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Part-timers progress on long march to Europe
Part-time workers have a hard life. Many of them are low-paid. Many are women. Many are excluded from occupational pension schemes. But, supported by their unions, they are fighting back. They are also getting help from the European Court of Justice. Last December, the ECJ ruled in favour of a mental health officer on the […]
Mortgage Trust pays renewal on flexible loans
Mortgage Trust is paying out its first renewal commissions to brokers which last year completed over £1m of business on its two flexible mortgage products, the Early Payment Plus and the Current Account Mortgage. Brokers have to be members of Mortgage Trust's Millionaires Club, which supports IFAs which sell mortgages in volume. They will get […]
Micropal Top 10s
Norwich Union's £53.5m Norwich American smaller companies trust is ninth out of 1,495 unit trusts over the last year, with growth of 27.88 per cent. The top 10, for so long dominated by Hong Kong trusts, emerging market funds and trackers, now includes five funds investing in North America. The NU fund, managed by Terry […]
Axa Sun Life rethinks whole product range
Axa Sun Life is revamping its entire product range in its first major drive into the IFA market since the £690m Axa Equity & Law merger with Sun Life. The two companies merged last July. Axa will become the direct arm and Sun Life was relaunched last week as the IFA arm. The new IFA […]
Strong dollar can be a powerful driver of UK dividend growth in 2015
By Robin Geffen, fund manager and CEO
This year threatens to be a challenging one for UK dividend hunters. Last year saw an all-time record amount paid out in UK dividends — some £97.4bn, according to research from Capita Dividend Monitor. Yet as Capita also pointed out, out the biggest single factor driving the growth in the fourth quarter of last year was easy to identify: the rising US dollar.
In our view, this trend is much more than simply a one-quarter phenomenon. It is actually the most profound issue to get right as a UK equity income investor in 2015. We believe that the US dollar will continue to strengthen significantly from its current level. This is due more to the US economy’s demonstrable de-coupling from the rest of the world than to a view on the UK. The US has a strong chance of tightening monetary conditions this year without jeopardising growth or de-stabilising its housing market. The same can unfortunately not be said about the UK.
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Abraham Okusanya: A tale of two platform cities
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” As I ponder the developments in the platform market over the past year, I cannot help but think about the contrasting tranquil roads of Dickens’ London and the bloodstained streets of Paris at the height of the reign of terror. A similar contrast […]
Advisers fear crypto-assets, research shows
Less than two in five advisers are confident in their ability to discuss crypto-assets with clients due to widespread scepticism of them, research suggests. A study commissioned by the global investment platform eToro surveyed the attitudes of more than 200 financial advisers towards crypto-assets. The study shows nearly three quarters, or 74 per cent, of […]
Pensions secretary resignation leaves savings policy ‘vacuum’
Pensions experts have expressed concerns over the future of long-term policy making as work and pensions secretary Esether McVey steps down from her position. McVey tendered her resignation letter this morning, claiming that the government’s draft Brexit deal would not respect the referendum result and was not something that she could vote for. Quilter head […]
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