The FCA is embroiled in a dispute with a firm over whether the regulator abused its power under the conditions of the Financial Services and Markets Act and is in the process of preparing to take the issue to court. Commissioner Anthony Townsend says the FCA has commenced proceedings against a firm accusing it of […]
The Financial Services Compensation Scheme has released new information on how the recovery of money for clients from the Harlequin group is progressing. The Harlequin group is a well know collection of companies involved in the marketing, sales and development of overseas investment properties. Many of these are unregulated investments and have featured prominently in […]
Support service provider SimplyBiz has begun to deploy some of the funds raised from its stock market float with a deal to buy ratings and technology business Defaqto. SimplyBiz will pay £74.3m to acquire the entire issued share capital of Regulus Topco Limited, Defaqto’s parent. On completion, Defaqto will have £3.4m in cash on its […]
What is ahead for investment company boards? Warren Buffett said: “In the business world, the rear-view mirror is always clearer than the windshield.” It’s sometimes hard, if not impossible, for fund managers to know what they face in the future and how their portfolio should be positioned. One of the strengths of the investment company […]
Pentins director on her mission to discover why there are not more female advisers and her Women’s Wealth brand When Pentins Financial Planners director Samantha Secomb started her financial services career in the 1990s, being a financial adviser was essentially a sales role. Secomb can understand why that did not have great appeal for women, […]
Factors such as longevity and career breaks can negatively affect a woman’s long-term financial situation International Women’s Day, celebrated on 8 March, ran with a theme of “balance for better”. This highlights balance in every sense – and finances need to be one of them. While financial planning is not an inherently gender-specific process, there […]
The Financial Services Compensation Scheme has recovered just under £300m from failed financial services firms since 2014. Outgoing chief executive Mark Neale labelled the recoveries “unsung work” on behalf of the lifeboat fund which is a major contributor to public confidence in the industry. The FSCS says the recovered funds have significantly reduced what advisers […]
Clever planning will spot where gains can be made for clients As we head towards another tax year end, it is time to start considering whether it will have an impact on clients’ retirement decisions. But not everything pension-related has to be timed around the tax year. A careful eye on timing is important all […]
OLIM co-founder Angela Lascelles on her determination to make it in a male-dominated industry and juggling work with motherhood More than three decades ago, Angela Lascelles, co-founder of investment manager OLIM, decided to follow in her father’s footsteps and pursue a career in the investment industry. She recalls: “When I was a child, I asked […]
The National Audit Office has criticised the FCA and three other regulators for failing to prove how they are responding to consumer problems and not offering enough protection to those in need. In a report today the NAO found that the regulators understand the significant difficulties facing consumers in the financial services and utilities markets, […]
Curtis Banks has backed the Sipp market to bounce back from the reputational hit of defined benefit transfers and non-standard asset failures as the firm posts another growth in sales. Revenue increased by 6 per cent to £46.1m and adjusted profit before tax increased by 13 per cent to £12.1m. The number of new Sipps […]
What’s the news in protection? On the surface you could be forgiven for thinking there isn’t anything new, that protection is still generally being overlooked and undervalued. Figures from Royal London’s State of the Protection Nation Report show that just 35% of people have life insurance, 12% have critical illness cover and 9% have income […]
For generations, life expectancy has been steadily increasing, with more and more people now likely to live to 100. Scottish Widows’ pension expert Robert Cochran tackles this longevity landscape with economist and co-author of the book ‘The 100-Year Life’, Andrew Scott, in episode one of Scottish Widows’ new podcast series – “The Future of Financial Planning”. Click […]
We’re all living longer – half the future generation born after 2036 is expected to live to 100*. But despite more of us saving for our retirement, and from a younger age, there’s still a lot of work to do if we want our time in retirement to be both financially and physically healthy – […]
The boss of Westpac, one of Australia’s largest banks, has said that its decision to exit the advice market “has not been taken lightly” as the firm looks to restructure its wealth management division. In an update posted on the London Stock Exchange’s news service, the bank confirms its decision to pull out of the […]
UBS has been fined £27.6m by the regulator after misreporting close to 136m transactions over a ten-year period. Between November 2007 and May 2017, the Switzerland-based bank failed to report a number transactions as required but also reported cases that did not require it. The FCA says UBS failed to provide complete information on 86.67m […]
Standard Life Aberdeen has defended its model as new figures show financial planners at advice arm 1825 put half of their assets on to the group’s in-house platform. SLA says it is expert at managing the conflicts of interests that come with working across the value chain, including the £1.9bn of assets from its advice […]
Treasury Select Committee chair Nicky Morgan has called on the FCA‘s board to look into the failure of the mini-bond issuer London Capital & Finance, as the case raises questions around the wider regulation of financial services. LC&F went into administraion in January, a month after the FCA ordered it to take down promotional material […]
Standard Life has returned to the equity release market after more than a decade in a tie-up with specialist broker Age Partnership. The life company previously had a lending arm called Standard Life Bank which offered equity release mortgages until 2008 when it joined many rivals in retreating from the sector as the financial crisis […]
One of Australia’s biggest banks, Westpac, is expecting to cut 900 full-time roles as it prepares to drop its loss-making financial advice business. This follows the nation’s 14-month long Royal Commission into misconduct in the banking, superannuation and financial services industry. Melbourne-based Viridian Advisory has struck a deal with Westpac for an undisclosed sum which […]
Discretionary fund manager Quilter Cheviot has taken on staff from the likes of Tilney Investment Management and Rathbones in its latest hiring round. Six new investment managers are joinning the firm, which is part of the Quilter group, formerly known as Old Mutual, and also includes advice businesses Intrinsic and Quilter Private Client Advisers. Andy […]
AJ Bell has launched two income funds for advisers targeting clients looking to take a tax-free sum from their Isa or use income drawdown via a pension. The funds both target an annual yield of 4 per cent and have the same charging structure as AJ Bell’s other funds. This includes ongoing charges capped at […]
A tribunal has ruled in favour of Standard Life Aberdeen after it claimed Lloyds Banking Group did not have the right to cancel a £109bn investment management deal with the firm. The dispute dates back to last February, when Lloyds decided that a major account managed for subsidiary Scottish Widows by Aberdeen Asset Management should […]
Blackrock has been named most attractive brand among European asset manager firms, according to the annual report Fund Brand 50. The study, by corporate services company Broadridge Financial Services, monitors the influence of brand on third-party fund selection. Fund Brand 50 is based on intensive interviews with nearly 900 of Europe’s most significant fund selectors, […]
Since it was first proposed, it has been clear to many that the Lifetime Isa is unsafe to sell without advice. Significant dangers arise from the product’s complex design, absence of clear risk warnings, lack of suitability checks and asymmetry of information between customers and providers. The first evidence of such problems is appearing. Lisas […]
Diversity and inclusion are a key issue for the financial services sector. Not only does getting it right positively impact the bottom line, but it affects the perception of our industry, which is vital given our need to attract talent. McKinsey’s 2018 Delivering Through Diversity report found companies in the top 25 per cent for […]
When I announced I was leaving adviser firm Lifesearch after 18 years to join an insurer, someone quipped I was “moving to the dark side”. Is there really such a “them and us” mentality in our market and, if so, does it hinder us in making consumers more financially resilient? Working for both insurer and […]
Last week I met John, an aspiring financial planner who is less than a year into his job at a mid-sized IFA firm. John told me he had always wanted to be a financial planner. He’s interested in money; he wants to make some and he wants to help people manage theirs. He had been […]
With more than 10 million people now newly saving or saving more into a pension, auto-enrolment has fundamentally changed the way people are planning for retirement. But this far-reaching social policy is not standing still. Next month, we will see the last scheduled increase to minimum contributions, which will mean staff saving at least 5 […]
There is not a lot to celebrate when it comes to diversity in financial services. But things can change If you are a female in finance, this month’s International Women’s Day may have felt bittersweet. Yes, 300 organisations have signed up to the government’s Women in Finance Charter. Yes, several female chief executives have been […]
I have an issue with how we talk about making sure more millennials get “advice”. I am one, so consider this blog both my professional and personal view about how we seem to make the following assumptions: 1. Millennials will inevitably be better off if they use a trendy robo-adviser or app to save and […]
Tax is complex enough at the best of times but its intricacies are exacerbated among high earners Taxation is a crucial factor when managing the finances of high-income clients. It is a complicated area, made even trickier by the fact there are many different variables that can affect the amount of tax owed. The standard […]
VouchedFor recently released its list of the top-rated advisers in the UK. These are advisers who receive the highest number of positive reviews from clients. The list includes 1,172 advisers from 737 different firms, be that regional directly authorised firms, large national firms or networks. The diversity of the list serves as an important reminder […]
This week, Money Marketing is celebrating International Women’s Day with an all-female cast of contributors in our print edition. Last Friday marked International Women’s Day 2019, with this year’s theme, #BalanceforBetter, aiming to build a gender-balanced world where everyone has their part to play. While men will inevitably appear where, for example, they are the […]
Too many business owners overlook the problem of client conversion rates Early in our relationship with an adviser, we will ask them to identify firms they admire and those they perceive to be competitors. The answers are almost always identical. When talking about those they admire, the same names trip easily off the tongue. There […]
EQ Investors head of investment Sophie Kennedy explains how impact investing has become the USP for the company’s offering to external advisers Do you outsource investment management, keep it in-house or combine both approaches?We offer financial planning and investment management, so we are all in-house. We have managed money for internal clients but one of […]
J12 is not one of the most widely talked about exams but is an interesting option for advisers looking to add a string to their bow The Chartered Insurance Institute’s J12 Securities Advice and Dealing exam was introduced in 2013 following the RDR, along with its Level 4 Certificate in Securities Advice and Dealing. This […]
Research shows advisers believe consumers are not addressing their protection needs early enough Many advisers acknowledge that income protection is a hard sell, but research from Royal London has found the under-35s are a particularly difficult market to crack. The firm found 74 per cent of advisers felt younger people were addressing their protection needs […]
Most reports can comfortably cover the ‘who’, ‘what’ and ‘where’, but the ‘why’ and ‘how’ are often overlooked Paraplanning is about much more than suitability reports, but there is no denying they are a fundamental part of the role and one of the trickier elements to get the right balance on. Unfortunately, it is still […]
Leading female advisers share their financial services experiences While equality in the workplace takes in many more aspects than just gender, there is no doubt it is an issue that keeps bubbling up to the surface in financial services. Estimates suggest female advisers are outnumbered by male counterparts by a ratio anywhere from 10:1 to […]
Many advisers consider the cost and effort of transferring assets to outweigh the savings for clients Advisers choose to use some platforms over others for a range of reasons and may well change where they place new business from time to time, but it takes quite a bit of frustration to lead advisers to transfer […]
Michael Klimes tracks the evolution of the Sipp from 1989 to the present day.
What has gone wrong for so many managers over the past 12 months? Only five out of 80 (6.25 per cent) strategic bond managers achieved positive performance in 2018, with the sector averaging a return of -2.49 per cent. The list of achievers includes Pimco GIS Income, Allianz Strategic Bond and three Royal London AM […]
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Last month, star manager Terry Smith announced he was throwing £25m of his own money behind a new investment trust, Smithson. Ahead of its launch, Money Marketing editor Justin Cash sat down with Simon Barnard and Will Morgan, the fund’s managers, to talk strategy, as well as their thoughts on some of the hottest topics […]
PFS chief executive Keith Richards, Threesixty managing director Russell Facer and financial planner Susan Hill sit down with Money Marketing editor Justin Cash to discuss what’s wrong with the FSCS, and how it can be reformed.
Welcome to the on-demand version of our latest Wired event: The politics of Brexit – What investors need to know. Exclusively for UK Edge members!
Welcome to the third instalment of our good life gurus series. We talk to Kate Shaw, an IFA and ultra runner, to find out how she got started with an exercise regime and how a healthy lifestyle helps her with her work-life balance.
Catch up with last week’s Money Marketing debate on what Labour would mean for financial planners with former pensions minister Steve Webb and three leading advisers.
FSCS levies are one of the biggest bills advisers have to pay. But how are they calculated? Watch our video to find out Advisers slam levy increases as FSCS bills hit desks Solving the FSCS’ long list of problems FSCS chief executive Mark Neale’s blog
What’s the news in protection? On the surface you could be forgiven for thinking there isn’t anything new, that protection is still generally being overlooked and undervalued.
With continuing questions around global growth, US interest rates and Brexit, Nersen Pillay, Investment Director at Royal London Asset Management provides an update on positioning within our multi asset funds, as the Investment Clock predicts soggy growth and weaker inflation expectations. Read the article here About us: Royal London Asset Management (RLAM) is one of […]
Taking a sustainable level of income is important in helping drawdown customers maintain a resilient portfolio during periods of investment volatility. Customers in income drawdown should think about the impact of volatility on their pension. While someone building up a pension can mitigate the effect of market falls by continuing to make contributions to their […]
By Kim Jarvis Even though inheritance tax (IHT) is based on a simple concept – whatever you own at the date of your death will potentially be subject to tax – people’s preconception, for very good reasons, is that it is complex. Take the introduction of the residence nil rate band (RNRB), effective from April […]
Some investors are diversifying beyond traditional sterling credit into global strategies. We compare and contrast the opportunities and risks involved, and identify more crossover and less upside in global bonds than you might imagine. Read the article here Past performance is no guide to the future. The value of investments and the income from them […]
FMB managing director on how a university business programme helped to differentiate her company What makes you stand out from your peers? Highlighting your chartered or certified status on your website may have been enough several years ago but many more advisers have added those credentials to their armoury. Post-RDR, differentiation requires a little more […]
New Leodis Wealth chief executive on supporting clients through the chaos caused by the UK’s exit from the EU The long and tortuous road to Brexit has taken us from a political soap opera to what many regard as a tragedy over the past two-and-a-half years. Whatever drama is yet to unfold, the message that […]
Christopher Little & Co principal on how an active role in the local business community has helped his firm grow Building up a client base from scratch is hard enough when you have known an area all your life, but doing it as a newcomer is a different ball game altogether. Christopher Little & Co […]
