It is nearly three years since I hung up my financial planner boots and joined the world outside of financial services. Over that time, I have presented financial wellbeing talks across the UK to a range of people. What has surprised me is how financially disorganised some seem to be. Few have all their documents […]
Legal & General expects to record profits of up to £400m this year due to its customers not living as long as expected. On Tuesday the Office for National Statistics reported increases in average life expectancy at birth and age 65, for both men and women in the UK, slowed dramatically from 2011 to 2016. […]
The parent of Yorkshire Bank and Clydesdale Bank has agreed to buy Virgin Money for £1.7bn. The businesses say the deal will create the UK’s first “true national banking competitor to the status quo”. The new group will serve around six million customers. A notice to investors from CYBG says: “The combined group will have […]
Bankhall has partnered with paraplanning specialists Timebank to launch a service to help firms boost their advice capacity. The service provides firms with access to paraplanners who are qualified to level six and a variety of options to meet their needs. Options for firms range from a full hourly rate bespoke service that replicates an […]
The nine advice firms acquired by Harwood Wealth Management in the first half of the year have added £310m assets under advice to the business. According to an update today, Harwood will pay a total of £10.9m for the acquisitions, completed in the six months to 30 April. Harwood says £6.7m of that total has […]
Investment firm Dolfin has bought a “significant” equity stake in national IFA Alexander House Financial Services. Alexander House is an appointed representative of Old Mutual Wealth-owned network Intrinsic. Dolfin is an independent financial services company providing custody, execution and asset management to advisers and their clients. Nick Kelly: The number one deal breaker for acquisitions […]
Aviva is planning to buy back £600m of its own shares, in an effort to deploy £2bn of excess capital this year. The provider says it has “significant excess capital” and this year will use £900m for debt reduction, £500m for acquisitions and £600m for the share buy-back. The buy-back will run from today to […]
The FCA’s recent discussion paper, DP18/2: Transforming Culture in Financial Services, focused heavily on how to drive cultural change within an organisation. A number of the paper’s contributors highlight that focusing solely on senior management behaviour and the ‘tone from the top’ overlooks the complexity of organisational culture and the role all employees have in […]
Consolidator Fairstone has launched a new Individual Buy Out programme to help advisers create exit strategies for their firms. The scheme enables advisers to build a long-term tax-efficient retirement fund while keeping continuity of service for their clients. Advisers will receive an initial capital sum, a proportion of ongoing fee revenue for an agreed period […]
Old Mutual Wealth Management has officially changed its name to Quilter ahead of its plans to list and separate from Old Mutual. The business’s subsidiaries will be re-branded to Quilter over a two-year period after the separation. In the meantime it will continue to use the names Old Mutual Wealth (UK Platform/Life Assurance), Old Mutual […]
Aviva Insurance chief executive Andy Briggs will take home an extra £1m in bonuses on top of a basic salary of £726,000 for 2017. The bonus is one part of Briggs’s £2.5m remuneration package, which also includes benefits and pensions contributions. Commenting on Briggs’s work in its remuneration committee report, published today, Aviva says there was […]
The world is a challenging place for a traditional one-man (or -woman) band Increased regulation and rising costs are leading to a growing number of mid-sized adviser firms. Sole trader and two-handed businesses are becoming rarer as changing rules and client demands present a greater challenge for smaller firms. Between compliance, technology and the implementation […]
Ruth Whitehead Associates managing director on 25 years attempting to right the wrongs of the industry When Ruth Whitehead Associates managing director Ruth Whitehead says she is “proud to be anti-establishment, especially the financial services establishment” you can sense there is a story to be told. Something that runs deeper than the usual dissatisfaction with […]
Do you have some big goals for yourself? If you do, great. But do you have the skills required to actually achieve them? If just doing more of the same is not guaranteed to get you to your goals, then read on. We have all heard the expression “life is a marathon, not a sprint”. […]
Advisers share their tips and experiences in finding the right network There are many benefits of being an appointed representative but choosing the wrong network could cause havoc for a business. Here, three advisers share their tips and experiences. An open mind Simplified Money director Lesley James considered going directly authorised when setting up the […]
New suitability rules suggest not obtaining the most up-to-date information can prevent you from taking a fee I do not usually get cut up by celebrity deaths but I did on 4 September 2006 when my hero, Steve Irwin, “The Crocodile Hunter”, passed away. Something I learned from him was the impact of unintended consequence. […]
Be clear on these tricky areas to shield your firm from risks Advice firms are expected to maintain appropriate professional indemnity insurance cover at all times. Unfortunately, we often come across issues with firms’ arrangements. Here is a summary of the most common pitfalls: Excesses If the excess on your policy is greater than the […]
Paraplanning is a relatively recent function within advice firms. Such roles did not really exist 20 years ago, as most advisers would tend to carry out all planning aspects themselves, including their research, technical analysis and suitability processes. But thanks to regulation becoming more challenging, advisers have realised that separating the client-facing and non-client-facing processes […]
Selling an advice firm is a big decision and can often be a complex and drawn-out process. But reviewing the following areas prior to any acquisition discussions can help smooth the ride and lead to greater success. Culture: Not only is having an appropriately client-centric culture a regulatory requirement, it will also be of interest […]
We regularly see headlines pronouncing the death of blogging and promoting video, podcasts or other forms of content as an alternative. The irony, of course, is that those making the predictions are doing so in a blog. Nevertheless, the question remains valid: is blogging dead? I am confident it is not but its effectiveness will […]
Forty per cent of advisers have reviewed their charging structure in the past six months, according to research by Platforum. The reason is not hard to find: regulation, and Mifid II in particular. But what is interesting is that, so far at least, advisers do not seem to be making changes to how they charge. […]
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If you had told me 10 years ago that not only would I be a chartered financial planner but that I would enjoy it so much I would be reading about the “science” of retirement and the “new retirementality” in my spare time, I reckon I would have asked you to kill me. But it […]
Your website is your shop window and needs to support your marketing strategy An effective website should support every element of an adviser’s marketing strategy. From helping referrals understand more about your business, to being found on Google by people looking for an adviser, your website is your shop window. Essentially it has three jobs: To […]
Supporting the client is key to a sustainable business There are still too many people in financial services who don’t seem to recognise, understand or appreciate that the key to growing a sustainable business is supporting the client. To survive is not about being the strongest or the fittest; it’s about being the most adaptable […]
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
FCA chief executive Andrew Bailey has just marked his first year at the top of the regulator. Money Marketing asks: Who is the man running the financial services show? Watch: Where do your FCA fees go?
Title: MM Wired: Beyond the election Date: Thursday 15th June Time: 11am Money Marketing Wired returned in association with The UK Edge on Thursday 15 June with a topical debate on the election results. To see the full on-demand version of this session, please watch the video above. Panelists Stephanie Flanders – Chief Market Strategist (UK […]
This short film outlines how increased life expectancy and increasingly varied lifestyles are reshaping the retirement journey and why it’s never been more important to have flexible, long lasting solutions for your clients. For more insight, case studies and expert guidance on retirement planning, visit Scottish Widows’ website.
A pivotal October continues as Wall Street experiences another brutal sell-off. Trevor Greetham, Head of Multi Asset at Royal London Asset Management comments on this latest bout of volatility. Read the blog here Past performance is no guide to the future. The value of investments and the income from them is not guaranteed and may […]
Our latest blog piece highlights that volatility has risen sharply in the last couple of days. RLAM’s contrarian investor sentiment indicator has moved to its most pessimistic reading since April. Trevor Greetham and the multi asset team at Royal London Asset Management are starting to buy equities into weakness. As another old saying goes, investors […]