Financial Advisor articles from December 2004

Financial Advisor archives from December 2004

Byers calls on government to provide loans for deposits.(Stephen Byers)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... NEW proposals could see the government giving council tenants interest-free loans to help them buy a home. Labour MP Stephen Byers, former secretary of state for transport, local government and the regions, is urging the government to...

CII contacts advisers over qualification.(Chartered Insurance Institute)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... THE Chartered Insurance Institute is writing to advisers urging them to keep up to date with the new qualification framework. The CII is preparing to send out a second batch of letters to advisers with Financial Planning Certificates one,...

New Product- DWS fund is good for the cautious investor, says adviser.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... DWS Investment has launched a 'RateBuster' money market fund to offer capital protection and active fund management. The fund has a target 7.75 per cent return a year -- 2 to 3 percentage points above the existing bank base rate. ...

Uncertainty means that interest rates could rise.
December 2, 2004... There is "considerable uncertainty" surrounding the housing market, the Bank of England's chief economist has warned. Speaking last week, Charlie Bean, executive director and chief economist of the BoE, was reluctant to predict the path of...

Stress and obesity to drive health insurance demand.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... STRESS and obesity will drive the design and demand for health insurance products, according to Norwich Union Healthcare. Norwich Union highlighted findings from Health of the Nation Index, a survey of 250 general practitioners, which...

New Product - Mutual bond for babies.(Children's Mutual is to offer a stakeholder and non-stakeholder version of its child trust fund.)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... THE Children's Mutual is to offer a stakeholder and non-stakeholder version of its child trust fund. Starting from January, each child will receive a cheque from the government for a minimum of AGBP250 with an additional payment expected...

Pensions cause of government schism.
December 2, 2004... THE pension credit's existence has become "a battle of wills between the Treasury and the rest of government". Stewart Ritchie, pensions development director of Scottish Equitable, said Adair Turner's admission that the government pension...

Non-conforming literacy established.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... A survey, conducted by NOP, revealed that more than two-thirds of those questioned understood why interest rates were higher for borrowers with poorer credit backgrounds. It also showed non-conforming mortgages were not confined to...

FTBs 'pressured' into mortgages.(First-time buyers )(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... TWO-THIRDS of first-time buyers opt for the first mortgage deal they are offered, research shows. A survey by Abbey revealed that just over one-third shopped around for the best mortgage interest rate. First-time buyers in the Midlands...

Industry is divided as depolarisation arrives.
December 2, 2004... THE death of polarisation received a mixed response from IFAs and providers. The FSA's depolarisation policy statement -- Reforming Depolarisation: Implementation -- signals the end of the regime introduced in 1988. Advisers have six...

Offshore myths dispelled.(Abbey for Intermediaries launches campaign)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... ABBEY for Intermediaries has rolled out an integrated marketing campaign to promote its Select offshore bond. The campaign includes targeted direct mailings; online advertising and broadsheet advertising are also being used for the first time....

'Hard hitter' sought for merged Abbey position.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... ABBEY is looking externally for someone to head its newly merged asset management and insurance division. The bank last week reported that it was bringing its asset management and insurance divisions together as part of a series of...

N&P offers offset commercial mortgage.(Norwich and Peterborough Building Society)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... NORWICH and Peterborough Building Society has launched an offset mortgage product for commercial borrowers. Borrowers can offset up to 30 per cent of their mortgage balance using funds in their Offset Business Savings account or Offset...

Clients' needs have to be met, says Smee.(Paul Smee)(Association of Independent Financial Advisers)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... THE biggest challenge facing the new director general of Aifa will be keeping the industry focussed on consumer-facing ideas. This was according to Paul Smee, who after five years as director general of the Association of IFAs is leaving to...

Government is urged to keep tax breaks for Isas.
December 2, 2004... The Pep and Isa Managers' Association has urged the government to extend tax breaks on Isas beyond 2010. Speaking at the association's annual conference in London, John Brasington, chairman of Pima, said the Isa had been the most...

Countryside is hit by a fall in pre-tax profits.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... The market for homes worth more than AGBP300,000 has been hit by a slowdown, according to house builder Countryside Properties. Reporting a fall in pre-tax profits, the company said that the housing market had weakened over the summer with...

Downturn looming, reports Deutsche.(Deutsche Bank)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... Deutsche Bank has painted a pessimistic picture of the housing market and expects prices to fall by 15 per cent. A report by two Deutsche UK economists concluded that the housing market was overvalued by between 20 per cent and 30 per cent....

Static saving figures spurs ABI 'encouragement' call.(Association of British Insurers)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... THE ABI has called for more encouragement for savers following largely static new third-quarter business figures New individual single pensions premium business in the three months ending September accounted for AGBP2.9bn, compared with...

Report says bank branches will adapt to maximise sales.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... The traditional bank branch will survive change but will be reshaped to maximise sales, a Datamonitor report suggests. It concluded that despite the rising popularity of internet banking services, branches remain important for lead...

Menu system too 'complex'.
December 2, 2004... DEPOLARISATION is likely to confuse, not simplify, financial advice, product providers have claimed. Nick Johnson, director of distribution change for Norwich Union, said the menu system would be too lengthy for some consumers. Mr...

More than 120 job cuts at Standard Life.
December 2, 2004... More than 120 support staff at Standard Life are being made redundant as the company prepares for proposed demutualisation. The life and pensions mutual claimed most of the 126 job cuts were a result of rationalisation and would allow it to...

Pharon aims Oeic at retail investors.(IFA Pharon, open ended investment companies)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... The investment arm of Canterbury-based IFA Pharon is to launch a fund-of-funds Oeic to UK retail investors. The Oeic will include three funds, run to balanced-managed, UK equity and cautious-managed mandates, and will launch on 20 December....

Specialist accounts hurt Sipp investors.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... self-invested personal pension investors are being paid low rates of interest on cash balances held in specialist accounts, according to a survey. A survey carried out on behalf of Financial Adviser's sister magazine Pensions Management,...

Threat to future of final salary schemes.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... UK final salary pension schemes will be usurped by defined contribution and hybrid schemes, according to pension experts. Only 3 per cent of the pension fund trustees, consultants and fund managers surveyed at the Bank of New York's Pension...

Lenders chase those keen to remortgage.
December 2, 2004... Lenders are vying for remortgage business as mortgage approvals drop by a third. Moneyextra Mortgages expects more lenders to start allowing existing customers to access mortgage deals available to new borrowers to hold on to business. ...

GE Life's rate move aids annuity buyers.(GE Life and Annuity Assurance Co.)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... GE Life claims it has made buying an enhanced annuity easier by making its rates available to consumers. The annuity provider said the new service, which allows clients to get the rates direct through the Hargreaves Lansdown website, would...

New Product - Halifax serves childrens' treat.(Halifax Group PLC, Halifax Stakeholder Child Trust Fund )(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... HALIFAX Financial Services has put together an equities-based lifestyle-managed stakeholder child trust fund. All contributions to the Halifax Stakeholder Child Trust Fund would be invested in a FTSE 100 Tracker Fund, managed by Insight...

End of Cat standard is no worry for IFAs.(cost, access and terms standard)(Independent Financial Adviser)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... IFAs will be happy to see the demise of the Cat standard when it is discontinued on 6 April next year. The Treasury announced that the cost, access and terms standard would be discontinued in the next tax year as the benchmark for low-cost...

Paragon set to grow after strong profits.
December 2, 2004... Specialist lender Paragon has reported a strong rise in profits and will look to make acquisitions in the future. Its preliminary results for the year to 30 September 2004 showed profits were up by more than a third. Pre-tax profits...

Party attitude will deliver poor old age.(youngsters suffer from a financial hangover in old age due to their 'live for today --Aplan tomorrow' attitude.)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... TODAY'S youngsters will suffer from a financial hangover in old age due to their 'live for today --Aplan tomorrow' attitude. The Prudential claimed that research it had carried out into the spending and saving habits of 18 to 34 year olds...

Conference told to regard menu system as a friend.(Sofa conference)
December 2, 2004... Advisers at the last ever Sofa conference were told to regard the menu system as an opportunity rather than a threat. With the final details of the menu system due at the start of December the focus of the eight and last Sofa Update 2004...

Professional indemnity insurance may cost less.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... THE typical rate for professional indemnity insurance could be less than the 5 per cent feared a year ago. Speaking at the Sofa conference, John Collier, executive director of NCG Professional Risks, said the monopoly of PI suppliers had...

Value to every business, despite the FSA's claims.(United Kingdom. Financial Services Authority)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... DESPITE the FSA's assertions that IFAs were generally unprofitable, there is a value to every adviser's business. This was according to Jennifer Jarrett, managing director of valuations consultancy IMC 2000, who said that while the...

FSA being 'unfair' to loyal policyholders.
December 2, 2004... FSA proposals on surrender values on with profits policies are "grossly unfair" to loyal policyholders, according to the APMM. The Association of Policy Market Makers said plans to increase payments to people who abandoned their with...

Mistaken views on equity release.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... ADVISERS should be less concerned about equity release affecting their PI insurance and more worried about their lack of knowledge. So said Jonathan Wilkey, solicitor with Gloucestershire-based law firm Gwyn James, who claimed that IFAs...

Consifa will hit acquisition trail.(Independent Financial Adviser)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... NATIONAL IFA Consifa plans to acquire four profitable IFA firms within the next year. John Finan, chief executive of Consifa, said since he took up his post at the end of October, he had hit the acquisition trail with renewed vigour. ...

Six months to adopt changes.(depolarisation)
December 2, 2004... THE depolarisation regime takes effect immediately, but advisers have a six-month period of grace to implement the FSA's changes. The 228-page Reforming Polarisation Implementation Policy includes details of the two new key facts documents....

Banks' compliance is better, claims survey.
December 2, 2004... BUILDING societies lag behind banks with a more decentralised approach to compliance, a survey suggests. Research into the impact of regulations on technology requirements, commissioned by Enter- prise Ireland, described banks as quite...

Skandia business shows leap.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... SKANDIA claimed the success of its bonds and wrap product helped increase new third-quarter business by 49 per cent. The life office's assets under management grew 26 per cent to AGBP18bn during the same year-on-year period ending...

New Product - Coventry offers 'cracking' five-year fixed rate.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... COVENTRY has refreshed its range of self-certification mortgages. The range includes two new five-year fixed-rate products. Borrowers can fix their rate at 5.3 per cent until 31 March 2008. The mortgage, which has an early repayment...

Advice will retain popularity.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... INCREASED consumer confusion will make independent financial advice even more important, the body responsible for promoting intermediaries claimed. IFA Promotion said the depolarisation rules that came into force on Wednesday made it an...

Advisers 'must lose fear of saying sorry'.
December 2, 2004... 'SORRY' should no longer be the hardest word for providers following the ABI's renewed focus on complaints handling. This was according to Mike Fairbairn, chairman of the ABI's complaints management group, who said that while the FSA was...

An Isa season is possible this tax year.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... THERE may still be an Isa season this tax year, according to Chelsea Financial Services. The prediction came after the Investment Management Association published its Isa sales figures for October, which showed a significant upturn on the...

Wilkie takes financial planning skills from Co-op to Haines Watts.(meshed briefs)(Alex Wilkie)
December 2, 2004... GENERAL Haines Watts has strengthened its financial planning business with the appointment of IFA Alex Wilkie. Mr Wilkie has joined the accountancy firm from the Co-operative Bank, where he worked with both private and public sector...

Former Coutts man joins JS&P.(John Scott & Partners)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... ANDREW Fisher, former chief executive of Coutts, has been named chairman of John Scott & Partners. Mr Fisher's role will focus on developing the company's presence across the UK and enhancing its reputation among high net-worth individuals....

Compensation calculation software price held in 2005.(Exasoft is freezing the price of its Mortgage Fundamentals software for 2005)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... SOFTWARE provider Exasoft has announced that it is freezing the price of its Mortgage Fundamentals software for 2005. The software is used to calculate the cost of compensation for endowment complaints. Its announcement followed claims...

Joint financial inclusivity initiative offers free advice.
December 2, 2004... THE government and Aifa are joining forces to tackle financial exclusion by offering free financial advice. In advance of the chancellor's pre-Budget speech, Stephen Timms, treasury minister, claimed the government was proposing to tackle...

Putting buyers at ease is the way to break the old industry mould.(Interview)
December 2, 2004... Financial Adviser: Purely Mortgages was launched in September. How has it gone? Mark Chilton: We are pretty pleased with it so far. Like anything new, it takes time to get things right. We are at the stage where we are very...

Need for investors to access ombudsman.(Financial Ombudsman Service)
December 2, 2004... INVESTOR access to the Financial Ombudsman Service must be addressed, according to the Association of Investment Trust Companies. The Treasury's consultation paper on trusts, entitled The Regulation of Investment Trust Companies, set out...

Information gap hurts consumers.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... There is a large information gap between consumers and producers in retail markets for financial products and services. This is according to Clive Briault, managing director of retail markets for the FSA, who said this gap was most...

Bet the house on another failure.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... WHEN the Treasury announced that it was restructuring the charges allowed on stakeholder products to permit an annual charge of 1.5 per cent a few months ago, it must have thought it had finally cracked the problem of poor take-up among the...

Polarisation bows out with barely a whimper.(Decision Day)(Independent Financial Advisers )(Column)
December 2, 2004... BY THE time you read this column, we will have reached the end of an era. D-Day, otherwise known as Decision Day, will be upon the IFA distribution channel, as thousands of financial advisers wake up to -- and begin working under -- the...

New law will fail to stop the credit card sharks.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... SO, A new Consumer Credit Bill is to be introduced to fight against those nasty lenders and credit card issuers whose misuse of APRs has been the blight of borrowers everywhere. I am unimpressed. The bill leaves untouched one of the most...

Multi-tied are 'selling their soul to providers'.
December 2, 2004... MOVING towards the multi-tie model means "selling your soul" to a provider, according to Peter Williams of Aegon. Mr Williams, head of industry development for Aegon, said he did not like the multi-tie model and insisted offering...

Difference of opinion.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... JEREMY Scott of PricewaterhouseCoopers has learned to be nice to journalists over the past 18 months. The professional services firm's global financial services leader had radically changed his perception of financial hacks by the time of...

The international IFA jetset.(international financial services conference)(Independent Financial Advisers )(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... Whoever said the life of an IFA was not glamourous? Greg Pognowski, senior consultant for Ample Financial Services, flew to Moscow and back with a stop in Frankfurt, before heading on to Athens and finally back home, all to follow his football...

If in doubt, keep quiet.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... While some members of staff at PricewaterhouseCoopers are trying hard to stay chatty with the trade press, others are still rather coy when it comes to the media. The company is also doing its bit for the savings gap by 'encouraging' its...

Above-par performance.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... All is well in mortgages, with proof that in the newly regulated world leading brokers still have their priorities sorted. At Hamptons International's inaugural awards dinner, which celebrated the best work carried out both inside and...

No easy ride awaits brave new leader.(Association of Independent Financial Advisers)
December 2, 2004... ANY day now, if my moles are correct, a wisp of smoke will appear above the London offices of Aifa, the Association of Independent Financial Advisers. The smoke will signify the appointment of a successor to Paul Smee, who has sat on the...

Farewell to polarisation.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... POLARISATION is dead and buried as of this week and the world of financial advice may never be the same again. After several years of debate -- multi-tied agents were first suggested in the 90s -- the FSA has decided to forge ahead and...

A smart move.(Association of Independent Financial Advisers, Independent Financial Advisers)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... AIFA, the IFA trade body, is to be applauded for its efforts to link up with government to tackle financial exclusion. Both are trying to boost the availability of limited, free financial advice. There is a clear recognition in government now...

Bad business of a messy fiasco.
December 2, 2004... I CONSIDERED putting a positive spin on matters since M-Day, thinking that the fiasco which followed regulation may have been restricted to just a few companies. How wrong I was. Writing this on the back of two days at Mortgage Expo,...

Should I stay or should I go?
December 2, 2004... SAD as it may seem, it was with mild excitement and anticipation that I printed off the recent FSA insurance sector briefing on the regulation of closed with profits funds. I thought: "At last, detailed guidance that will help advisers...

Safety first as time Sipps by.(PENSION A-Day)
December 2, 2004... PENSION A-Day is only 16 months away, but in terms of pension protection, April 2006 will probably come too soon for many advisers and their clients. It seems confusion still remains over what happens to pension protection after A-Day....

This is no place for amateurs.(Independent Financial Adviser )
December 2, 2004... SOME 80 per cent of IFAs give investment advice based on their own competence. Surprisingly, those making fund selection decisions equal the number making asset-allocation decisions, a discipline in which portfolio construction tools can...

Brussels sprouts tough rules.(financial services )
December 2, 2004... FRESH from an onslaught of recent regulatory changes, the UK financial services sector is now bracing itself for more. This time though, the new rules will come from Brussels on behalf of the European Union -- and in all likelihood, will be...

Tell the world about flexibility.(United Kingdom. Financial Services Authority depolarisation regulations)
December 2, 2004... Following months of industry consultation, consumer research and market testing, the FSA's depolarisation regulations come into effect from 1 December. This is an important regulatory package, which will remove the restrictions that...

And then there were 1300-.(The Consumer Credit Act 1974)
December 2, 2004... ABOUT 30 years ago, the personal finance industry was a very different environment -- the government provided pensions, there was only one credit card and mortgages were not part of most people's personal finances. The Consumer Credit Act...

Brand new image can restore trust.(financial advice industry )
December 2, 2004... FEW would disagree that the financial advice industry suffers from mis-selling scandals, lack of standards and poor qualifications. The most common benchmark -- authorisation to practise -- is largely meaningless as far as public perception...

Time for a first-class package.
December 2, 2004... IN THE lead up to mortgage regulation many questions were asked about the future role of packagers in the marketplace. Packagers never specifically fell within the FSA's remit for regulation, although many people felt they should be. ...

The Lords know best on pensions.(United Kingdom. Parliament. House of Lords)
December 2, 2004... THIS may seem a little political, but I've often admired the House of Lords and wondered why everyone seems in such a rush to abolish it. My admiration arises from the power and standard of the debating in their chamber. Firstly they are...

End of the line for rebroking?
December 2, 2004... Rebroking could be nearing the end of its term in protection as life premiums get set to rise after 15 years of falling rates. Since the late 1980s, when the threat of Aids and HIV was having a significant impact on Western politics,...

Gartmore releases further Sicav offers.(Gartmore Group)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... GARTMORE has launched five new Sicavs to capitalise on its growing popularity among UK investors, said an IFA. Gartmore has launched Gartmore Sicav US Opportunities fund, Gartmore Sicav Asia-Pacific fund, Gartmore Sicav Latin American fund,...

Regime still under attack by advisers.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... Ifas have come out fighting against the FSA's depolarisation plans, claiming they will confuse consumers even more. A number of smaller IFAs have expressed concerns that the depolarisation plans will divide the industry and blur the line...

Iimia picks up solicitors' investment business.(Ford Simey)
December 2, 2004... solicitors' firm Ford Simey has arranged for Iimia to handle future investment business after three years of FSA regulations. The move will see Ford Simey, a 16-partner Devonshire company with offices in Exeter, Sidmouth and Exmouth,...

Simplified CTF rules from FSA are welcomed.(child trust funds)(United Kingdom. Financial Services Authority)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... THE FSA has released simplified rules relating to the government's child trust funds, according to an adviser. The amended rules come into effect on 1 December and follow consultation with the industry, trade associations and consumer...

IFP predicts move to multi-tieds with time.(Institute of Financial Planning)
December 2, 2004... MANY advisers who wish to remain independent will be forced into a multi-tie business model, the IFP has warned. Nick Cann, chief executive of the Institute of Financial Planning, said he believed there would be a delay between the "ideal"...

Abbey's fixed rates leave advisers unimpressed.
December 2, 2004... A NEW range of fixed-rate mortgages with no tie-ins from Abbey for Intermediaries has received a lukewarm response. John Burrett, financial consultant for Oxfordshire-based Morgan Cameron ILP, said the Abbey rates were not particularly...

Revamped Yorkshire BS fixed rate hailed.(Yorkshire Building Society)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... RECENT reductions to Yorkshire Building Society's two-year fixed rates have been hailed as extremely competitive by an IFA. Harry Katz, principal of Middlesex-based Norwest Consultants, said Yorkshire's rates had passed the test. He...

Charcol's capped five-year tracker offers security.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... A NEW five-year capped tracker mortgage from Charcol could offer customers security, an IFA has said. Nick Hanson, director of Hanson Financial Management in Cambridgeshire, said: "It is a good product with a good rate for those who want...

Norwich deviates from the stakeholder route.(Norwich Union PLC)
December 2, 2004... A NEW personal pension from Norwich Union demonstrates a move away from stakeholder schemes, an IFA has said. Ian Howell, IFA with Norwich-based Capital Tower, said it was an obvious step for NU to make and welcomed the recently launched...

Higher annuity age will deliver limited choice.(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... RAISING the annuity age to 85 would only affect those with a significant pension pot, an expert has said. Nigel Barlow, marketing and product manager of Just Retirement, said he doubted annuity business would be very affected if the age was...

'Innovative' Axa tool well received by IFA.(Independent Financial Adviser)
December 2, 2004... AXA has provided IFAs with an innovative protection insurance tool, according to an adviser. Axa, which claims to offer the most comprehensive menu-based offer on the market with Axa Protection Account, went live with the product on 19...

CI report shows link with mortgage market.(critical illness)(Brief Article)
December 2, 2004... Norwich Union has published its critical illness report showing over AGBP49m paid out in 2003. In the past year, Norwich Union paid out AGBP49,045,337, amounting to an average for each claim of AGBP68,403. It also predicts further growth...