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 […]
Royal Bank of Scotland is mulling launching a standalone digital bank and has assigned a former top executive to the project, according to reports. Sky News says RBS’s former chief operating officer Mark Bailie is leading the “secret” project and that tens of millions of pounds have been assigned to creating the digital platform. The […]
SimplyBiz Group will float on the London Stock Exchange next month with a market capitalisation of £130m. The company has raised a before-expenses total of £30m from an institutional placing of 17,670,149 ordinary shares at a placing price of 170p, as well as £34.6m for selling shareholders though an institutional placing of 20,362,228 ordinary shares […]
Advisers have one-in-10 chance of being spot checked, regardless of whether they have been previously
Starting out on your own is challenging but these tips should help smooth the way
As problems around recruitment intensify, keeping your staff fulfilled is vital The adviser recruitment issue is not going away, with pressure building due to the lack of fresh blood coming into the industry and a dearth of experienced and qualified candidates willing to move jobs. And have you tried hiring a paraplanner lately? Not only […]
Building a culture of high standards is crucial for business success. Take it from one of the world’s most successful companies This time last year, I wrote about Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos’s letter to the firm’s shareholders. It focused on his belief businesses need to treat every day as “day one”. He wrote: “Hold on to day […]
All firms run the risk of being used by criminals for fraudulent activity, so it is vital to remain vigilant. Fraudulent emails are becoming more sophisticated and we recently became aware of a new scam targeted at financial intermediaries. The scam revolves around your client’s email account which has been hacked. You receive a request […]
Top tips on building your reputation in your local area One of the most successful ways to grow your business is to make yourself the “go-to” planner for your niche in your local area. The long-term aim is to achieve such local dominance that, when someone thinks about your niche, they immediately associate your name […]
Patience is an underrated skill in business. Do not fall into the trap of making decisions too quickly and regretting them later. It is important to make decisions when you run a business. Indeed, there are some situations where making any decision is better than analysis paralysis. However, there are also times when you need […]
Last-minute preparation for the next round starting on 16 April In order to complete the level 6 Advanced Diploma in Financial Planning, a student must pass the compulsory unit AF5: Financial Planning Process. Anyone that holds the level 4 Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning will already have passed R06: Financial Planning Practice. These exams do […]
Advisers who go the extra mile to impress will be rewarded many times over Marketing types are fond of talking about the “client journey”. That usually means the journey an individual takes from being a suspect, to prospect, to client. Here, however, I want to talk about an entirely different client journey: to and within your […]
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Thanks to the vast quantities of information now available, customers have the ability to make smart choices with speed and agility anytime and anywhere they want. Not only are they in charge and in full control, but they are also moving faster than most brands. Importantly, they do not differentiate between channels and touchpoints. But […]
So-called management gurus can cause a lot of damage with their advice The origins of the ‘guru’ are found in the US Constitution’s Bill of Rights, which guaranteed freedom of religion. It triggered a growing and competitive market for religious sects in the States, with new, evangelical ones gaining a 70 per cent market share […]
Do not let clients forget about everything you can do for them in between your scheduled reviews The introduction of the RDR had a number of implications for advisers, one of the biggest being the ban on commission. The change necessitated a shift from a transactional to a service-based proposition delivered in return for a […]
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 […]
Tracey Miller – Marketing Consultant, Royal London I’m the first to admit that I go skipping out the door on a Monday morning. After a full on (long!) weekend, I’m always more than ready for the escape that work offers. But that said, my children are still my reason for getting up each morning…usually because I’ll […]
Ross Jackson – Senior Protection Marketing Manager, Royal London ‘Only available online’, ‘no home delivery on this product’, ‘you must apply in-branch’. Is it me or do many businesses still structure their services in a way that suits them? It’s not something that would be considered acceptable in today’s protection industry though admittedly it has felt […]
The Technical team at Prudential explore the Divorce (Financial Provision) Bill and the impact on financial planning. The Divorce (Financial Provision) Bill passed through its second reading in the House of Lords in January 2017. No date has yet been set for Committee stage but what impact might this Bill have especially in relation to […]