Advice firms, including St James’s Place, are pledging their support to increasing gender diversity in financial services by signing up to a government charter. The Treasury’s Women in Finance Charter now has 272 signatories, with 67 companies signing up between March and June. Advice firms Ellis Davies Financial Planning, Magenta Financial Planning, Evolution Financial Planning […]
Pension transfers hit a record of £10.6bn in the first quarter of this year, according to Office for National Statistics data. The figures show the value of pension transfers in 2017 was revised up £2.5bn to £36.8bn. AJ Bell senior analyst Tom Selby says: “The Q1 2018 figure also likely includes a large number of […]
Clients who received the Financial Services Compensation Scheme’s maximum compensation amount after being defrauded by Norwich-based IFA Taylor and Taylor may receive further payouts. In an update on the case today, the FSCS said those with losses that exceeded the amount police were able to retrieve from the firm could still approach it to cover […]
TSB will be investigated by the FCA over the failed April launch of its computer system which left 1.9 million people without online banking access. Some of TSB’s five million customers are still experiencing problems after it moved to a system run by the bank’s Spanish owner Sabadell more than six weeks ago. TSB chief […]
A St James’s Place advice recruit has been fined and banned after he falsely claimed to hold CII qualifications. Former SJP trainee adviser Alexander Stuart has been ordered to pay a £34,000 fine by 28 September after telling senior supervisors at the firm that he was fully qualified to provide advice. According to the FCA […]
A group of 27 investors is taking action against Liberty Sipp over allegations it was responsible for losses incurred from risky investments. Wixted & Co Solicitors has issued a case in the Circuit Commercial Court in Bristol against Liberty Sipp. The firm is also acting on behalf of investors in a claim against Berkeley Burke. […]
The belief advisers need newly created products to help clients meet their financial needs in later life is misguided as existing solutions just need to be used more effectively. That was the view of a panel at Money Marketing Interactive today who say more products could complicate rather than simplify life for advisers. Hybrid solutions […]
The Complaints Commissioner has criticised the FCA for its correspondence with a complainant and ordered it to pay redress. The complaint related to the FCA failing to respond to a report sent to it by the complainant at the regulator’s request, about professional indemnity insurance. According to the Complaints Commissioner decision, the complainant initially drew the […]
The government is boosting its income from inheritance tax bills because advisers may have failed to communicate the full advantages of new exemptions. Speaking at a seminar yesterday morning, Prudential senior technical manager Graeme Robb pointed to the rise people affected by the increase in the residence nil rate band to £1m for married couples […]
Advisers will not be able to give ‘basic advice’ on stakeholder products that fall under Mifid II and the Insurance Distribution Directive, the FCA has confirmed. Basic advice rules, which date back to 2005 and allow the provision of simpler and lower-cost advice to consumers on a range of stakeholder products using pre-scripted questions, previously […]
The Financial Ombudsman Service has told Kingswood Financial Advisors to compensate a client over a Sipp investment in an unregulated Harlequin property fund. The case concerns Mr B’s complaints about the advice he received regarding two unregulated investments: one into a Harlequin property fund and the other into Green Oil. The ombudsman’s ruling relates to […]
The pensions dashboard could face requests from 15 million consumers when it goes live and must be built accordingly, according to technology provider Origo. The firm has come to this figure through its own research and discussions it has had with providers and banks who operate consumer-facing platforms. The infrastructure underpinning the pensions dashboard must […]