Money Marketing
22 February 2006

  • 170K fraud fed adviser's betting habit

    23 Feb 2006

    Barclays adviser is jailed after stealing cash from account of a man who died over 20 years ago

  • A magic merger?

    23 Feb 2006

    A possible link-up between Aviva and Prudential would create a UK international powerhouse if the mounting rumours of a bid become a reality.

  • A matter of life and death

    23 Feb 2006

    Nicola York on how life settlement portfolios must shake off the legacy of viaticals to secure a healthy future

  • A new national lottery?

    23 Feb 2006

    The Govt is likely to be blamed if the NPSS default scheme fails to perform

  • A new term begins

    23 Feb 2006

    Zurich protection development manager Gerry Warner looks forward to the new opportunities which await protection advisers this year, including the arrival of pension term assurance in April as part of the A-Day changes

  • A&L to move into new markets

    27 Feb 2006

    Alliance & Leicester has revealed plans to move into new mortgage markets later this year as it reported an 8m jump in operating profits in 2005.

  • American revolution

    23 Feb 2006

    So far, 2006 has seen a level of merger and acquisition activity in financial services which would excite Gordon Gekko. When Michael Douglas played him in the 1985 film Wall Street, he said: "Greed is good."

  • And the winner is...

    23 Feb 2006

    The great and good of the industry who deserve awards for their achievements

  • Asda says it could bring in advice if demand rises

    23 Feb 2006

    We try to give people access to low-cost life insurance by stripping out the cost of the adviser'

  • AWD Moneyextra offers financial advice to Britannic customers

    22 Feb 2006

    AWD Moneyextra has signed a deal with Resolution to offer its Britannic customers access to independent financial advice.Britannic closed its books to new business in 2003 and has 2.4m policies. AWD says many policies were sold through a direct sales force and these customers may not have had access to financial advice since the sales force closed.It says the advice will be mainly carried out over the phone and made available to Britannic customers who do not have an existing adviser ...

  • Barclays chief says loan performance is not good enough

    23 Feb 2006

    Barclays chief executive John Varley has admitted the lender's performance in the mortgage market has "not been good enough".The combined mortgage balance for Barclays and subsidiary Woolwich fell from 61.7bn in 2004 to 59.6bn last year alth-ough it stresses that the rate of decline is slowing.Varley admits Barclays' mortgage operation has plenty of work to do to change its for- tunes despite the banking giant revealing a 15 per cent increase in group profits to 5.28bn last ...

  • Barclays launches protected stocks and shares Isa

    24 Feb 2006

    Barclays is launching a capital protected Isa offering a minimum return of 10 per cent over five years plus 55 per cent of FTSE growth over the period.

  • Baronsmead VCT4 closes within 3 weeks

    24 Feb 2006

    Baronsmead VCT 4 has closed over-subscribed at 20m within just 3 weeks following the closure of VCT 3 in December 2005.

  • Basic instinct

    23 Feb 2006

    Explore how you can employ the business basics to maximum advantage

  • Bay watch

    23 Feb 2006

    Lenders Nicola York reports on the potential impact of the growing number of foreign lenders moving into the UK mortgage market

  • BBB hits FSA deadline tonight

    27 Feb 2006

    Berkeley Berry Birch today hits an FSA deadline for its auditors to prove it is in a position to meet its capital adequacy obligations.

  • BBB set to offload insurance broking arm

    24 Feb 2006

    Berkeley Berry Birch is thought to be close to announcing a deal to sell its insurance broking arm Berry Birch & Noble Insurance Broking to broking group Smart & Cook for around 4m.If the deal is confirmed it will help the firm address its capital adequacy requirements. The FSA has given BBB until 27 February to prove it is compliant before serving final notices on it.

  • Blue sky thinking

    23 Feb 2006

    Taking a break away from the office gives you time to think. Returning last week from bliss in a land of warm seas and blue skies, I expected the world to have moved on. Instead, I was struck by how little seemed to have changed during my brief hedonistic absence.

  • Brickbat for Bric fund concept

    23 Feb 2006

    Bric funds are just a fashionable marketing concept and investors should treat them with extreme caution, warns First State emerging markets guru Angus Tulloch.Tulloch, who has no plans to launch a Bric fund at First State, sees little point in limiting diversification and potential returns by investing in just four emerging markets and he sees Bric funds as a sales hook.Tulloch's criticism has irked Allianz and Goldman Sachs Asset Management, which have both recently launched ...

  • Britannia achieves record lending of 7bn in 2005

    23 Feb 2006

    Britannia saw mortgage lending hit record figures last year.Total lending reached 6.9bn while net lending was 2.6bn compared with 2.5bn in 2004. Profits rose by 9 per cent to 151.2m from 138.7m the previous year.More borrowers chose to stay with the society after their introductory offers ended so redemptions were lower than expected.The building society also says it is ahead of schedule in its integration of the newly acquired Bristol & West branches and savings business. ...

  • Brokers threaten to withhold Future business over service

    23 Feb 2006

    Mortgage brokers are exasperated as company struggles to sort out its customer service standards

  • Business up 25% at Bright Grey

    23 Feb 2006

    Bright Grey, the specialist protection arm of Royal London, saw a 25 per cent growth in sales last year from 17.3m to 23.1m.

  • Buy to let leaps by 47% in six months

    23 Feb 2006

    Buy-to-let lenders advanced a record total of 130,400 loans in the second half of 2005 - a rise of 39 per cent over the previous six months.Council of Mortgage Lenders' statistics show that the value of buy-to-let lending in the second half was 14.6bn, which was 47 per cent higher than in the first half.The total number of buy-to-let mortgages stood at 701, 900 at the end of the year. The market is now worth 73.4 bn and makes up 8 per cent of the total property market.During ...

  • Call centre to help catch up with chasers

    23 Feb 2006

    The Claims Standards Coun- cil is setting up an industry-funded call centre to help customers and advisers with complaints against endowment claim chasers.The CSC says it is in talks with four claims management companies, including Keypoint Endowment Claims, Brunel Franklin and Endowment Justice to fund the service.The initiative is designed to address criticism from customers who have found it very difficult to contact endowment claim chasers when looking to lodge complaints.Call ...

  • Capital Home Loans - Two Year Fixed Buy-to-Let

    23 Feb 2006

    CAPITAL HOME LOANSTwo Year Fixed Buy-to-Let

  • Checking the bill

    23 Feb 2006

    Guy Anker looks at the lobbying battle to avert threats from the new CCA

  • Class case finally starting for splits

    23 Feb 2006

    Class Law solicitors is finally mounting a class action on split-cap misselling after years of delay.The solicitor has issued a group litigation order in the High Court against 11 firms companies, including Brewin Dolphin and Gerrard, on behalf of over 75 clients.The action will focus on complaints not eligible for the FDL compensation scheme, which applies only to people who bought zeros.Class Law says customers who invested in all forms of split caps should be compensated ...

  • Climate control

    23 Feb 2006

    Lender profile Mortgage Express head of distribution Tim Sturley says fostering a spirit of co-operation is at the heart of priorities for the Intermediary Mortgage Lenders' Association

  • Cofunds could face Towry blow

    23 Feb 2006

    Cofunds could lose 5 per cent of its assets under administration if John Scott & Partners pulls Towry Law's 350m assets off the platform.JS&P's 37m acquisition of Towry Law from Henderson is scheduled for completion in early April. It operates its own platform for discretionary wealth management so the deal has fuelled speculation about a transfer of the Cofunds' cash.Cofunds spent two years developing asset allocation software with the adviser and it has been on trial for the ...

  • Correspondent's week

    23 Feb 2006

    This week by freelance personal finance corres-pondent Emma Lunn

  • Credit Suisse restructures ethical multi-manager fund

    27 Feb 2006

    Credit Suisse has re-structured the ethical multi-manager fund it bought from Artemis last May to include a fourth investment category.

  • Critical illness has taken a battering, says Defaqto

    24 Feb 2006

    The critical illness insurance industry needs to work harder to improve consumer trust and understanding, says financial research company Defaqto.

  • Davis's Discounts

    23 Feb 2006

    Aegon cuts ethical chargesAegon is offering a 3.25 per cent initial charge on its ethical equity, ethical corporate bond, global bond and high-yield bond funds until the end of April. Charges are normally between 4.5 and 5.5 per cent.

  • Death of pension legend Ron Spill

    23 Feb 2006

    Ron Spill, one of the leading figures in the pension industry, died recently at the age of 73.His career in financial services spanned over 40 years and, as pension controller and publicity manager at Legal & General, he helped set the scene for the pension debate that continues today.He spent much of his time communicating with employees, trades unions, the press and Parliament, and was the author of several publications, including Investing in Pensions and The Pension Scheme ...

  • DLP offering protection training for advisers

    23 Feb 2006

    Direct Life & Pensions has set up a programme of free protection training and development for advisers.The programme, called Learn More, Earn More, will cover the basic principles of protection, successful fact-finding, suitability letters and the use of trusts in protection planning.Sales and marketing director Richard Verdin says advisers need help on giving protection advice but no one is taking the time to train them on the benefits of particular products.He says: "This ...

  • EIS service is Aiming high

    23 Feb 2006

    Christows, the private-client stockbroker and portfolio manager, has launched an EIS portfolio service which has already generated strong interest from professional advisers.

  • F&C in warning on size-capping funds

    23 Feb 2006

    Soft-closing and size-capping are becoming increasingly common in the retail funds industry but could prove a double-edged sword for multi-managers, according to F&C.

  • February house price figures down

    28 Feb 2006

    House prices fell by 0.2 per cent in February, according to figures released today by Nationwide.

  • Fee-based business rises but clients ignore menu

    23 Feb 2006

    Fee-based transactions are increasing but customers are still ignoring the payment menu, according to Aifa's latest membership census.The proportion of customers opting to pay by fees has risen to 18 per cent from 12 per cent in Aifa's survey last August.The survey found that 90 per cent of investment business is going through IFAs or the IFA arm of hybrid advisers, that is, those offering a fee option, compared with 72 per cent in August. For protection, the figure going through ...

  • Fidelity and sympathy

    23 Feb 2006

    I have a lot of sympathy with Martin Blackie and his contretemps with Fidelity. It is a superb manager of money but unfortunately its admin leaves a lot to be desired these days. We set up the paperwork for a trustee account via solicitors and the money laundering seemed to go on for about 18 months (or rather the prevention of it). Fidelity also seems to be quite incapable of putting the income into the solicitor's client's account although we managed it in the end, largely ...

  • Fidelity International - Fidelity Funds Emerging Market Debt Fund

    22 Feb 2006

    Fidelity InternationalFidelity Funds Emerging Market Debt Fund

  • Franklin Templeton Investments - Franklin Global Real Estate Fund

    27 Feb 2006

    Franklin Templeton InvestmentsFranklin Global Real Estate Fund

  • Franklin Templeton Investments - Franklin India Fund

    28 Feb 2006

    Franklin Templeton InvestmentsFranklin India Fund

  • Franklin Templeton Investments - Franklin Mutual Global Discovery Fund

    28 Feb 2006

    Franklin Templeton InvestmentsFranklin Mutual Global Discovery Fund

  • Franklin Templeton Investments - Templeton Bric Fund

    28 Feb 2006

    Franklin Templeton InvestmentsTempleton Bric Fund

  • FSA admits system fails advisers

    23 Feb 2006

    Police refuse to investigate fraudulent complaint claim

  • FSA bans IFA in pension review case

    23 Feb 2006

    The FSA has banned IFA Jonathan Townrow for failing to pay customers compensation following the pension reviewThe regulator says that Townrow poses a severe risk to consumersFSA head of retail enforcement department Jonathan Phelan says Townrow and his firm JMTA failed to treat customers fairly in the late 1990s by not properly investigating the quality of pension advice given at the time.He also failed to pay the compensation due and later showed a "complete disregard for the regulator ...

  • FSA in constant communication with BBB

    28 Feb 2006

    The FSA says it is in constant communication with Berkeley Berry Birch regarding the firms future.FSA spokesman David Whiteley says the regulator is monitoring the very complicated situation but could not comment further on any speculation regarding the firms future.BBB had until 27 February to prove to the regulator it had plans in place to deal with its capital adequacy deficit.

  • FSA rebuts claims that FOS is violating human rights

    23 Feb 2006

    The FSA has refuted allega-tions that the Financial Omb-udsman Service is violating human rights law by failing to allow advisers accused of misselling to cross-examine their accusers.The IFA Defence Union is threatening to take the FOS to the European Court of Human Rights. It says the lack of a hearing with an opportunity for cross-examination breaches ECHR Article 6 which states that everyone is entitled to a "fair and public hearing within a reasonable time by an independent ...

  • FSA reveals IFA's details to stalker

    23 Feb 2006

    The FSA has released the address and personal details of an IFA to an aggrieved client who has been stalking him.The IFA, who worked for a Cheshire IFA firm, was being stalked by a former client he had taken to court for failing to pay fees.The court ruled in the IFA's favour but he and his family have been repeat- edly harassed by the client since the court ruling.He made threatening phone calls and posted pictures of the IFA around his hometown.The adviser felt forced ...

  • Fund for the future

    23 Feb 2006

    IFAs should use fund-based commission to build the value of their business

  • FundsNetwork rapped over wrapper

    23 Feb 2006

    FundsNetwork is being slam-med for promoting its investment bond as a flexible product while limiting investors to holding just 20 funds in the wrapper over its life.The marketing literature for the product says: "You want to ensure that tax-efficiency does not come at the expense of inv-estment flexibility - that's where the new FundsNetwork bond really scores." Yet the small print specifies the 20-fund limit.Arch financial planning dir-ector Arthur Childs says he thinks FundsNetwork ...

  • GMAC RFC - Buy to Let Mortgage Range

    24 Feb 2006

    GMAC RFCBuy to Let Mortgage Range

  • Green gauges

    23 Feb 2006

    Just as in any other sector, ethical investors must sort out the good opportunities from the bad

  • Hargreaves directs attack on Bright Grey 'gobbledegook'

    23 Feb 2006

    Discount broker offers a lesson in direct-mail marketing after protection provider sends mailout 'in error'

  • Hat's the way to do it

    23 Feb 2006

    An MM hack blagged her way into the Kaiser Chiefs' post-Brits bash and nicked a hat from what she thought was a random man to try it for size. Merrill Lynch Investment Managers is sponsoring the ATP Tour of Champions for three years. The roll call includes sporting legends such as Boris Becker, John McEnroe, Jim Courier, Goran Ivanisevic, Pat Cash and Thomas Muster. The tour culminates with The Masters Tennis at London's Royal Albert Hall in December. The deal allowed head of retail ...

  • Hen Fright

    23 Feb 2006

    Some key personalities of the financial services world went to Glasgow recently on a hen do that will go down in history.More Than PR Alison "soon to be Mrs Last" McCulloch took her 16 chicks, including Polhill's Maz "The Greatest Dancer" Scott, Lansonette Ali Merrigan and a certain MM hack up to bonny Scotland to show the city what they were made of. Between a missed flight and general abuse of the male population of Glasgow and a hell of a lot of fancy dancing, the girls certainly ...

  • Hips could be trimmed to the bone, claims Aifa

    23 Feb 2006

    Home information packs could be streamlined, with the req-uirement for property valuations the most likely element to be dropped, according to AMI director-general Chris Cummings.He says rumours are growing that the packs could be used as an environmental tool for the Government.The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has still not published a timetable for the implementation of Hips ahead of their planned launch in June 2007 and many industry sour-ces feel that they could be ...

  • HSBC account offers base rate plus 1.05%

    23 Feb 2006

    HSBC Investments is upping the ante on Bristol & West by offering a combined income and growth structured product with a higher income than its rival.HSBCI's guaranteed capital account, which is aimed at cash Isa and Tessa-only Isa investors, offers equally weighted income and growth over a five-year or six- year term.Over a six-year term, it offers Bank of England base rate plus 1.05 per cent income and 55 per cent of the growth of the FTSE 100.The growth portion is the ...

  • Huge gap between top and bottom income funds

    23 Feb 2006

    The difference between the average performance of the top and bottom five UK equ- ity income funds over the last decade is 192 percen- tage points.Over 10 years, the average total return of the top five funds in the sector was 254.6 per cent while the average of the bottom five funds was only 62.6 per cent, according to Fidelity research.Over five years, the top five funds made an average gain of 70 per cent while the bottom five funds produced an average loss of 1.2 per cent.This ...

  • 'IFAs being blinded by special sits hype'

    23 Feb 2006

    If Bolton's fund was called rabbit fund would we have loads of rabbit funds and IFAs flocking to them?'

  • Informed Choice in vodcast offer

    23 Feb 2006

    Informed Choice has laun-ched a series of vodcasts, with eight videos to explain the new pension simplifi-cation rules. They follow on from the firm's audio podcasts and can be down-loaded from its website or a podcast player.

  • Invesco's Woodford says he won't stub out tobacco stocks

    23 Feb 2006

    Invesco Perpetual income manager Neil Woodford says he is still enthusiastic about tob-acco stocks despite the Government's planned ban on smoking in public places.Woodford is one of the UK's keenest tobacco investors, holding more than 1.27bn in Reynolds American, British American Tobacco and Imperial Tobacco Group.These investments make up 17 per cent of his 5.05bn high-income fund and 15.4 per cent of his 2.7bn income fund and represent a near nine-fold overweighting of tobacco's ...

  • Journey to the core

    23 Feb 2006

    It was very interesting to see the comments in MM last week after it was announced that Coutts was going to go whole of market.

  • Keep it in the family

    23 Feb 2006

    I have been thinking about getting my financial affairs in order for some time. Frankly, I have never paid much attention to them and do not know where to start.

  • Keydata - Keydata Income VCTs 1 and 2

    26 Feb 2006

    KeydataKeydata Income VCTs 1 and 2

  • Kreis Consulting - Chrysalis VCT

    28 Feb 2006

    Kreis ConsultingChrysalis VCT

  • Lockyer resigns from BBB

    23 Feb 2006

    Cliff Lockyer has resigned as Berkeley Berry Birch group enterprise director.Lockyer was previously executive chairman and group chief executive but relinquished these roles in December 2005.He became BBB group chief executive in 2002 when the firm was formed through the reverse takeover of Berry Birch & Noble by the privately owned Berkeley Financial Services Group.Lockyer founded Berkeley Asset Management in 1982 and Berkeley Independent Associates in 1992.

  • Lump in the throat

    23 Feb 2006

    The possibility of higher tax-free cash being lost on transfers after A-Day caused concern for many clients but Winterthur Life pensions strategy manager Mike Morrison says HMRC clarification on when such transfers may still be possible has prevented a stampede to beat the deadline

  • Michael Bolton: available at 10,000 a day

    27 Feb 2006

    Former Hbos head of specialist lending Michael Bolton is offering his services as a consultant for 10,000 a day + VAT.Bolton has launched MBAC Consulting, which he describes as an independent mortgage consultancy whose expertise spans a broad range of areas including credit, underwriting, processing, products, sales, marketing and compliance.Directors Alan Cleary and John Nixon are each available at 5,000 a day + VAT.

  • MLIM looks to close special sits fund at 1bn

    23 Feb 2006

    Merrill Lynch Investment Managers' special situations manager Richard Plackett says he may close his fund at 1bn to avoid being overstretched.The 293m fund does not hold over 15 per cent of any stock he holds and Plackett has a preference for small and mid-cap stocks so he says a 1bn portfolio would let him hold 70-80 high-conviction ideas.Closing the fund at 1bn would be a stark contrast to Anthony Bolton at Fidelity, whose special situations fund continues to attract inflows ...

  • Mortgage Express claims top spot in BTL lending

    23 Feb 2006

    Mortgage Express claims it has knocked BM Solutions off the top spot for buy-to-let lending.BM Solutions had taken the crown in 2004 but Mortgage Express says it has now grabbed it back, despite customer services difficulties for which it was forced to apologise last year.BM Solutions lost managing director Michael Bolton and several senior managers who left to set up a new firm.Mortgage Express product development manager Andrew Moss says: "We are delighted to be back in ...

  • Mortgages View: Align up for profits

    23 Feb 2006

    Breaking News - mortgage intermediaries need to make money - dramatic news that the UK's mortgage brokers are interested in making profits.

  • MP shocked at regulator's refusal ratio

    23 Feb 2006

    A Tory MP has criticised the FSA's screening processes after it admitted that only 0.02 per cent of individual authorisation applications have been refused since the regulator was set up.Conservative MP for St Albans Anne Main says the figures raise serious questions about the checks which are carried out by the regu- lator before granting auth- orisation, which poten- tially pushes up fees for advisers and compensation scheme levies.Main says that she has been flooded with ...

  • Multi-manager View - Cutting to the bone

    23 Feb 2006

    Since the removal of bed and breakfasting, you are now prevented from selling a fund and buying it back within 30 days without negating the original sale.

  • Nationwide - Two Year Tracker

    23 Feb 2006

    NationwideTwo Year Tracker

  • No place to hide

    23 Feb 2006

    If you are running a trade body, you have a difficult line to tread between not being too far ahead of your members and not being left behind by them.

  • Noble Fund Managers - Sitka health VCT Top Up

    28 Feb 2006

    Noble Fund ManagersSitka health VCT Top Up

  • Norwich Union adds property fund to Isa range

    28 Feb 2006

    Norwich Union is making its 2.1bn property unit trust available to Isa and Pep investors from March 6, 2006.

  • Obsession with costs

    23 Feb 2006

    What a great Leader article in Money Marketing last week. This tells it like it is - how ministers are trying to rewrite history regarding stakeholder and their crass obsession with costs. When designing, manu-facturing and distributing a product, it is nuts to start with the cost. I am so glad that you have pointed out that Timms' challenge to the industry to match the national pension savings scheme was a pointless exercise because 0.3 per cent cannot be done, as evidenced by ...

  • Old Mutual waits until June to start compulsory purchase process

    22 Feb 2006

    Skandias new chairman has announced Old Mutual will wait until after the implementation of new Swedish legislation, expected in June, before starting the compulsory purchase of minority shares.Old Mutual now holds 89.5 per cent of shares and new chairman and Old Mutual chief executive Jim Sutcliffe informed an EGM this week that the compulsory purchase, applicable when it owns 90 per cent of shares, will have to wait until June.Sutcliffe said that in conjunction with the compulsory ...

  • Origo plays down IFAs' Unipass fears

    23 Feb 2006

    It is not right to be forced to use a certain firm to provide internet security'

  • Our questions on protection

    23 Feb 2006

    Are you confident that your customers are aware that buying direct means they do not have access to the Financial Ombudsman Service and potential compensation if they take out the wrong sort of insurance?Do you have alternative processes in place to deal with customer complaints arising from them buying life insurance from you directly and, if so, what are they?Have you taken steps to ensure that customers switching their policy to one offered by your ...

  • Overlooking the facts

    23 Feb 2006

    The article by Marianne Fitzjohn in Money Marketing may be well written but is based on a number of false premises. For example, it is all very well to describe the insurance industry as wanting to stop claims for compensation but this conveniently overlooks the fact that the industry is all but overwhelmed with claims, many of them unjustified, concocted by unregulated cowboy claim for gain firms. The term, claim management firms, as Ms Fitzjohn describes them, is rather more digni-fied ...

  • Pension planning tops the request list for IFAP

    23 Feb 2006

    Consumer demand for fin- ancial advice is growing but consumers are still not preparing for A-Day, says IFA Promotion.IFAP's latest Advice Drivers' report indicates that consumer demand for indepen- dent financial advice grew significantly last year des- pite the new breeds of adv- iser which were created by depolarisation.The organisation handled over 530,000 requests for local IFAs last year, a year- on-year increase of almost 100,000.The report, which is compiled from ...

  • Phil Wagstaff

    23 Feb 2006

    New Star managing director, sales & marketing Phil Wagstaff is back in the investment business after a gap year and he is aiming to help take an already successful company to new heights. Interview by Philip Scott

  • Pink Home Loans - BBR Minus 0.51% for 3 Years

    28 Feb 2006

    Pink home Loans BBR Minus 0.51% for 3 Years

  • Positive Solutions' levy leaps 15,000%

    23 Feb 2006

    Cost of FSCS levy is higher than firm's other overheads combined

  • Premier Cru says En Primeur 2005 tastes good

    27 Feb 2006

    Specialist wine investment firm premier Cru has launched its En Primeur list for 2005.

  • Pretenders to the throne

    23 Feb 2006

    As the splitting of Fidelity's 6bn special situations fund looms nearer, will advisers continue to recommend the fund, knowing it is set for major changes, or seek alternatives?

  • Product matters: Doel out the opps

    23 Feb 2006

    When it was announced that DWS was to be acquired by Aberdeen, the rumours about departing managers shot across the City.One departure that I had not heard predicted was that of, not only Phil Doel, but also his whole UK team. When it was announced late last year that Doel and his team were to relocate to F&C to run a replica fund to the one that he ran at DWS, there was a sigh of relief.Doel's fund might not have taken significant inflows of money but it was a welcome fund ...

  • 'Product providers are putting public at risk'

    23 Feb 2006

    Protection providers selling direct through supermarkets on a non-advised basis are putting consumers at risk, warns Lifesearch senior technical adviser Kevin Carr.MM has so far been met with a wall of silence from the providers underwriting the supermarket protection products in our attempts to assess what measures they have in place to ensure that customers know they are giving up some rights by buying direct.Next week, we will be seeking a response to our questions from Legal ...

  • Providers pouring into PTA market

    23 Feb 2006

    The pension term assurance market is hotting up and looks like being a significant protection battleground.Liverpool Victoria is the only provider to have unv-eiled its offering with a joint-life PTA policy launching on A-Day.Standard Life is releasing level and decreasing term insurance products. The firm says the products will probably not be ready for A-Day and will not be branded PTA as it wants another name to avoid any customer confusion with pension contracts.Royal ...

  • Pru WP bonus rates stay unchanged

    23 Feb 2006

    Prudential says annual bonus rates on all its with-profits policies will stay unchanged. The Prudence bond and personal pens-ions bonus rate is 3.25 per cent and the with-profits annuities rate 2.75 per cent. Mortgage endowments stand at 1 and 2 per cent.

  • RBS told it must have net service

    23 Feb 2006

    Royal Bank of Scotland has come under fire for its failure to provide an online service.The lending giant launched its four-pronged attack on the intermediary market last week, with each of the four brands focusing on specific products.But RBS Intermediary Partners does not allow brokers to submit applications online. Instead, RBS says brokers only need to use one envelope for submitting applications.Alexander Hall chief operating officer Andy Pratt says: "It is an area ...

  • Record pension sales at Skandia

    23 Feb 2006

    Skandia's sales appear unaff-ected by the Old Mutual take-over, with the firm reporting record pension sales last year.Significant growth in dem-and for pensions, offshore bonds and investments resul-ted in sales rising by 18 per cent from 499m to 608m on an earnings' premium equivalent basis, raising Skandia's assets under management to 26.7bn.Pension sales rose by 35 per cent, with growth strongest in single-premium pensions, which were up by 53 per cent. Pension transfer ...

  • Royal standard

    23 Feb 2006

    Lender profile Guy Anker looks at Royal Bank of Scotland's restructure and finds that the firm is still looking at other opportunitiesRoyal Bank of Scot-land's long-awaited restructure is in place and the lender promises further developments to generate growth. New broker arm RBS Intermediary Partners, which was launched on St Valentine's Day, sees each of its four brands taking on specific product offerings.RBS focuses on standard mortgages, First Active on remortgaging, NatWest ...

  • Sacrificial offering

    23 Feb 2006

    And now for something completely different as my next series of articles moves away from portfolio planning to hot pension and financial services- related taxation issues.

  • Schroders buys hedge fund firm

    23 Feb 2006

    Schroders is buying London fund of hedge fund provider NewFinance Capital in a move that will more than quadruple its fund of hedge fund assets.Schroders will merge its 400m fund of hedge funds business into NewFinance Capital's Opus fund range, which has 1.4bn of assets under management, creating a 1.8bn business. The acquisition will cost Schroders an initial 57.9m but this could rise to over 90m if certain performance criteria are met.The business will operate under the NewFinance ...

  • Scottish Life breaks ranks

    23 Feb 2006

    Nine out of 10 for Peter Hargreaves' trenchant views on the churning of pension plans which have been written on stakeholder-style terms, headlined, Curdle the cream to stop the churners, Money Marketing, February 9. The only thing Peter gets wrong is when he says no life company would "break ranks" and put in a "sensible commission regime". Scottish Life has already done so with our financial adviser's fee (FAF) comm-ission option (introduced in May 2003) and some others ...

  • Sense of adventure

    23 Feb 2006

    Audacious tax planning strategies should only be attempted in the knowledge of today's complex legislation

  • Sesame endorses Unipass system

    23 Feb 2006

    Sesame has endorsed Origo's Unipass digital certificate after receiving reassurance over liability for the security system.Sesame head of proposition development Chris Pitt says the network had been wary of supporting the e-commerce security system in the past because of worries involving personal liabilities of up to 15,000 for its members.But Pitt says recent work with Origo and changes to contract details have ensured that any liabilities lie with the standards body. With ...

  • Seven IM hits £1bn target in four years

    23 Feb 2006

    Since the removal of bed and breakfasting, you are now prevented from selling a fund and buying it back within 30 days without negating the original sale. This is a dilemma that faces fund managers and IFAs alike as we approach the end of the financial year.

  • Skandia finally falls into grasp of Old Mutual

    23 Feb 2006

    Skandia UK and its IFA subsidiary Bankhall have a new owner after Old Mutual fin- ally won its six-month 3.6bn takeover battle this week.At an extraordinary general meeting on Tuesday, Old Mutual announced the replacement of Skandia chief executive Hans-Erik Andersson with its own finance director Julian Roberts after winning over 89.5 per cent of Skandia's shareholders in a vote on the future ownership of the company.The changes will also see three other Old Mutual executives ...

  • Standard recruits planners from NZ

    23 Feb 2006

    Standard Life has recruited a team of around 50 specialist financial planners from New Zealand to build a savings and investments team to back its wrap platform ahead of its planned summer float.

  • Standard warning of SSAS 'black hole'

    23 Feb 2006

    There are several potential abuses and nothing can stop them after April'

  • Swip launches funds on Bigger Picture platform

    28 Feb 2006

    SWIP has made its funds available through Lifetime wrap, The Bigger Picture in the latest of a series of moves targeting retail investors.

  • T Bailey boosts Isa season commission

    23 Feb 2006

    T Bailey is marking its first Isa season on the major fund supermarket platforms by offering advisers enhanced commission of up to 4.75 per cent until the end of April.

  • Tebbutt suspicious as share price falls

    23 Feb 2006

    Millfield chief executive Paul Tebbut believes a group of people are trying to tarnish the firm's name and manipulate its share price.He has issued an internal bulletin to Millfield advisers accusing his competitors of spreading misleading rumours about the business and blaming them for the firm's share price dropping from 25p to 8p since December.He is understood to have reported the matter to the London Stock Exchange and the FSA.Tebbutt says the firm has seen repeated ...

  • Tenet favourite to acquire BIA

    27 Feb 2006

    Tenet is believed to be the frontrunner to acquire Berkeley Berry Birchs network Berkeley Independent Advisers.The deal looks set to leave out BBBs IFA firm Berry Birch &Noble Financial Planning (Weston). Money Marketing understands this firms advisers may transfer or be offered the chance to transfer to another IFA firm.Neither firm would comment on the details of any deal at time of publication on the Money Marketing website (2:30pm).

  • Tesco and Boots still silent

    23 Feb 2006

    Two months after MM put six questions to four supermarkets selling life insurance products direct, half have failed to respond.Tesco and Boots have still not answered the questions put to them, despite rep- eated requests.Sainsbury's Bank respon-ded after a month, saying it assumed that its customers would have already done sufficient independent research and have an understanding of their protection needs, including level of cover, before they make their purchase through Sainsbury's ...

  • The indian tiger

    23 Feb 2006

    India represents a huge invest-ment opportunity but, reports Nicola York, many providers, advisers and clients are reluctant to make a move into the market

  • The name's bond, investment bond

    23 Feb 2006

    One in 20 people think bonds invest in James Bond memorabilia and two-thirds of people who intend to invest over the next 12 months do not know the difference between bonds and equities, according to the latest Invesco Perpetual research.

  • The pick of the panels

    23 Feb 2006

    Adviser Fund Index editor James Teasdale explains how the adviser panellists are allocating their portfolios

  • The state of things to come?

    23 Feb 2006

    Our panel look at Government involvement in equity release and personal loans, plus direct players, Hips and threats to the packager market

  • The true test for Turner

    23 Feb 2006

    That big pink paper, the Financial Times, is backing the Turner proposals for the NPSS. In its main leader column this week, it attacks Turner's critics and says Turner has set the benchmark.

  • Thinc says BIA firms are taking a gamble

    23 Feb 2006

    Thinc Destini is targeting members of network Berkeley Independent Advisers, warning them that they are gambling with their futures by staying with the firm.Thinc Destini is writing to appointed representatives of BIA, saying that if the group fails to make good its capital adequacy deficit - estimated at around 11m - the FSA will effectively shut Berkeley Berry Birch down and all BIA members will lose their authorisation.The letter says advisers are "gambling on their future" ...

  • Third of landlords look to expand portfolios

    23 Feb 2006

    The number of landlords expanding their property portfolios has almost doubled in the last 18 months.Thirty per cent are now looking to buy further properties, according to Mortgage Trust.It research shows that landlords expect to increase their portfolios by around 14 per cent in the next year - an average of one property per landlord.Expectations about the direction of the housing market are cautiously upbeat. Eighty-three per cent of landlords predicted that prices will ...

  • Trading standards slam mortgage exit fee rises

    23 Feb 2006

    Trading standards officials have slammed lenders for increasing mortgage exit fees since the onset of regulation and hiding their charges from customers.Mortgages offered by eight of the UK's major lenders were scrutinised and all were found to have raised their fees significantly since M-Day.Trading standards departments have yet to take any action against these lenders but consumers have been warned to be wary of exit penalties.Brokers have also complained that unfair ...

  • Trivial pursuit

    23 Feb 2006

    The proposed NPSS will be unworkable unless state pensions are first overhauled

  • UK housing stock rises to 3.4tn

    23 Feb 2006

    The value of the UK's hous-ing stock has trebled in the past 10 years from 1.1tn in 1995 to 3.4tn in 2005, according to Halifax.

  • Variety is the spice of charity

    23 Feb 2006

    The 9th Variety Club Sunshine Classic Golf Tournament takes place at Wentworth in July with F&C, Capital City Media, AITC, Fairfax IS and Cayenne Asset Management all entering teams.Last year's celeb-rities included Mike Reid, Bruce Forsyth and Ronnie Corbett and raised over 60,000 for the charity.There are still spaces available so if you want to take on the firms already registered, contact David Harris on 020 7537 7489 or through the website www. sunshineclassics. co.uk.

  • VCTs pushing breaks that could disappear

    23 Feb 2006

    Keydata says that venture capital trusts staying open until after April 5 while advertising the current tax breaks risk misleading investors as the Chancellor is expected to change the tax treatment in his March Budget.It says 11 of the 41 open VCTs have closing dates after April 5. The 40 per cent tax break is expected to be revised on March 22. This means investors looking to get into the products in the next tax year may find the tax regime on these products far less attractive.VCTs ...

  • VirtualNet undercutting rivals with compliance deal for IFAs

    23 Feb 2006

    VirtualNet is set to offer compliance and support services for IFAs seeking directly authorised status at a price it claims seriously undercuts its rivals.VNDirect launches to adv- isers this month, offering core services at 1.5 per cent commission, which the firm says undercuts SimplyBiz and Berkeley Direct's 2.5 per cent levy.Head of marketing services Andrew Bedford says the firm set up a direct arm as an adviser retention tool but is now roll- ing it out to the wider market.VNDirect's ...

  • What's the big idea?

    23 Feb 2006

    The reform agenda was fraught with difficulties from the start, with arguments between then Social Security Secretary Harriet Harman and welfare reform min- ister Frank Field over the implementation of stakeholder, with Field convinced compulsion was required to make it work.Harman was quickly ship-ped out to make way for Treasury man Alistair Darling in 1998, who delayed an anticipated Green Paper to give the Government more time to think through its policies.Darling ditched ...

  • Which? has got facts wrong on ABI proposals

    23 Feb 2006

    I read Nic Cicutti's column on the current pension reform debate with interest. He asserts that "Which? has got things right far more often than the ABI". I doubt if a historical count helps either of us. We were both wrong about endowment mortgages in the mid- 1990s but one thing Which? has unequivocally wrong is what our prop- osals say. In compiling partner-ship pensions, the ABI's new model for pension saving, we employed one of the world's leading accountancy and consulting ...

  • Zurich Assurance -Sterling Distribution Fund

    24 Feb 2006

    Zurich AssuranceSterling Distribution Fund

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