burke, who has just passed his five-year anniversary running the ...

  • Cable in call to axe high-rate tax relief

    17 Aug 2006

    The Liberal Democrats want to axe higher-rate pension tax relief and end forced annuitisation at age 75.In the party's Tax Commission proposals Shadow Chancellor Vince Cable set out plans for a fundamental reform of the tax system last week under the slogan, Fairer, Simpler, Greener.Cable says it is particularly difficult to defend higher-rate pension tax relief, describing it as a "direct subsidy to higher-earners". The report highlights that half of the total benefit of pension ...

  • Cameron calls for return of right-to-buy

    17 Aug 2006

    Tory leader David Cameron has floated the idea of reprising the Conservative right-to-buy scheme of the 1980s.Speaking at a Cicero summit on 1st time buyers, Cameron said a radical solution was needed to address current housing problems in the UK and has commissioned a Conservative Party working group on housing to look into bringing back the controversial scheme.Cameron said the right-to-buy scheme led to huge beneficial changes in society in the 1980s and it was time for the ...

  • Camerons right-to-buy doomed says moneysupermarket.com

    18 Aug 2006

    Tory leader David Camerons proposal for a return of right-to-buy is doomed to failure, according to moneysupermarket.com.Head of mortgages Louise Cuming says some local authority properties are already very difficult to borrow against and the policy could create a glut of tenant-owners left with properties that are difficult to sell on.She says many local authority tenants rely on the council for repair and renewal of their rented properties and it is unlikely a large number would ...

  • Canada Life announces changes to special situations fund

    21 Aug 2006

    Canada Life has announced it will temporarily close its Canlife Fidelity special situations fund a week before Fidelity splits the 6bn fund into global and Uk mandates on September 18.

  • Capita signs outsourcing deal with Pru

    16 Aug 2006

    Capita has signed an outsourcing agreement with Prudential to deliver a range of life and pension sales and administration services.

  • Colonial firm was not authorised for 9 years

    17 Aug 2006

    A court has upheld an endowment complaint against Winterthur Life on the basis that a Colonial Mutual subsidiary it bought in 2000 was not authorised between 1989 and 1998.The judgment at Croydon county court could open the door for claims from thousands of policyholders sold products by Colonial Mutual UK Holdings Group's 800-strong salesforce.It raises questions over the FSA's role in the matter and a complaint has been sent to Complaints Commissioner Sir Anthony Holland.The ...

  • Correspondent's week

    17 Aug 2006

    Unfortunately for me, the week starts on a Sunday. We have a skeleton staff in the office each Sunday to ensure the website is updated with all the news from the Sunday papers and, in particular, our sister publication, the Mail on Sunday.I am greeted by a voicemail message from Ann-Marie Masson. We launched our campaign into the misselling of payment protection insurance back in June - when I quickly acquired the additional title of campaigns editor - and Ann-Marie is our first victory. ...

  • Credit Suisse slows the merry-go-round

    17 Aug 2006

    Credit Suisse Asset Management says the underlying funds chosen for its multi-manager cautious managed fund at launch in 2001 have experienced a lower-than-average level of manager turnover.According to the UK Fund Industry Review and Directory 2004/2005 - the most recent edition - more than 75 per cent of UK fund managers have been in charge of their funds for less than four years.Credit Suisse says 61 per cent of funds in its multi-manager cautious managed fund have seen changes ...

  • Defence Union starts human rights action against FOS

    17 Aug 2006

    The IFA Defence Union has formally applied to the High Court for a judicial review against the Financial Ombudsman Service for allegedly breaking European human rights law.The application was made in person last week by ATE Risk legal risk analyst Andrew Wesson, who will organise the underwriting of the union's case if it reaches judicial review.The case rests on the union's contention that the FOS has breached Article 6.1 of the Human Rights Act by not allowing advisers a right ...

  • Don't block scheme pension route

    17 Aug 2006

    Further to the article in the August 3 edition of Money Marketing, headlined, Standard complains over loophole that it revealed, scheme pensions could in the future form a very valuable option for self-invested trust-based money-purchase arrangements. Historically, scheme pensions have been paid from defined-benefit schemes, where the scheme trustees take on the onus of payment of the pension rather than buying out the liability via the purchase of a formal pension annuity. As we read ...

  • Double digits

    17 Aug 2006

    Congratulations to Standard Life PR queen Patricia Corrigan, who gave birth to a lovely baby boy on Friday, August 4.Eoin (pronounced Owen, for our non-Celt readers) Stephen weighed in at a healthy 8lbs 2ozs. Apparently, he is very cute, "with very long fingers and toes", according to one admirer.There was uncertainty among the cynical MM newsdesk as to whether that was actually cute or, in fact, weird. However, the more sensitive among us are certain that the baby is beautiful.

  • Ex-Colonial worker will look again at loan case

    17 Aug 2006

    Former Colonial Mutual Group Holdings employee Maurice Timbrell says the court ruling will help him revisit his case against Winterthur.Timbrell brought a case against the firm in 2001, claiming that the CMGH salesforce was not regulated, did not have adequate training and left workers unable to pay back up-front loans given by the firm.The judge at the time agreed that CMGH was not compliant with section 44 of the Financial Services Act 1986 although Timbrell lost his case ...

  • Experience is an asset for Axa

    17 Aug 2006

    In years gone by, it was difficult to open a trade publication without looking at Mary Blair pushing the Fidelity line. At least she was pushing the Fidelity message and not Mary Blair. John Lawson and Ned Cazalet state the obvious week by week and one cannot help but think that this is for the greater glory and good of both. The recent spat between Lawson and Axa over the ability of an exempt approved pension trust to reallocate funds among members is a case in point. This ...

  • Fair trade on the menu

    17 Aug 2006

    The issue is having wider repercussions as the consumer benefit of the document in its current form is now being called into question.Aifa director general Chris Cummings says the OFT's decision has sent a clear message that the menu has been skewed against advisers since it was set up when depolarisation was introduced last June.He says changes promised by the FSA in revising its questionnaire to minimise the chance of firms providing incorrect information and new checks to ...

  • Fair warning

    17 Aug 2006

    The March 2007 deadline has concentrated minds on incorporating the TCF principles in business

  • Fee courses from Aifa and IFP

    17 Aug 2006

    Aifa and the Institute of Financial Planning are to hold a series of one-day courses designed to help advisers move to a fee-based model. The first of the courses, run with FP Advance, will take place on September 14 at the Mermaid Conference & Events Centre in London.

  • Fidelity announces annual investment forum details

    22 Aug 2006

    Fidelity International has announced the details of its annual investment forum which will be held in seven venues across the UK between September 25 and September 29 2006.

  • Fidelity caps TER of new multi fund

    17 Aug 2006

    Fidelity is to set up a multi-manager distribution fund in early September to be co-managed by Richard Skelt and Simon Mungall.It will aim to deliver an income equivalent to at least 125 per cent of the yield of the FTSE Allshare index before charges and will be in the Investment Management Association's cautious managed sector.The fund will typically hold between 10 and 15 funds and is expected to launch with an asset allocation of 40 per cent predominantly UK equities, 40 ...

  • Fidelity FundsNetwork boosts PortfolioPlanner

    22 Aug 2006

    Fidelity FundsNetwork has unveiled significant enhancements to its online PortfolioPlanner tool for advisers.

  • Fidelity offering investment fund drawdown deal

    17 Aug 2006

    Fidelity is adding a regular withdrawal facility to its investment funds to enable investors to draw down income without having to switch funds.The facility will be available on all Fidelity funds and products from third-party providers on FundsNetwork. Income drawdown is available mon-thly or quarterly.The service is free and will initially be available on unwrapped funds but will be extended to Isas and Peps later in the year.Head of IFA business Peter Hicks says: "Advisers ...

  • Firm aims to help advisers make the transition to fees

    17 Aug 2006

    FP Advance has set up a business consultancy practice which offers help to advisers looking to move towards a fee-based model.The firm says it will offer specialist advice and training to advisers, networks, nationals and wrap or product providers looking to support fee-only practices.FP Advance, formerly operating as FP Transition, says with the changing regulatory environment and increasing cost pressures on IFAs, many advisers think that moving to a fee-based model will add ...

  • Firms link up to help public with Reits

    17 Aug 2006

    Thirty companies have teamed up with the British Property Federation to help raise public awareness of Reits ahead of their introduction next year.The Reits and Quoted Property Group has 30 members, including the Investment Property Federation, the London Stock Exchange and leading investment banks and consultants including KPMG, Deloitte and Lehman Brothers.Eight quoted property companies, including Land Securities and nine fund firms including Fidelity, Henderson, Insight ...

  • FSA believed agreement existed

    17 Aug 2006

    The FSA stood by its view that a section 44 agreement was always in place for Colonial Mutual UK Holdings Group until December 2005 when the endowment claimants requested this to be backed up in court.The regulator then conceded there had been no written agreement.Despite repeated refusals from Winterthur to produce a copy of a section 44 and the fact that the PIA was aware in 1998 that CMHG's appointed representative status had been backdated, letters showed that the FSA's ...

  • FSA feared a rise in Millfield cash deficit

    17 Aug 2006

    Millfield Partnership Limited's capital adequacy deficit would have risen to 7m by February 2007 if the FSA had not pulled the plug on the firm.The regulator, in its final notice to MPL, said the firm failed to provide a viable proposal to rectify its 4.5m deficit and it was therefore forced to remove the firm's permissions as the deficit was forecast to grow significantly.MPL had repeatedly written to the FSA about its plans to try and reschedule loans but these plans fell ...

  • FSA screens letters to non-execs

    17 Aug 2006

    The FSA is intercepting lobbying letters sent to its non-executive directors by trade bodies and other organisations.The move has been attacked by lawyers, with Fishburn Law partner Andrew Davis saying the action is regrettable at a time when the principle of increasing non-executive responsibility is growing in importance.Davis says the FSA should be seen to be ensuring that board members, including non-executives, have access to all information.He says: "This appears to ...

  • Geography lessons

    17 Aug 2006

    The Adviser Fund Index panellists would have fared better investing their equity exposure in British shares over the past six months rather than spreading allocation overseas.Just one-third of the 108 Aggressive AFI constituents have posted positive returns in the six-month period to August 9, according to Financial Express. The majority of equity funds in positive territory over the period invest in the UK stockmarkets.The two top-performing British equity funds in the Aggressive ...

  • Go to work on an ego

    17 Aug 2006

    Lifesearch rent-a-quote, sorry, head of protection strategy Kevin Carr was so impressed with his recent Profile in MM that he requested an extra 10 copies of the quality publication to distribute to family and friends.At least, that is what some have guessed they are for. Others suggest that Carr might be wallpapering his bedroom with the A3 sheets.We did try getting them framed to give away as prizes but no art shops in the London W1 area were insured to handle such a valuable ...

  • Government to blame for A-Day problems says Defaqto

    17 Aug 2006

    The Government is responsible for advisers and providers not being ready for A-Day according to 500 IFAs surveyed by Defaqto.

  • Haines' manual

    17 Aug 2006

    Threadneedle head of UK equities Michael Taylor and his team have produced very good results over the past year. Two of their seven UK funds are high up in the top decile while all the other funds are in the first quartile or high up in the second quartile.

  • Hamptons calls for APRs to be scrapped

    17 Aug 2006

    APRs should be axed as a means of demonstrating the cost of a mortgage, says Hamptons International Mortgages.The broker believes the popularity of remortgaging, the inability to predict long-term trends in standard variable rates and lenders' retention strategies make APRs useless as a tool as they are calculated over 25 years.Technical director Jonathan Cornell says: "The APR is based on the highly unrealistic scenario of a client finishing their rate and being too lazy to ...

  • Heath quits SRB after takeover

    17 Aug 2006

    Risk Placement Services has bought niche insurance brokerage Special Risks Bureau for an undisclosed sum in a deal that will see the two firms marketed under the RPS brand.Special Risks Bureau chairman Garry Heath is leaving the firm as a result of the deal and is in talks with a number of firms about future roles.RPS is accelerating its plans to offer stand-alone critical-illness and income protection to the specialist market and has brought the launch date forward to September. ...

  • Hip hope

    17 Aug 2006

    A no sale, no fee home information pack has been set up to try to prevent a slowdown of the housing market.

  • Home truths

    17 Aug 2006

    Prosperity doth bewitch men, seeming clear, as seas do laugh, show white, when rocks are near."

  • 'IFA professionalism can silence critics'

    17 Aug 2006

    IFAs must focus on improving their professional standards and leave fighting injustices to Aifa, says Sesame chief executive Patrick Gale.Gale says professionalism is key to the future success of independent financial advice and the best means of rebuffing condemnation from the consumer press and Government policymakers that focus on the cost of advice rather than its value.He says advisers are in a strong position because they write over 65 per cent of the UK's life and pension ...

  • IMS set to take over Lincoln fund duo

    17 Aug 2006

    Lincoln Financial Group is set to convert two of its fettered funds of funds into unfettered vehicles next quarter.The managed and global trusts are currently run by Goldman Sachs Asset Management but will be taken over by multi-manager specialist IMS if unitholders give the green light.The fettered approach was felt to be too restrictive for funds with managed and global mandates as Lincoln believes they should have access to a wider range of funds and managers.Lincoln ...

  • L&G set to cut fund charge

    17 Aug 2006

    Legal & General is to reduce the annual charge on its European fund after converting it into a passively managed vehicle.The annual charge on the 156m fund will be cut from 1.5 per cent to 0.75 per cent in line with its tracker funds.L&G moved the fund's management to its passive desk after offloading its European equity team following a prolonged period of underperformance. The firm has appointed headhunters to recruit a new European team with a view to converting it back to ...

  • Lands of opportunity

    17 Aug 2006

    May's correction has shaken out nervous investors while opening up long-term global prospects

  • Leeds continues its rugby sponsorship

    21 Aug 2006

    Leeds Building Society is continuing with its sponsorship of Leeds Tykes rugby club.

  • Lender pledges stable interest rates

    21 Aug 2006

    The Swift Group has confirmed it will not up its secured loan rates following the decision earlier this month to increase the base rate from 4.5 per cent to 4.75 per cent.

  • Life business spinning on magic roundabout

    17 Aug 2006

    The buoyant new business results being paraded by life offices are "absolutely meaningless" and reflect the "magic mushroom roundabout" of high commission, low persistency rates and destroyed capital plaguing the industry, says independent consultant Ned Cazalet.Product providers benefited from an A-Day sales surge, with Norwich Union seeing a 43 per cent increase in UK life and pension sales in the first six months of this year and Friends Provident and Aegon posting growth of ...

  • MEX reveals new self-cert range

    22 Aug 2006

    Mortgage Express is offering a range of two year fixed rate deals on self certification mortgages.

  • Montpelier to run funds

    17 Aug 2006

    Montpelier is starting an in-house fund management arm and its own branded range of Sipps next month.Montpelier Capital Management will provide discretionary management services to clients, with third-party administration and back-office systems provided by US financial services giant Raymond James.Montpelier managing director Peter Bridges will act as investment manager and tailor multi-asset portfolios effectively funds of funds - to individual clients' risk profiles.The ...

  • MPs clash with Crombie on pay

    17 Aug 2006

    MPs have criticised Standard Life group chief executive Sandy Crombie for agreeing to bonus payments which they claim contradicts a pledge that he made to them.Mutuo, a research group which acts as secretary to the All Party Parliamentary Group for Building Societies and Financial Mutuals, says Crombie told the group in 2004 that he would not renegotiate his package after Standard's demutualisation.But Standard says Mutuo has not understood the remuneration details. It says ...

  • Network falls into administration

    16 Aug 2006

    Mortgage network First4Brokers has confirmed it is in administration, with question marks hanging over the reason for its slide.

  • No-score draw

    17 Aug 2006

    "I've never wielded an axe in my life."Bankhall chief executive officer Peter Mann to colleague Richard Howells"It's like people's sexuality. There is no black or white, just many shades of grey."FP Advance's Brett Davidson on the fees versus commission debate"It always makes me laugh when the waiter comes and asks what you would like to drink. I always say: Lots."Critical-illness insurance pioneer Dr Marius Barnard"He tends to get even more lively as the night goes on. ...

  • NU takes top life spot from HBOS

    17 Aug 2006

    Norwich Union has regained its position as market leader in UK life business after a 43 per cent rise in business during the first half of this year.However, a decrease in persistency across NU's UK pension and bond products cost the firm 35m compared with 5m in the corresponding period in the previous year.UK chief executive Mark Hodges says: "We will see lap-ses because we start with the biggest book but we are winning more than our share of new business and we want to be ...

  • Out of context

    17 Aug 2006

    "I've never wielded an axe in my life."- Bankhall chief executive officer Peter Mann to colleague Richard Howells

  • Paying happy families

    17 Aug 2006

    Schroeder managed balanced could fill the gal for a pension fund for Sipps, featuring a risk management system and the manager with the incentive of parents and friends invested

  • Pensioners hit by 34 per cent increase in costs, says new research

    18 Aug 2006

    Pensioners have seen an average rise of 34 per cent in the cost of the goods and services they purchase, in the last ten years, says new research from Clerical Medical.

  • Perking up

    17 Aug 2006

    I want to provide my employees with a competitive benefits' package. What can IFA do to help me and how can I make sure there is minimal disruption to my business?

  • Pole star

    17 Aug 2006

    Collegiate's Mark Bates is set to take part in the 2007 Polar Challenge to the magnetic North Pole.The race takes place in April 2007, when Mark and the other competitors will ski 320 miles to the pole pulling their own supplies and handling temperatures between -25 and -45 degrees.Mark aims to raise 10,000 for Cancer Research and will be organising other events, including a fantasy football competition and a white-collar boxing match, to help achieve his goal.Donations ...

  • Portal picks marketing director

    17 Aug 2006

    Personal finance portal Find.co.uk has recruited Kate Marsden as marketing director from BT.

  • Principles of professionalism

    17 Aug 2006

    Sesame's chief executive Patrick Gale has made a clarion call for advisers to professionalise.

  • Product matters: King Neptune

    17 Aug 2006

    Most investors appreciate the merits that a globally diversified portfolio can have.Similarly, many have benefited from the concept of investing for income and the power of reinvested dividends.Combine the two and you would have a very attractive investment proposition. Well, that is exactly what Neptune has done.The individual performance of its UK income, European, US, Japan and Russia funds would seem to indicate that the Neptune team know how to pick stocks.Robin Geffen, ...

  • Profits leap at Personal Touch

    17 Aug 2006

    Network Personal Touch Financial Services says its turnover rose by 36 per cent to 35m in the first six months, with profits up by 51 per cent to 1.1m.

  • Promising position

    17 Aug 2006

    Although there has been a marked increase in market volatility, the big picture of late is that there is not any discernible trend and markets are trading off each rumour and data release.

  • Property funds popular for Sipp

    17 Aug 2006

    Property funds make up three of the six best-selling funds in the FundsNetwork Sipp. Invesco Perpetual high income was the top seller, with Norwich property trust third, New Star property fourth and Standard Life property sixth.

  • Pru moving into individual Sipps

    17 Aug 2006

    Prudential has become the latest major insurance firm to launch into the individual Sipp market.The product, a deferred Sipp, is available through Pru's flexible retirement plan and is designed so investors can switch on the self-investment facility when their pension fund reaches £10,000.Investors can access a range of in-house funds and over 800 funds from more than 50 asset management firms through a link to the Cofunds' platform.The product also offers a range of loyalty ...

  • Purely Mortgages slashes salesforce

    17 Aug 2006

    Purely Mortgages has cut its salesforce by almost a half as part of its third financial restructuring in under a year.Purely, set up in 2004, last week cut 19 of its 45 sales staff in a bid to bring its costs down to a level that will see it make profit on a smaller turnover than originally projected.The axed staff were not employed by Purely but at an outsourced call centre in Hampshire. Money Marketing has learnt that another two direct employees of Purely have lost their ...

  • Purely prunes numbers

    17 Aug 2006

    Purely Mortgages has cut its salesforce as part of its third financial restructuring in under a year.

  • Quarter of firms worried about final-salary deficits

    17 Aug 2006

    Research by the firm shows that 26 per cent have concerns about their final-salary schemes while only 11 per cent feel more confident about their schemes than they did 12 months ago and 63 per cent say there has been no change in their attitude.Pru says the manufacturing and financial services sectors are showing signs of increased optimism, with 14 per cent of employers feeling more positive than they did last year.According to research by the Pensions Protection Fund, the ...

  • Reality check

    17 Aug 2006

    Reality TV shows have never been my thing, especially as they seem to last far longer than necessary. The current run of Big Brother has evicted several housemates, only to invite viewers to elect them back in. This has caused a furore and money made on this has been diverted to a charitable cause.Indecisiveness is a major flaw in the English character and is seen in all trade bodies, quangos and civil service departments in the UK.We now hear that the Association of British ...

  • Reckless driving

    17 Aug 2006

    The Government has developed such a nasty habit for U-turns that it is amazing anyone in financial services ever gets anywhere. Added to property in Sipps comes Hips and arguably Asps. There have been many other changes of stance but these are the big ones that have seen intermediaries and everyone else in financial services have to shift position time and again.In the case of home information packs and self-invested personal pensions, it wasn't so much the change itself which was ...

  • Revenue glitch poses pension threat

    17 Aug 2006

    Pension schemes could face extra tax bills and personal fines for scheme administrators after a technical glitch at the Revenue meant it failed to migrate crucial data on to its systems.The Revenue's first online tax return submission deadline since A-Day passed last week, but some schemes that pre-registered their details online through a service offered by the Revenue to speed up the process have found their data was not moved to the Revenue's systems.The first deadline for ...

  • Rightmove set for legal action over Hip

    17 Aug 2006

    Rightmove says it is considering launching a multi-million pound legal action against the Government after its U-turn on home information packs.The news comes as the Government last week apologised to home inspectors after it said in July that home condition reports would be made voluntary from June 2007.Rightmove pulled its Hip, which cost an estimated 22m to develop, after the U-turn and says it will decide whether to seek compensation after its interim results are announced ...

  • Rule intentions

    17 Aug 2006

    Opposing statements from HMRC have increased confusion over the application of the 'not less than premiums paid' rule

  • Scarborough sets up specialist brand

    17 Aug 2006

    Scarborough Building Society is launching a specialist lending brand, Scarborough Specialist Mortgages, for its niche product range. It will initially be offered to selected packagers and those with key relationships before a wider launch.

  • Searching in vain for true professional

    17 Aug 2006

    A recent advertisement on the back page of Money Marketing read: "Do you want to recruit a financial services professional? Money Marketing is read by about 96,000 of them." Not quite true, I think. It may be read by 96,000 people in the industry but to assume that all 96,000 are professionals is stretching credibility to a considerable degree. Like many, many other IFA practices, we have been looking in vain since time immemorial for a true financial services professional. Unfortunately, ...

  • Sesame chief Gale's tied tirade

    17 Aug 2006

    Sesame chief executive Patrick Gale claims multi-tied rivals, including Barclays and Openwork, run a quasi-tied model while Sesame's Select offering allows advisers independence of thought.Gale says Select advisers can go off panel and access the whole of the market while other companies restrict their advisers' choice of provider and have effectively just tagged extra products on to their tied models.He says the only difference between an IFA and the 1,000 advisers using Select ...

  • Simple truth is that client is worse off

    17 Aug 2006

    I am involved in dealing with a client who has two individual pension arrangements, one with Legal & General and one with Friends Provident, in respect of the same employment. One fund value is about 240,000 and the other is 150,000. The bigger fund value has the benefit of very attractive guaranteed annuity rates. If the client had reached normal retirement date in April, his pre-A-Day tax-free cash would have been 145,000 and we could have chosen where this was generated. Obviously, ...

  • Skandia adds new benchmarking tools to wrap service

    17 Aug 2006

    Skandia has added new benchmarking tools to its U-Skan reporting service on SkandiaWrap.

  • Standard claims the law is an Asp

    17 Aug 2006

    The Government is encouraging pension trustees, providers and advisers to breach anti-discrimination laws by screening the use of alternatively secured pensions on religious grounds, claims Standard Life.The Government is becoming increasingly concerned that Asps are being used to avoid inheritance tax. Treasury Economic Secretary Ed Balls prompted fears of an Asp crackdown when he told Parliament last month that Asps were originally designed for people with principled religious ...

  • Standard criticised on SSAS loophole

    17 Aug 2006

    Adviser Smith & Williamson has criticised Standard Life's attempts to plug the SSAS IHT "loophole".Standard Life has accused Axa of abusing a SSAS loop-hole which enables small businesses to pass on assets tax-free and in theory allows family members to set up schemes to bypass IHT. The Revenue has vowed to clamp down on any abuses.But Smith & Williamson national head of pensions Mike Fosberry says SSAS concerns are misplaced and that clients in scheme pensions have ...

  • Standard Life reopens its DGT plan

    22 Aug 2006

    Standard Life has reopened its discounted gift plan from the end of this month.

  • Standard reopens discount gift trust

    17 Aug 2006

    Standard Life is reopening its discounted gift plan to business this week. It has not changed any of the trust's key features but is adding training material and a decision tree.

  • Standard wants DB transfer shake-up

    17 Aug 2006

    Standard Life is calling for a radical overhaul of the way that defined-benefit pension transfer values are calculated to put an end to the "derisory" sums that many people get.It is urging the Department for Work and Pensions to remove actuarial departments' discretionary powers, which it says are assuming outdated mortality rates and unachievable future investment returns that result in artificially low transfer values.Head of pensions policy John Lawson says skewed calculations ...

  • Teamspirit launches PR business

    22 Aug 2006

    Financial services specialist marketing agency Teamspirit has launched a new public relations business.

  • The blame game

    17 Aug 2006

    It has often been said that our "regulator" phoenixes itself from previous liabilities. The FSA, for example, would have you believe that it only came into existence following Government legislation and the FSMA.

  • The lion roars

    17 Aug 2006

    Last week saw me visiting Liontrust in its offices adjacent to the Savoy. Nigel Legge, one of its founders, and I go back a long way. Indeed, it is true to say that most of the original team and I are old muckers, as we all worked together at James Capel. Liontrust may have had its downs as well as its ups but it now looks after an impressive £5bn and has an enviable record in retaining its managers.It recently announced its intention to launch funds invested in European shares - a ...

  • The MM Profile: Dr Marius Barnard

    17 Aug 2006

    At the age of 79, the architect of critical-illness insurance, Dr Marius Barnard, is inexhaustible in his crusade to close the protection gap.

  • The price of advice

    17 Aug 2006

    At a dinner last week, a very successful adviser said to me "a good adviser never needs to compete on price".

  • The test for wrap

    17 Aug 2006

    There has been a vigorous debate over the past few weeks on the FinServ forum on the future role of wrap accounts in our industry.

  • Thoresen says A-Day pension sales boost could last for years

    17 Aug 2006

    Aegon UK chief executive Otto Thoresen says A-Day could help drive pension sales for two or three years.He expects to see the current business momentum continue in the second half of this year and into next year and beyond. Aegon UK saw a 55 per cent increase in life and pension business in the first half of this year compared with the same period last year.Individual pension new business nearly doubled to 148m, on an annual premium income basis.Thoresen says it is difficult ...

  • Treasury issues Asp warning

    17 Aug 2006

    An insider at the Treasury accuses tax advisers of "wilful abuse" of Asps, which were introduced for religious groups, such as the Plymouth Brethren, with moral objections to annuities.The source says: "It is unfortunate that a group of tax-avoidance advisers are wil-fully seeking to abuse it in this way. We will take all the action necessary to clamp down on this abuse but if it persists we will unfortun-ately have to remove the concession entirely."Standard Life head of pensions ...

  • Two-year wait is over for life cover

    17 Aug 2006

    Lifesearch has finally completed a life insurance policy which has taken two years to process.The 50,000 life-only policy for 16 years was submitted in June 2004.Head of protection strategy Kevin Carr says there were delays such as changes in the client's circumstances, including occupation and health and delays in getting various medical reports and examinations from the GP and specialists.Carr says: "Many people think life cover is simple but often it is not. All parties ...

  • Value is the real issue

    17 Aug 2006

    How disappointing but not surprising to see the Association of British Insurers drop its review on the payment of commission.

  • Vertex, Exchange in straight-through deal

    17 Aug 2006

    Vertex and The Exchange are setting up a new business unit that will look to deliver straight-through life and pension processing. Vertex Life, Pensions and Distribution will be headed by David Childs.

  • Where did it go wrong on paperwork?

    17 Aug 2006

    A friend and client of mine has a small Prudential pension policy (fund value 1,800). He has just received documents and papers for the commencement of the annuity and the payment of the lump sum. The number of pages in these documents? There were 79. In the immortal words asked of the great George Best: "Where did it all go wrong?" Owen Jennings Jennings Insurance & Investment Services Flintshire

  • Widows criticises Sipps as 'asset-gathering vehicles'

    17 Aug 2006

    Scottish Widows has accused providers of switching clients from low-cost personal pensions into expensive, opaque Sipps.Head of pensions marketing Peter Glancy says many self-invested personal pensions are "asset-gathering vehicles" for in-house funds and predicts that some providers will be forced to revisit sales when Sipp regulation starts next year.Widows is about to pilot a Sipp-equivalent offering with IFAs ahead of launch next year. The product, which will not fall under ...

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