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 […]
Former pensions minister Steve Webb has urged HM Revenue and Customs to take down a web page which gives users the wrong information about how much money they can put into pensions. Royal London spotted the blunders on the website and raised the issue with HMRC on Monday 16 April but the information remained in […]
Aim-listed advice firm Harwood Wealth Management has made a number of board changes as part of the reorganisation of the business. This is partly driven by the group’s evaluation of how best arrange its internal structure and reporting lines to cope with forthcoming changes to the Senior Managers Regime. Current joint chief executive Neil Dunkley […]
Michael Klimes explores whether human and robo-advisers are friends or foes
Advisers need to have a better grasp of how long clients will live in order to make successful retirement plans, according to research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies. A report published today compares how long people expect to live with the Office for National Statistics’ survival rates. The study reveals large and systematic biases […]
Scottish Widows has launched a new drawdown capability tool to help IFAs manage income withdrawals for clients better. The new feature is available through Scottish Widows’ Retirement Account and gives customers a flexible and tax efficient way to take money from their savings. The aim of the tool is to make clients’ pots last longer […]
A Sipp provider with links to unregulated investment schemes such as Harlequin has fallen into administration. The Lifetime Sipp Company have appointed Kingston Smith and Partners as administrators, according to a note on Kingston Smith’s website, with partners Ian Robert and Ryan Davies leading the project. Robert says their priority is to protect the position […]
Around two-thirds of advisers are in favour of doing their own transfer value analysis reports in-house, according to a Money Marketing survey. Less than 30 per cent said that advisers should not conduct their own reports, while 8 per cent remained unsure. At least five firms including LV=, Pru, Standard Life, Old Mutual Wealth and Scottish […]
Capita Financial Managers has paid £51m of its compensation bill to the FCA over its role in the collapse of the Connaught fund, but investors are yet to receive their money back after processing payments hit delays. A note on adminstrators Duff & Phelps’ website says that while Capita met its 31 March deadline to turn […]