Money Marketing
28 June 2006

  • ...As IMA sits on fence

    29 Jun 2006

    The Investment Management Association has failed to give its full backing to moves that could see advisers' levies subsidised by providers.Its response to the FSCS consultation, which closed last week, says it would either prefer a slight variation of the status quo or go for option D, which would widen the net with sub-classes, classes and a general pool without putting its full weight behind either outcome.It urges the FSA to issue a further discussion paper with costs included ...

  • Abbey launches four capital guaranteed bonds.

    3 Jul 2006

    Abbey has launched the latest of its capital guaranteed bonds structured products range.The four bonds will offer full return of capital at maturity and will offer investors exposure to property, and UK and Japanese equities.The four bonds are income and growth, UK equity, Japanese equity and residential property.The vehicle will close on August 25 and the minimum investment will be £3,000.

  • Aberdeen launches three charity funds

    29 Jun 2006

    Aberdeen has launched three common investment funds which have been approved by the Charity Commission.The three new funds are charity select UK bond, charity select UK equities and charity select global ex UK equity.The group has also expanded its charities team by appointing David Bailey as head of charities. Bailey was formely at Deutsche Asset Management.

  • Active approach to fixed interest

    29 Jun 2006

    Recent research carried out by Baillie Gifford found that 92 per cent of intermediaries expect actively managed bond funds to generate alpha for their clients. In addition, 83 per cent of intermediaries believe that despite the risk of higher volatility, fixed-interest portfolios should be actively managed to produce better returns. Seventy-four per cent say they recommend actively managed funds as they can perform better than their passively managed counterparts.In keeping with ...

  • Advantage becomes a lender

    3 Jul 2006

    Advantage has today announced its intention to become a sole lender by the end of the summer.

  • Alexander Hall foresees greater underwriting role for brokers

    29 Jun 2006

    Broker Alexander Hall says it is considering changing its model to take more of a lender's risk on its balance sheet.Chief operating officer Andy Pratt says brokers that need more income per deal should start thinking about working with lenders to take on more underwriting responsibility.His comments come after consultancy firm KPMG said last week that it expects "super-brokers" to emerge in the non-conforming UK market, underwriting loans but passing them on to lenders' balance ...

  • Alliance trusts in merger

    29 Jun 2006

    The Alliance Trust and Second Alliance Trust have merged to create the biggest generalist investment trust in the UK with 2.5bn in assets.The merged trust - which becomes simply Alliance Trust plc - will also own 100 per cent of Alliance Trust Savings, which provides Sipps and other tax wrappers.Historically, the trusts have been run as two separate companies but the shareholders and management decided that, with portfolios that were similar and with similar aims, it was more ...

  • Alpha to Omega urges for FOS option H

    3 Jul 2006

    IFA network Alpha to Omega is standing up for option H as the preferred option for changes to the way the Financial Ombudsman Service is funded.

  • Alternatives lined up for globally-adverse investors

    29 Jun 2006

    Bestinvest is recommending six alternative funds to investors who are concerned about having global exposure when Fidelity splits its special situations fund in half.Head of communications Justin Modray says the threat of large-scale redemptions potentially hindering Jorma Korhonen's running of the global portfolio is also worrying some investors.Modray picks out Merrill Lynch and Artemis's UK special situations funds and Nigel Thomas's Axa Framlington UK select opportunities ...

  • AMI publishes PTA factsheet

    29 Jun 2006

    The Association of Mortgage Intermediaries has released a factsheet to inform members about pension term assurance. It is designed to educate advisers about opportunities which have arisen from A-Day.

  • Aviva policyholder advocate gets the ball rolling

    4 Jul 2006

    Aviva's policyholder advocate Clare Spottiswoode has started to lay down foundations for the possible reattribution of the inherited estate of two with-profits funds.

  • B&B compensation claims increase

    29 Jun 2006

    Bradford & Bingley has revealed it will have to set aside more funds to cover an increase in endowment and investment compensation claims. It says the volume of claims has increased, reversing the downward trend in the second half of 2005.

  • Bankhall invests in telephony and member support systems

    29 Jun 2006

    Bankhall has introduced a new telephony system and a new member contact team for advisers using its services.

  • Beddall takes interim role for Credit Suisse sales

    29 Jun 2006

    Credit Suisse Asset Management has appointed James Beddall as interim head of UK sales after the sudden departures of Ian Chimes and Mark Thomas this month.Beddall is European third-party distribution director at the group and Credit Suisse is still looking to appoint long-term successors to replace managing director Chimes and UK retail sales director Thomas, who both departed after 13 years at the company.Hargreaves Lansdown head of research Mark Dampier criticised the way ...

  • Birth of a notion

    29 Jun 2006

    What are European countries doing to address falling birth rates?

  • Bolton has overseer's role

    29 Jun 2006

    Anthony Bolton will have the final say on stock selection in the Fidelity global special situations fund in the first three months.Manager-elect Jorma Korhonen says the pair will work together from September to reshape the fund to fits its new global mandate.Korhonen will take the reins in January while Bolton remains in charge of the UK portion of the fund until he steps down at the end of 2007.Korhonen says: "I expect to have substantial input into the new ideas but Anthony ...

  • Brown appointed head of global equity research at ABN AMRO

    4 Jul 2006

    Ella Brown has been hired for the newly created role of global head of equity research at ABN AMRO Asset Management.Brown joins the group from Credit Suisse Asset Management where she spent the last five years heading up the European equity team.She previously spent eight years at JP Morgan Investment Management where she was a technology analyst before becoming a portfolio manager.

  • Bryant to return in non-executive role

    29 Jun 2006

    Former Sesame director Charles Bryant is returning to the IFA market after taking a non-executive director role at adviser firm LEBC Group.He joined the board last week but this will not affect his role as a director of Deutsche Bank's European technology group, which he joined in November 2005.Bryant is well known to the LEBC Group, having worked with its management team on a consultancy basis when it was set up six years ago. The firm's launch was partially funded by Misys ...

  • Cable calls for cash healthchecks

    29 Jun 2006

    LibDem Shadow Chancellor Vince Cable has called for Government and industry to create national independent advice centres to provide financial healthchecks with a fixed period of free advice followed by a standard fee.

  • Cameron heads Hip opposition

    29 Jun 2006

    Tory leader David Cameron is heading his party's opposition to home information packs by tabling an early day motion calling for the scheme to be scrapped.

  • Capita on the trail of the 'holy grail'

    29 Jun 2006

    New aggregated platform service aims for straight-through processing

  • Charles Stanley retreating from Asia Pacific leaders

    29 Jun 2006

    Charles Stanley's Oeic fund of funds has sold out of star manager Angus Tulloch's First State Asia Pacific leaders fund because it has failed to measure up to the performance of the First State Asia Pacific fund.

  • Chelsea launches ex-pat deal

    3 Jul 2006

    Chelsea Building has launched a new buy to let product for ex-pats, available through Savills Private Finance.

  • CML defends decision to withhold data

    29 Jun 2006

    AMI says lenders are hiding behind Data Protection Act

  • CML snub for advisers...

    29 Jun 2006

    The Council of Mortgage Lenders has come under attack from advisers after it claimed its members should not contribute to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.It says it favours option A in the FSCS funding review, with no cross-subsidy between each class. This conflicts with Aifa and the FSA's preference for option B.The CML argues its members should not contribute because it says it is highly unlikely that lenders, including banks, would fall into liability.It says: ...

  • Correspondent's week

    29 Jun 2006

    This week by freelance journalist Paula Hawkins

  • Costas del buoyant

    29 Jun 2006

    Overseas property The popularity of the Spanish Costas continues to rise among Britons and Scottish Widows head of product development and marketing Murdo McHardy sets out the gain and possible pain of buying in Spain

  • Coventry reveals new CEO

    3 Jul 2006

    Coventry Building Society has appointed David Stewart as its new chief executive.

  • Credit Suisse To Lose Another From its Sales Force

    28 Jun 2006

    Credit Suisse is losing another member from its retail team with London sales director Glenn Stephens announcing he is to leave the firm after five years with the group.

  • Crown jewels

    29 Jun 2006

    Home reversion plans have become more popular as people live longer and many find themselves with insufficient pension income.

  • Dampier picks his top three fund stars

    29 Jun 2006

    Hargreaves Lansdown head of research Mark Dampier is joining Money Marketing as a columnist next week and, as a taster, has named his top three fund managers.Invesco Perpetual's Neil Woodford is his favourite, with Dampier citing Woodford's ability to adapt his investment style over the long term as his portfolios have grown bigger and still deliver strong investor returns as the primary reason for his choice.Woodford manages a total of 8.6bn across his Invesco Perpetual high ...

  • Dawn of a new era

    29 Jun 2006

    Comments by the Paymaster General reveal the Government's thinking on the trust regime

  • db mortgages appoints 2 new BDMs

    30 Jun 2006

    db mortgages has appointed two new business development managers to cover the East Midlands and South Wales areas.

  • DB Mortgages continues packager roll out

    4 Jul 2006

    DB mortgages is commencing its broader rollout to packagers by increasing distribution from three to twenty firms.

  • Defaqto to launch wrap tool

    3 Jul 2006

    Defaqto is to launch a new wrap research tool on its Aequos Online database.The tool allows advisers to assess the tax wrappers, tradeable asset types, investment tools and reporting capabilities offered by wrap providers with a sifting functionality to identify the wrap most suited to individual client needs.The product will be launched in mid-July and comes after last weeks warning from the FSA about the risk to consumers because of various complexities of some wrap propositions.Defaqto ...

  • Derbyshire in direct-to-broker move

    29 Jun 2006

    Packagers could be further marginalised after Derbyshire Building Society's specialist lender Salt launched a direct-to-broker channel.The service, offered through Premier Mortgage Service and Mortgage Promotions, replaces the previous offering that was only available through packagers. It will be available online, with decisions in principle and application facilities.Two weeks ago, the Council of Mortgage Lenders came out in support of packagers after debate raging over their ...

  • Dirty laundry

    29 Jun 2006

    Speaking at the FSA retail intermediaries sector conference in Coventry, Davy said: "I have yet to see a multi-tie operation that has provided an improved service for customers.

  • Double jeopardy

    29 Jun 2006

    Nicola York finds that Mark Chilton thinks the future is bleak for mortgage networks

  • Ex Liverpool Victoria chief executive joins LECG

    3 Jul 2006

    Malcolm Berryman has left Liverpool Victoria as its group chief executive to join global services firm LECG.This follows the appointment of Mark Winlow as financial services director, who joined from Zurich where he was the managing director of UK personal insurance business.Berryman was group ceo for six years and joins LECG as an affiliate. Within financial services, LECG has recently been involved in the final salary transfer market.

  • Fixed foundations

    29 Jun 2006

    Our panel ponder the potential perils of interest-only mortgages and the prospects for fixed-rate homeloans

  • Fowl play

    29 Jun 2006

    As the chickens come home to roost, schemes mustn't be allowed to throttle them

  • Friends Provident group chief exec to retire

    28 Jun 2006

    Friends Provident group chief executive Keith Satchell, has given notice he will retire from the company within the first half of next year.

  • FSA approves TMP purchase of Millfield for £10.5m

    4 Jul 2006

    The Money Portal has successfully purchased Sage and Millfield Partnership Limited for a gross aggregate of £10.5m.

  • FSA fines broker for system failings

    29 Jun 2006

    The FSA has fined independent mortgage broker Rainbow Homeloans 35,000 for system and control failings which it claims exposed around 1,000 people to the risk of being sold unsuitable products.

  • FSA is put on par with bank's independence

    29 Jun 2006

    Treasury Economic Secretary Balls hails establishment of regulator as significant reform

  • FSA says mortgage disclosure improving

    29 Jun 2006

    The quality of mortgage disclosure documentation has improved over the past year, the Financial Services Authority has found.

  • FSA uncovers further PPI problems

    30 Jun 2006

    The FSA has uncovered two new concerns as part of its investigation into the payment protection insurance market.

  • FSA warns of potential wrap risk to consumers

    28 Jun 2006

    The FSA has issued a warning about complexity of wrap charging structures, transparency of product costs and difficulty in re-registration for certain platforms.

  • FSA will investigate interest-only loans

    29 Jun 2006

    Regulator concerned that clients are not told repayment vehicle is needed

  • Fund of knowledge

    29 Jun 2006

    Experience and the ability to stand up to downturns are the keys to picking good fund managers, says Hargreaves Lansdown head of research Mark Dampier, as he names his personal top three. Interview by Philip Scott

  • Gale-force blast for multi-tie critics

    29 Jun 2006

    Sesame chief executive Patrick Gale has hit back at critics of multi-tied advice, accusing them of living in the past and taking an "incredibly blinkered view" of the market.Last week Simply Biz chairman Ken Davy criticised multi-tied advisers for selling "dirty" products and chasing higher commissions while pretending to offer more choice.But Gale has accused Davy and other critics of "burying their heads in the sand" and failing to embrace the opportunities offered by depolarisation.He ...

  • Gathering nuts after May

    29 Jun 2006

    After the events of the last month, it may be time to get back to basics in stockpicking

  • Government resists Euro credit regime

    29 Jun 2006

    The Government is pressing for mortgages to be excluded from the consumer credit directive and will resist European proposals it considers damaging to the industry, says Treasury Economic Secretary Ed Balls.Speaking at a Bloomberg event in London, Balls said the work the Government is conducting on the directive is a good example of how the Government is sticking up for the industry in Europe.He said the Government will work closely with its European partners to influence arguments ...

  • Hanbury leaves Investec

    29 Jun 2006

    Investec's star UK smaller companies manager Daniel Hanbury is leaving the firm to become a partner in boutique fund house River & Mercantile.

  • HBOS revival brings boost for brokers

    29 Jun 2006

    The revival at HBOS is boosting business volumes for brokers, says Hamptons International Mortgages managing director Kevin Duffy.HBOS says the amount of business completed by its intermediary brands has risen this year. BM Solutions had a record month in May, seeing 1.1bn in gross buy-to-let applications.BM says Tuesday, May 9 saw the highest number of applications ever submitted to it in a 24-hour period.The Mortgage Business received nearly 600m in gross applications ...

  • Hillier warns on capital adequacy

    29 Jun 2006

    Consumers could turn their backs on equity release if rates rocket due to Draconian capital-adequacy requirements, warns Mortgage Express product manager Roger Hillier.Industry commentators fear that under the Basel II directive, equity release may be considered an investment product rather than a residential mortgage product, meaning the amounts placed in reserve would have to be increased.The FSA says if that happens, the capital weighting would be set at 100 per cent instead ...

  • Hips could hit the national economy

    29 Jun 2006

    Home information packs could have a devastating effect on the country's economy, according to independent research released this week.In a worst-case scenario, the report by Oxford Economic Forecasting predicts that if the housing market drops by 25 per cent in the first year after Hips, GDP could plummet by 5.7bn and unemployment could rise by 93,000.The Government insists it is on course to implement the Hip regime on June 1, 2007.Lender GMAC-RFC, which commissioned the ...

  • HL cautious fund takes £1.3m in first month

    29 Jun 2006

    The latest addition to Hargreaves Lansdown's multi-manager fund range has attracted £1.3m in its first month since launch.

  • IFA aiming to raise 3.6m for environmental homes

    29 Jun 2006

    Environmentalist IFA Holden & Partners is looking to raise 3.64m for residential property company Lifehaus which is aiming to develop low-carbon-emission homes.Lifehaus says it is aiming to deliver commercial returns to shareholders while reducing the environmental imp-act of residential building through a reduction in car-bon emissions.Chief executive Peter Holden, who founded the firm, says the scheme will look to build traditional-style houses using environmentally responsible ...

  • IMA moves to dispel 'secrecy culture myth'

    29 Jun 2006

    The Investment Management Association says it can explode the myth put about by the TUC that a "culture of secrecy" surrounds fund managers' relations with firms they invest in.The IMA is fighting Government moves to for compulsory disclosure of how fund managers engage with firms and vote at AGMs.A clause in the Company Law Reform Bill, which is going through Parliament, was struck out by the House of Lords in May but the Government intends to reintroduce the clause at the ...

  • IMA survey shows large rise in assets under management

    4 Jul 2006

    UK assets under management rose from £2.16tn to £2.8tn in the last year, according to the Investment Management Association’s annual survey.Retail products represent £530bn of the figure with UK authorised unit trusts and OEICs accounting for around 65 per cent of this amount.The IMA estimates that taking into account hedge funds, private equity and other assets managed by non IMA members more than £3tn of assets are now managed in the UK.IMA chief executive Richard Saunders ...

  • Insurer's appeal is as takeover target, says de Blonay

    29 Jun 2006

    New Star global financials fund manager Guy de Blonay says Standard Life's main appeal to investors will be as a potential takeover target.He says this, coupled with the downward revision of Standard's expected share price, has made the life office a much more interesting potential shareholding.Standard Life initially had a target price range of 240p to 290p but revised that to 210p to 270p last week.De Blonay says, within the 210 to 270p range, Standard Life will be trading ...

  • Investment management sector faces enormous challenges, says PwC

    3 Jul 2006

    The investment management sector will face huge challenges in performance, distribution and the recruitment and retention of talent over the next few years, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.

  • Investment View: Egg hunt

    29 Jun 2006

    Markets remain tricky and investors continue to jump both ways at every bit of news. The world appears divided between those who consider the shake-out to have run its course, with buying opportunities abound-ing, and those who think the unsettled nature presages more problems ahead.

  • 'Keep tax changes in context'

    29 Jun 2006

    Advisers should not get carried away by the changes to trust taxation, according to Standard Life estate planning specialist Julie Hutchison.She believes that advisers should not be too concerned by the changes as she estimates that only 10 to 20 per cent of gifts to trusts will sit above the 2006 nil-rate band of 285,000.Only a small number of trusts will therefore be hit with the 20 per cent gift tax on entry, 6 per cent periodic tax every 10 years and the exit charge.Skandia ...

  • Korhonen is ready to run 'dream mandate'

    29 Jun 2006

    Fidelity global special situations manager-elect Jorma Korhonen stresses that he will bring his own unique style to the fund although he is a contrarian like Anthony Bolton.Fidelity has insisted that Korhonen's style of stockbringing will bring continuity to its special sits fund when it is split into UK and global portfolios in September but Korhonen says there are key differences between the two men.He says: "Anthony puts himself as a classic value investor looking for unappreciated ...

  • Law firm warns of PPI problems

    29 Jun 2006

    Payment protection insurance is likely to be the first major misselling scandal since the introduction of general insurance regulation, warns law firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain.Partner Jonathan Davies says PPI is unnecessary cover fro many people and a high percentage of clients find they are ineligible to claim because they are self-employed or have a pre-existing medical condition.He says sales processes are flawed because those selling PPI often do not prompt customers ...

  • Lenders pledge support to Hips

    29 Jun 2006

    The Council of Mortgage Lenders has revealed that lenders are generally supportive of Home information Packs.

  • Lessons learnt from Millfield

    29 Jun 2006

    Millfield advisers look to have been thrown a lifeline after The Money Portal agreed to buy the MLP and Sage Financial Services arms of the business this week.While this is good news for the advisers, TMP needs to demonstrate how it can take the business forward, after chief executive Alan Easter last week admitted that its business model is broken.TMP has changed tack from its early days hoovering up discount brokers and, after acquiring Bates in 2003 and Weston from Berkeley ...

  • Life Policies Direct gets a new name

    29 Jun 2006

    Life Policies Direct has been renamed Torquil Clark Life Insurance, heralding the final stages of its integration into Torquil Clark which bought the firm in December 2004. It says there will be no change to strategy or systems.

  • Long-term letting

    29 Jun 2006

    Buy to let BM Solutions head of sales and marketing Chris Pearson says BTL landlords have continuing confidence in property

  • Look back in anger

    29 Jun 2006

    Can advisers be sure the FSA really means it this time when it says it will not take retrospective action again?

  • Making a difference

    29 Jun 2006

    Business strategy Mortgage Intelligence managing director Sally Laker says instead of trying to cover the whole market, intermediaries could instead carve out their own niche with the emphasis on being unique and offering something different from the pack

  • MEP says regulator passed the buck on Equitable Life

    29 Jun 2006

    Leading FSA and Treasury officials have been accused of "benign complacency" over the problems at Equitable Life.Conservative MEPs' deputy leader Sir Robert Atkins, a member of the European Parliament committee looking into the mutual's problems, claims that FSA director for the insurance sector David Strachan and Treasury director for financial services policy Clive Maxwell were more interested in passing the buck and avoiding responsibility than helping with its inquiry.Maxwell ...

  • Midas breaks with tradition

    29 Jun 2006

    Fund manager seeks new opportunities as strategies become more crowded

  • Millfield lost 1m a month

    29 Jun 2006

    Millfield has been losing around 1m a month since it floated in 2001, according to its last set of results.The last set of interim results for the year ending September 2005 showed losses of 54.12m since the adviser firm was floated on the Alternative Investment Market in March 2001, working out at 0.97m a month.The firm then released a warning in March this year that it would not be reporting an operating profit from the third quarter of 2005/06 due to low trading in December.Shareholders ...

  • Mixed blessings

    29 Jun 2006

    Jorma Korhonen faces a difficult task but who would turn it down?

  • Money Portal last-ditch deal for Millfield

    29 Jun 2006

    We have conducted a thorough assessment and the structures seem sound'

  • Moret warns of Sipp regulation overkill

    29 Jun 2006

    Suffolk Life will shortly unveil its new online proposition to advisers, says director of sales and marketing John Moret.At a Suffolk Life and Gerrard joint Sipp seminar in London last week, Moret revealed the new deal will include a live valuation service and eventually move on to live transactions.Once this is available, Moret says there will be portal access to fund supermarkets and a share dealing service. Suffolk Life's current online capability allows access to around ...

  • MPs calling for councils to clamp down on buy to let

    29 Jun 2006

    The level of buy-to-let investment is distorting the housing market in some areas and jeopardising the Government's plans to provide more affordable housing, say MPs.A committee report on affordability and the supply of housing from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has criticised the amount of buy-to-let investment in many towns and city centres for excluding the local population from homeownership.The report calls for local authorities to take account of the potential ...

  • Multi-manager View: Looking to the east

    29 Jun 2006

    Ivorian government bonds, Chinese wind farms, Montenegrin apartment blocks and gemstones from Mount Kilimanjaro.

  • 'Need for flexibility will rule out NPSS for many'

    29 Jun 2006

    The Citizens Advice Bureau has provided the work and pensions select committee with an extensive list of those who should consider opting out of the national pension savings scheme.CAB director of policy Teresa Perchard told MPs that people with young families, people in the South-east with high mortgage costs and people with caring responsibilities should be added to the traditional list of those who should consider opting out.Perchard said the industry has focused on recent ...

  • Net gains

    29 Jun 2006

    The Adviser E-Enquiry initiative aimed to help 100 firms adopt e-commerce in its first year but exceeded its target sixfold. Project director Nicola Mitchell describes how one-to-one support helped advisers to overcome their negative perceptions of ecommerce, with providers seeing dramatic increases in business

  • Network sales on the slide

    29 Jun 2006

    Product providers expect support service companies to grow by a third over next three years

  • New society

    29 Jun 2006

    Lender profile Guy Anker reports on Nationwide's three-year plan to raise service standards for intermediaries

  • New tracker from SocGen

    29 Jun 2006

    SocGen is offering a 10-year capital protected multi-asset tracker which will list on the London stock exchange on June 30.

  • No gain without pain?

    29 Jun 2006

    We may all have to accept some sacrifices to protect pension funds

  • Non-Ship lenders hit by PI insurers' ban

    29 Jun 2006

    Equity-release providers that are not part of Safe Home Income Plans could be losing out on business because professional indemnity insurers are forbidding brokers from dealing with non-Ship firms.Retirement Plus became the 20th member of the equity-release trade body when it joined this month. Managing director Duncan Young says one of its reasons for joining Ship was brokers telling him they are not allowed to deal with non-Ship members by their professional indemnity insurers.Young ...

  • NU tells customers of possible payouts

    29 Jun 2006

    Norwich Union has written to its with-profits customers telling them that they may be eligible for payouts if NU is able to reattribute its with-profits funds' orphan assets estates, in a bid to encourage them not to cash in policies.

  • Obliteration of class

    29 Jun 2006

    Many years ago, I was invited to attend a conference in Oxford by the Institute of Financial Planning.

  • Origo says it will be welcomed into mortgages

    30 Jun 2006

    The majority of mortgage advisers would welcome Origos entry into the mortgage sector, according to research from the standards body.

  • Over-regulation is top of banking mishaps, says CSFI & PwC

    28 Jun 2006

    Regulatory overkill has been voted the greatest risk facing the financial sector for the second year running by the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation's Banking Banana Skins survey in association with PricewaterhouseCoopers.

  • Package up your troubles

    29 Jun 2006

    Many industry commentators predicted that packagers would disappear in the regulated world but it is becoming clear that new roles are emerging and the successful players will be those that refocus their activities to take advantage of this.

  • Packager plea for regulation

    29 Jun 2006

    Packager EM Financial wants the FSA to regulate its sector of the mortgage market.EM business development director Guy Garrard insists it makes no sense that lenders and brokers are regulated but not packagers, who link the two in the chain.The FSA says it is not its decision to make and it is up to the Treasury.Garrard says: "We need to be regulated to make sure business transacted is done correctly. The main reason we are not regulated is the FSA does not understand what ...

  • Panel bids to axe commission

    29 Jun 2006

    The financial services consumer panel is mounting a bid to scrap commission and replace it with a payment system to eradicate product bias.Panel chairman John Howard says it has begun talks with lobbying and industry groups and aims to present the FSA with an alternative payment system by April 2007.He says a preferred option would be a system of factory-gate pricing where the cost of the advice is explained to the customer at the outset but factored into the price of the product ...

  • Panel says FSA failing to protect consumers

    29 Jun 2006

    Warning that with-profits and self-cert products still pose major risk

  • Parliament gets to vote on pensions

    29 Jun 2006

    The Government this week gave Parliament the chance to vote on its Pensions White Paper proposals as a way of securing early consensus, although the Tories say it must revisit public sector issues and the Parliamentary Ombudsman's recent report into Government maladministration of occupational schemes.

  • Paying retention

    29 Jun 2006

    Nicola York looks at the controversial subject of lenders offering retention fees to brokers for keeping a client with them

  • Pension plight is being ignored

    29 Jun 2006

    The Government is unfit to oversee pension reforms if it cannot understand the injustice of its treatment of workers whose schemes went bust before 2004, says former Treasury adviser Ros Altmann.Speaking at a meeting of the public administration committee, Altmann told MPs there was clear evidence that the Government misled Parliament in its calculations of how much it would cost to compensate workers and was not taking the issue seriously enough.She said the recent increase ...

  • PIMA warns of risk to Standard Life bonus shares

    3 Jul 2006

    Investors risk forfeiting their Standard Life bonus shares if they move shares following demutualisation into an Isa according to PIMA.

  • Political row flares over Hip research

    29 Jun 2006

    The Tories say the Government's Hip proposals are "half-baked and dangerous new regulation" and should be scrapped.Oxford Economic Forecasting research says Hips will cause higher unemployment and lower economic growth. Conservative Shadow minister of housing and planning Michael Gove says this further unravels the case for Hips.Gove says: "It is not too late for the Chancellor to intervene and force the Government to abandon John Prescott's legacy of half-baked and dangerous ...

  • Portal building scale with Sage purchase

    29 Jun 2006

    The Money Portal's purchase of a second IFA network business firmly establishes it as an aggressively acquisitive firm and a serious player in that market.It reflects the firm's aim to diversify from the discount broker and specialist investment businesses where it first rose to prominence as a consolidator.The acquisition of Millfield national Sage follows its purchase of Berkeley Berry Birch network Weston and its 70 advisers in March and cements it as a prominent player by ...

  • Pos Sol voices Sipp regulation concerns

    4 Jul 2006

    The future regulation of Sipps has given rise to concerns over the security of customers' assets according to Positive Solutions.

  • Power play

    29 Jun 2006

    A Money Marketing staffer who spurned several generous corporate offers to watch the England versus Sweden game, preferring to rush home, came a cropper.A power cut that knocked out an entire block in Hammersmith meant that he missed the first two goals of the match.The irony of EDF power sponsoring ITV's coverage of the match was not lost.r Threadneedle raised around 3,000 by auctioning football memorabilia at its event for advisers and hacks at the England v Sweden match last ...

  • Product matters: Upside options

    29 Jun 2006

    On the surface, the Morley global balanced income fund sounds attractive.The target income is the higher of 7 per cent a year or the Bank of England base rate plus 2.5 per cent, which, coupled with the equity and fixed interest exposure, should help keep excessive volatility at bay.The managers boost the natural equity and fixed-interest income by selling away some of the potential upside on the fund via options. By writing covered call options on 50-100 per cent of the fund, ...

  • Protection relaunch was failure

    29 Jun 2006

    Standard Life UK life and pensions chief executive Trevor Matthews admits the firm failed in its bid to relaunch into the protection market last year and has been forced to cut back on its aims.Matthews says he is now committed to bringing its performance in the protection market back up to par.Results for 2005 showed that protection sales fell by 57 per cent to 6m. The firm cited the slowing housing market and strong price competition as major contributing factors to the fall.Matthews ...

  • Protective instincts

    29 Jun 2006

    At long last, CP06/8 sets out FSA proposals to extend the consumer protection provided by a regulated regime into home-reversion plans and Ijara home financing arrangements.

  • Pru covers 140 conditions

    29 Jun 2006

    Prudential says its flexible protection plan will offer payouts on 140 conditions, compared with 36 on the average critical-illness policy.Each condition covered by the plan, which launches next month, is graded on six levels of severity, paying out 10 per cent, 15 per cent, 25 per cent, 50 per cent, 75 per cent and 100 per cent of the claim, respectively.If severity in the same or a different condition increases, the plan pays out again. An option to reinstate the full cover ...

  • Regulator sets date for further sub-prime investigations

    28 Jun 2006

    The FSA will begin its next investigation into the sub-prime mortgage market in September. FSA spokesman Robin Gordon-Walker confirms it will begin thematic work at that time as a follow-up to its work in the sector which ended in September last year.

  • Resolution hires institutional sales head

    30 Jun 2006

    Resolution Asset Management has appointed Gary Walker to the newly created position of director of its institutional sales team.Walker was previously at M&G and Fidelity, and was most recently director of European sales and marketing at GE Asset Management.Walker will report to Resolution sales and marketing director Jonathan Polin.

  • Retention rates cut by network

    29 Jun 2006

    Burns-Anderson has reduced its retention rates for members by an average of 11 per cent for bigger firms.The network says costs for advisers is growing with increases to fees for the Financial Ombudsman Service and Financial Services Compensation Scheme.It has reduced the amount of turnover a firm needs to make over 300,000 to qualify for a lower fee. Now firms with turnover between 300,000 and 499,999 pay 8 per cent. Under the previous system, firms with turnover of 250,000 ...

  • Return to settlor

    29 Jun 2006

    Improved clarity on the Budget trust changes is giving advisers the confidence to re-enter the market

  • Ritchie is new head of Faculty of Actuaries

    29 Jun 2006

    Stewart Ritchie has taken over as president of the Faculty of Actuaries for a two-year term. He says the major challenges facing the organisation will be reshaping the profession in the wake of the Morris review and handling the ceding of responsibility for technical standards to the Financial Reporting Council.

  • Sanlam rebranded Punter Southall Group

    4 Jul 2006

    Sanlam Financial Services will now be known as Punter Southall Group.

  • Scottish Equitable Protect introduces option on PTA

    28 Jun 2006

    Scottish Equitable Protect has introduced the option of replacing its life protection with tax relief policy with a term assurance policy under certain circumstances.

  • Service break

    29 Jun 2006

    A true financial planning service could prove of real worth to anyone taking time out from their job

  • Sesame adds four to mortgage panel

    29 Jun 2006

    Sesame has added four lenders to its Mortgage Select panel. Alliance & Leicester, Cheltenham & Gloucester, Coventry and Nationwide will bring the number to 20 lenders.

  • Sesame looks at specialist qualification for IHT

    29 Jun 2006

    Sesame is investigating the need for a specialist inheritance tax planning qualification to address the polarisation of adviser competence in tax planning.Key industry figures agree that tax advice will become more sophisticated as advisers become split between those that specialise in estate planning and those that avoid it altogether.Sesame head of research Mark Peters says: "I think there are many advisers out there that will think the previous regime is complicated enough ...

  • Share market

    29 Jun 2006

    Shared equity Amanda Newman analyses the shared-ownership sector and finds that although it offers hope for first-time buyers, there are disadvantages

  • Ship's exam demand wins industry praise

    29 Jun 2006

    Safe Home Income Plans' decision to accept business only from advisers who hold a suitable qualification has been hailed as a massive boost for the equity-release industry.Experts believe it will benefit the industry and improve its reputation although the ruling will not come into effect until August 2007, so advisers who are not suitably qualified have more than a year to get trained.The estimated 600 advisers without a qualification will now have to sit lifetime mortgage ...

  • Skandia adds two new trusts to its range

    29 Jun 2006

    Skandia has added two new trusts to its range - a discretionary trust and an absolute trust.

  • Skandia must review structured funds

    29 Jun 2006

    Skandia will have to write to several thousand investors in four structured products linked to the performance of Fidelity special situations and other funds.Between 2003 and 2004, Skandia launched four tranches of its protected portfolio investment product, which attracted tens of millions of pounds by offering returns linked to five funds, including Fidelity special sits, with a capital guarantee.The capital guarantee was underwritten by Morgan Stanley. However, the forthcoming ...

  • Special reference

    29 Jun 2006

    Jorma Korhonen, increasingly one of the UK's better known fund managers after last week's events, is to take over one half of Fidelity's special sits and make it a global fund. Given that the reference is from Anthony Bolton, we think the market should give him a chance and that means more than judging his very short-term performance. We wish him well.

  • Split decisions

    29 Jun 2006

    The unveiling of Jorma Korhonen as the manager of Fidelity's new global special sits mandate has still left many questions unanswered, says Matt Goodburn

  • Standard Life focusing on at-retirement

    29 Jun 2006

    Standard Life will be concentrating on the at-retirement market in the next six months in a bid to offer a complete package for IFAs and clients.UK life and pensions chief executive Trevor Matthews says the firm will invest heavily in technology to drive business.He says there is a significant market in annuities and drawdown, with Standard looking closely at the area of unsecured pensions and hoping to have its plans complete by the end of the year.He says: "The next thing ...

  • Standard warns against blanket approach to WP

    29 Jun 2006

    Standard Life has produced a guide to help advisers analyse the potential future performance of clients' with-profits policies.The guide, produced in association with AKG, says falling bonus rates and market value reductions are insufficient reasons for switching a client's policy. It says advisers should look at individual investors' attitude to risk and whether the underlying assets are likely to deliver a good return.Standard is continuing to promote with-profits investments, ...

  • Strangers on the offshore

    29 Jun 2006

    The UK insurance industry must do more to protect consumers against the risks of buying cover from offshore providers, says britishinsurance.com managing director Simon Burgess

  • Streamline the menu

    29 Jun 2006

    I was disappointed that in your article of June 15 (Banks to use Mifid to opt out of menu) you stated that the British Bankers Association was not available for comment. This was not the case. We were happy to respond but, having left a message requesting a call back from the journalist concerned, none was forthcoming.With regard to banks lobbying to scrap the menu document, the heart of the current menu debate is about where the balance should be struck between FSA principles ...

  • The bountiful game

    29 Jun 2006

    Over the years, we have learned where many Money Marketing columnists' football allegiances lie. A starter for 10. Which team does Tony Wickenden support? And what about Robert Reid? My own proclivities will be obvious if you have met me as I was born and bred in Liverpool and have been a Red ever since. You may well say, thank goodness, with the likes of Stevie Gerrard and Jamie Carragher in the England team for the World Cup. It is obvious on a world stage that they are best of breed.My ...

  • The rights stuff

    29 Jun 2006

    In my last few articles, I have discussed the treatment of pension rights in divorce proceedings, highlighting areas which might not be immediately apparent to divorce lawyers and the courts regarding the valuation of pension rights.

  • These are a few of our favourite Finns

    29 Jun 2006

    As a way of welcoming Fidelity's Jorma Korhonen to the big time and atoning for the media at large's tendentious description of the new global special sits manager as a little-known Finn, Money Marketing is proud to present a gallery of a few of those fine folk who have made Finland great. This is just a small selection of fine Finns and if you have any nominations for the Finnish Hall of Fame, please send them to the Diary.Millfield director of strategy Brian Clements. Hargreaves ...

  • This week in Investment

    30 Jun 2006

    These are testing times for Credit Suisse. Managing director Ian Chimes's departure after thirteen years at the group followed hot on the heals of his long standing colleague Mark Thomas who left for River and Mercantile earlier in the month.

  • This week in Politics

    29 Jun 2006

    Arguments around the imbalance between public and private sector pensions continued to trundle along this week with plans announced by Cabinet Office minister Hilary Armstrong to raise the costs of civil servants pensions.

  • This week in Protection

    3 Jul 2006

    Last week saw the launch of what claims to be a 'revolutionary' product in the protection world Prudential's serious illness cover. The product has been hailed for its innovation and simplistic approach to staged payouts of cover and introducing a menu-style option for options.

  • Tick boxes cannot tell whole story of regulatory injustice

    29 Jun 2006

    Open letter to financial services practitioner panel chairman Roy Leighton

  • Tim Eadon

    29 Jun 2006

    The new chief executive of the Personal Finance Society has an ambitious five-point plan covering a wide range of objectives and one particular aspiration is to fill what he sees as a gap in the market by putting the focus on the consumer. Interview by James Salmon

  • Tiner predicts wrap will reach £150bn

    29 Jun 2006

    FSA chief executive John Tiner says the regulator anticipates a huge increase in adviser wrap uptake, with platform assets set to reach £150bn by 2008.The prediction, based on Datamonitor research, comes as the regulator confirms it will be publishing a report into wrap in the next month as a conclusion to the thematic work it has conducted in the past five months.Speaking at an FSA conference in Birmingham, Tiner quoted the £150bn figure when discussing the future of the adviser ...

  • Total of regulated firms rockets

    29 Jun 2006

    There was a massive increase in the FSA's workload last year, with the number of authorised firms leaping by more than 81 per cent in the last tax year.The number of firms rose by 23,511 to 28,969, with the FSA's responsibilities extending to cover mortgages and general insurance, although the number of approved persons fell from 165,587 to 164,821.The FSA's annual report revealed its wage bill soared by 20 per cent from 158.5m in 2005 to 196.5m, with staff numbers increasing ...

  • Treasury wants audit office to review FSA

    29 Jun 2006

    Independent scrutiny of efficiency and effectiveness will be part of ongoing checks

  • Turner points to a legacy of mistrust

    29 Jun 2006

    The Government must create an environment where the public is clear on what is promised by the proposed national pension savings scheme and what is not, says Lord Turner.The former pension commissioner told the public administration committee that he did not want to attack the Government publicly but went as far as possible to express his personal disagreement with the way that it has handled the situation.He said the public has been left with a legacy of mistrust of the financial ...

  • Unspecial delivery

    29 Jun 2006

    I was very encouraged to see in the press that the Post Office has decided to enter the payment protection market as the independent market needs the assistance of a household-name player.The policy itself certainly provides, if not the best value, then certainly competitive and attractive premiums, together with good cover.My only criticism, other than the fact that the insurer (Axa) can terminate cover at 30 days notice, which it has done before, is that the product is not available ...

  • Wave of lenders to offer retention incentives to brokers

    29 Jun 2006

    A flood of lenders are set to begin offering mortgage retention fee incentives to brokers.Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Cheltenham & Gloucester have all conf-irmed this week that they are considering the option.They join Nationwide, which has said that it is contemplating a similar move towards retention incentives, while BM Solutions, Woolwich and Accord Mortgages already offer retention fees. Accord is also raising its retention procuration fee from 0.2 per cent to 0.325 ...

  • Wickenden warning over trust choice

    29 Jun 2006

    Advisers must be careful when recommending flexible trusts over absolute trusts, says Technical Connection director Tony Wickenden.He says the main point over flexible versus absolute trusts is whether the client is prepared to pay for the flexibility. Wickenden says the switch from a flexible trust into a bare, or absolute trust, to avoid the new tax regime might not be the best option.He says: "You cannot be too general about these things. There are clients out there with ...

  • Woolwich to become mortgage-only as branches axed

    29 Jun 2006

    Barclays is to rebrand all Woolwich branches to leave the brand as a mortgage-only trademark.

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