BNY Mellon’s head of distribution in the UK and Ireland Fergus McCarthy has stood down from the position. He is currently on gardening leave, but it is unclear at this stage where his next role in the industry will be. McCarthy was poached from his sales manager role at Martin Currie to become sales director […]
As lenders face the threat of digital disruption, returning to the advice market could be a way to find new revenue streams The financial services sector is on the hunt for innovation, growth and redevelopment a decade on from the global economic crisis. In the UK, the lasting effects on banks of 2008 through to […]
Lloyds Bank and Schroders have appointed a nine-person executive team under incoming chief executive James Rainbow for their advice joint venture, Schroders Personal Wealth. Rainbow’s position, along with that of Scottish Widows chief executive Antonio Lorenzo as chair, were revealed last October. The executive team are internal hires from the two companies: Executive Former position […]
Support service provider and network Tenet says its “competitive” professional indemnity insurance offering has helped the firm overcome a “challenging market environment” to increase revenues. The group has posted a 13 per cent in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation to £2.5m for the twelve months to 30 September 2018. The firm’s full accounts […]
Brewin Dolphin has bolstered the office it opened last year in London’s West End with another hire. William Quantrill joins the firm after 13 years with private bank Kleinwort Hambros, taking total office headcount to 28. The office was opened to focus on high-net-worth clients with complex financial needs, offering both financial planning and investment […]
Investment and financial planning firm Tilney has acquired Sutton Coldfield-based Index Wealth Management as it continues to seal more deals before the end of 2018. Tilney has bought the firm, which has three financial planners, three paraplanners and six support staff, for an undisclosed sum. Assets under advice at Index are around £243m, with average […]
Standard Life Aberdeen head of adviser and wealth manager propositions David Tiller is set to take on a new and expanded role as head of UK propositions. SLA says Tiller will be responsible for Wrap and Elevate Platforms, as he was in his former role of head of platforms, but did not make reference to […]
Advisers are posing an “existential threat” to the wealth management industry as more businesses take a slice of the different parts of the distribution chain. That is one of the findings of consultancy Fundscape’s latest report, which says the advice channel accounts for around half of all industry sales. Fundscape says advisers and platforms will […]
Steve Murray is moving aside from his position as chairman of 1825, Standard Life Aberdeen’s advice arm, to take on a new role with the wider group. Murray was instrumental in the founding of 1825, serving as chief executive from 2015 when it was set up, until last September, when he took on the chairman […]
Sanlam UK has brought in Richard Pursglove as its new distribution head to lead the business’s sales and marketing strategy. Pursglove most recently worked at Aberdeen Standard Investments to support the integration of the global distribution team during the merger of Aberdeen Asset Management and Standard Life. Pursglove started his career as an IFA and […]
Fidelity has confirmed a change in leadership for its advice business Fidelity Retirement Services. Former Fidelity personal investing head Jonathan Hewitt has left the business with Stuart Welch, who also oversees Fidelity’s share dealing service, taking on that role. As personal investing head, Hewitt was responsible for Fidelity’s advice business as well as its direct-to-consumer […]
Losses at Quilter-owned advice network Intrinsic have increased again. The business has reported an operating loss of £15.1m in the year ended 31 December 2017, an increase on the £8.9m loss it made the previous year. According to accounts filed to Companies House, the increased loss at Intrinsic Financial Services was due to growing its […]
“It is all odd at first and then it becomes normal – not because it is normal but because repetition uns the peculiar.” This line from John Green’s children’s novel The Sequel serves as a rather apt appraisal of the state of (dis)service from providers to advisers for, well, forever. In fact, this truism is […]
Rising revenues and headcounts pose questions over network viability Experts are questioning whether network membership is still worth having for medium- and larger-sized financial advice firms, as businesses look towards further innovation and growth. According to data released last month by adviser trade body Pimfa, 40 per cent of advice firms are directly authorised, compared […]
The British financial advice sector arguably faced its most difficult period in the 1980s and 1990s. Advisers have been collectively working since then to regain the trust of the public and promote the need for expert advice, while working under tightening restrictions designed to improve ethical conduct and increase client protection. During the same period of […]
Lloyds Banking Group revealed a bold three-year strategic plan last week, placing financial advice and pensions at the front of what it calls a “transformation for future success”. Shifts in the group’s focus have been high on the news radar of late, with its pensions arm Scottish Widows also set to review its asset management […]
St James’s Place’s 2016 results dropped a few weeks ago, and it proved to be another bumper year for the advice market giant. SJP reported profits of £140.6m, alongside record gross inflows of £11.4bn over the year. But the firm has come under fire in recent months over complaints and charges. Money Marketing has dug into the […]
You might not expect the chairman of a large adviser network to admit he was interested in Marxism as a young man, yet Sesame Bankhall Group’s John Cowan is very open about his past. Then again, not every financial services boss was raised in tenement housing without hot water or central heating, and with one shared […]
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High commission rates on general insurance policies threaten to cause another misselling scandal Another month, another FCA report that rocked me back on my heels. The catchily titled General Insurance Distribution Chain – Thematic Review got the press coverage its name deserves: almost none. But, as so often happens with FCA reports, there are facts […]
It’s not easy to restructure a £110bn company. Old Mutual’s separation and rebrand has been two years in the making and has another two to go before the advice and platform businesses planners know so well fall under the new banner of Quilter. It’s not an accident that Old Mutual took the Quilter name – […]
The digital revolution has brought unprecedented opportunity to communicate but financial services seem more remote than ever to the UK public. Years ago, there was a strong correlation in the minds of the UK general public between financial matters and bicycle clips. In the days when milkmen delivered dairy products daily to the doorsteps of […]