Financial Advisor articles from February 2004

Financial Advisor archives from February 2004

FSA accused of mixed messages.
February 12, 2004... PROVIDERS and IFAs are confused by mixed regulatory messages coming from the FSA, according to industry bodies. This comes after the Financial Services Authority issued warnings over endowment mis-selling and self-certification mortgages,...

Destini buys assets off Aaron.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... DESTINI Financial Services has again been on the acquisition hunt, this time acquiring assets from the troubled David Aaron Partnership. The IFA consolidator, which now has 15 IFA firms on its books, has paid an undisclosed cash sum to KPMG...

Mutuals funding limits may be cut.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... MUTUALS could have funding limits lowered in a bid to alter the mortgage market. Mutual societies hope to be consulted on a change in regulations so that 30 per cent of capital raised would be funded by members. At present 50 per cent...

FSA's mixed messages.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... was intended as the prescriptive guidance providers took it to be. The letter sparked action and forced firms to reconsider the endowments complaints process. The significance of the letter is crucial for endowment policy holders. ...

MPs attack over mutuals.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... OPPOSITION MPs have launched a savage attack on the government and FSA alleging new rules will force Standard Life to demutualise. Alex Salmond, Scottish National Party member, asked the Treasury to explain regulations he believed worked...

Former Clydesdale IFAs launch own Scots &firm.(Principal & Prosper )
February 12, 2004... A GROUP of advisers who resigned from Clydesdale Bank's IFA division in November have set up their own IFA firm. Principal & Prosper was launched by the former Clydesdale advisers following a mass exodus from the bank last year. The...

Clerical takes it as read.(Clerical Medical and General Life Assurance Society)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... Clerical Medical is encouraging children to turn off their computers and turn into bookworms. The provider's staff are offering reading support for children aged seven to 11 at schools in the Bristol area. Each child receives...

Banks pull out of stakeholder pensions.(National Westminster Bank PLC)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland have pulled out of the stakeholder pensions market, citing a lack of demand. Less than three years after the government introduced stakeholder pensions to encourage pension savings, the two banks have...

Govt under &fire on pensioners.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... Trade groups, MPs and charities have raised concerns that the government has ignored issues affecting Britain's ageing population. Government proposals to change the way pensioners collect their benefits from a book to a debit card came...

Busy times for Group300.(company's expansion)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... Group300 is planning a series of major launches for the coming months. The busy period will kick off this month with the launch of online service Adviser300, which will let users do their own fact-find and then search a database for a...

Yet more delays to Penrose publication.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... Publication of Lord Penrose's probe into the collapse of Equitable Life looks set to be delayed again. Last week the Treasury said it would need to address Equitable Life bosses' requests for an advance copy before the report was published....

Birmingham made president at SPC.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... The Society of Pension Consultants has appointed Robert Birmingham as its new president. Mr Birmingham will succeed Donald Duval when he completes his two-year term of office on 31 May. Mr Birmingham is managing director of Entegria.

Procuration fees from two lenders.(APS Europe Mortgage Club)(procuration fees)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... Two lenders have introduced new procuration fees. Northern Rock is offering a fee of up to GBP100 for those who make website applications. The bank said any intermediary who applied for a product this way would receive the bonus. Meanwhile, APS...

FSA admits investigating sales was 'not a priority'.
February 12, 2004... The regulator has admitted it delayed investigating potential insurance mis-selling because it thought it was not "a big issue". As early as November 2002, IFAs and clients were warning the FSA that some IFAs were advising replacing...

TUC Budget paper points out female pension poverty.(Trades Union Congress)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... GOVERNMENT should shake up rules regarding women's pension contributions, according to the Trades Union Congress. The TUC's 2004 Budget Submission, published on Monday, predicted that the economy would do well during the next two years,...

Chelsea looks to a bumper year ahead.(Chelsea Building Society expects more growth in 2004)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... Chelsea Building Society expects 2004 to be another bumper year, helped largely by remortgaging. Peter Walsh, finance director said: "It's going to be a big remortgage year this year." He added that performance this year would be...

UBS launches rugby quiz.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... UBS Global Asset Management has begun the countdown to the 2004 Six Nations rugby competition. UBS said it was giving rugby fans a chance to win a prize by predicting the outcome of the Six Nations tournament, kicking off on 14 February in...

PAA plans to double its intermediary client base.(Professional Adviser Alliance)
February 12, 2004... The Professional Adviser Alliance is planning to double the number of intermediaries to whom it sends leads. Stuart Glendinning, director of the PAA, said the move came after the success of sister company MoneySupermarket.com. Mr...

Co-operative creates 500 new UK call centre jobs.(Co-operative Bank PLC)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... CIS and the Co-operative Bank have bucked the off-shoring trend by creating 500 call centre jobs in England. Rather than shift operations to India, the bank and insurer announced last Thursday that 500 employees would be recruited during...

Tilney snaps up property specialist.(Tilney acquires Cardales, specialist property fund manager)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... Tilney has broadened its investment offering by buying Cardales, the specialist commercial property fund manger and property service provider. The purchase includes Cardales' subsidiary, Thesis Asset Management International, which will...

Clerical joins rivals by cutting with profits bonus rates.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... CLERICAL Medical has joined its rivals by cutting pay outs to with profits policyholders. The insurer followed the likes of Standard Life and Scottish Widows and slashed its bonus rates on Wednesday, despite improved stock market returns....

Mortgageforce continues its nationwide expansion.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... MORTGAGEFORCE, the nationwide broker franchise, is planning to take on a further 50 franchisees by the end of this year. Rob Clifford, managing director, said the company, which began four years ago, had a desire to be even better...

Training budgets set to grow across the industry.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... TRAINING budgets for IFA firms could increase by as much as a fifth, research has revealed. Findings showed that one in five firms was expecting to have to increase training budgets by 20 per cent. Most were looking at increases of 10 per...

Lighthouse mortgage club wants members.
February 12, 2004... THE Lighthouse Group has begun a recruitment drive for members to join its mortgage club - LighthouseLoan. This week marked the launch of the division after news was leaked of Mark Evans being poached from Abbey to become Lighthouse's...

ScotProv raises life cover premiums.(Scottish Provident)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... Scottish Provident has increased premiums for life cover with critical illness by 11 per cent. The rise will come into effect on 23 February although Scottish Provident has crafted a pipeline arrangement whereby any quotes given by...

Sipps offer the same legal benefits as DC.(self-invested personal pensions)(Defined Contribution (qualified pension plan) )(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... Sipps offer many of the attractions of a defined contribution scheme from a legal perspective, according to a leading lawyer. Chris Mullens, national head of pensions at Pinsents, said in future, group or corporate self-invested personal...

Safer corporate Sipp launched by Pointon.(self-invested personal pension)
February 12, 2004... POINTON York Sipp Solutions has launched a corporate Sipp which it claimed would be safer than other company schemes. The Leicester-based provider launched the self-invested personal pension, which would be made available to all staff or as...

Govt must tackle the disincentives.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... THE government must tackle disincentives to save for a pension, according to the director general of Aifa. Paul Smee told the Pointon York Sipp Solutions Conference in order to improve the public's perception of pensions the government...

Savings market is skewed against cash.
February 12, 2004... THE government has been accused of ignoring cash-based savings and giving out mixed messages on savings. The Building Societies Association has told a Treasury select committee the government must be clear on what it wanted. It...

Firms facing PII deadline crisis.(firms acting without pro-indemnity policy (PII) under the Financial Services Act could find coverage difficult)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... INSURERS have warned IFAs that the professional indemnity insurance market could get tougher this year, with large numbers of firms seeking cover. Intermediaries seeking PII before the introduction of the insurance mediation directive on...

BoI pulls products after swap rate rise.
February 12, 2004... The Bank of Ireland has been forced to pull a range of fixed-rate mortgages just days after their launch. The UK-only products had to be cancelled because the cost of borrowing in the money markets went up. Roland McCormack, managing...

FSA gives deadline for reduced fees.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... THE FSA has given mortgage firms a deadline to take advantage of reduced registration fees. Firms now have only eight weeks in which to apply for discounted registration with the City regulator. Only firms that register before 1 April will...

1600 jobs go as NU closes HHH.(Norwich Union PLC)(Hill House Hammon)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... NORWICH Union is to shut down broker Hill House Hammon, with the loss of 1600 jobs. Patrick Snowball, chief executive of Norwich Union Insurance, said the closure came after the business saw significant changes in the way customers bought...

Boots offers Liverpool Victoria life insurance.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... High-street chemist Boots has struck a deal with Liverpool Victoria to sell the friendly society's life insurance cover. The level-term product is branded as Boots' Life Insurance, with typical premiums starting at 18p a day for GBP100,000...

IFAs are undecided on fee-based future.(Independent Financial Adviser)
February 12, 2004... IFAs are reluctant to make a decision on whether fee or commission-based business is the way forward. According to research by Pims' new survey team, Pims Panel, 60 per cent of IFAs said that fee paying could be the norm in the future, but...

'Shop around for MPPI' call.
February 12, 2004... Lenders are charging too much for mortgage payment protection insurance, according to an independent broker. Rhino Insurance, part of Goodfellows, claimed that if borrowers shopped around they would realise they could get better deals...

Fund loses favour after downturn.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... Gartmore's GBP33m US Bear fund is bottom of the performance tables, prompting IFAs to ditch it from their buy lists. Its non-correlative performance with world equity markets suggests the bear market could have finally bedded down for...

ABI calls for reform of 'archaic' DC pension rules.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... A LEVEL regulatory playing field is needed for all types of defined contribution pensions schemes, according to the ABI. The Association of British Insurers has called for the Pensions Bill to include further simplification for defined...

EDS takes over LV admin service.
February 12, 2004... EDS is to run Liverpool Victoria's life, pensions and retail investment administration service in Exeter. The company has taken on operational responsibility for the society's IFA servicing, underwriting, claims and back office administration...

Buy-to-let debate at conference.(Homebuyer Show, housing)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... A debate on the buy-to-let market will be part of next month's Homebuyer Show at the ExCel Centre in London. Housing experts will debate whether the market will boom, bust or plateau this year. The show runs from 5 to 7 March.

Money can buy love, sometimes.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... Earning power is less important in relationships than conventional wisdom suggests, according to a new survey. Research conducted by Royal London suggests that only 3 per cent of people have admitted to having lied about their salary to impress...

L&G becomes sole Lambeth supplier.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... Legal & General has been appointed the sole supplier of a range of insurance products for the Lambeth Building Society. L&G will supply household, accident, sickness and unemployment insurance. The move extends an existing relationship between...

Equitable faces more claims from investors.
February 12, 2004... THOUSANDS more Equitable Life policyholders could make claims for compensation from the insurer, according to Paul Weir. The former vice-chairman of Equitable Late Joiners' Action Group has launched a new pressure group calling for...

House price infation still up says Halifax.
February 12, 2004... Fears that the housing market could be cooling may have been quashed by the latest figures from Halifax. The mortgage bank said house prices increased by 2.2 per cent in January, taking annual house price inflation to 16 per cent. ...

Two lenders up funding lines.
February 12, 2004... Two specialist mortgage lenders have increased their funding lines, reflecting the strong demand in the market. Sub-prime lender Mortgages Plc has doubled its funding line capacity to GBP800m after taking out two new GBP200m facilities. ...

UK &firms react too slowly, says Davies.
February 12, 2004... THE former chairman of the FSA has criticised UK firms for being too slow to respond to European regulations. Sir Howard Davies, who stepped down last year to become director of the London School of Economics, said that many firms did not...

Two new directors taken on by FSA.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... THE FSA has appointed two directors to deal with strategy and services. Kari Hale will take over as director of the finance strategy and risk division, while Peter Soden has been promoted to head of the services division. John Tiner,...

Attack on 'cancer' of FSA and FOS.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... AN IFA has accused the regulator of being the "internal cancer of uncertainty" in a letter sent to Callum McCarthy, chairman. Steve Pett, founder of the site, www.ifabonus.co.uk, launched a scathing attack on the FSA and the FOS in his...

Conveyancer to pay introduction fees.(new web service aims to speed up conveyancing)
February 12, 2004... AN online conveyancing service has been launched with the specialist aim of giving intermediaries a fee if they make introductions. Called Convex Conveyancing, the business has been set up by a lawyer, with the primary purpose of using the...

Building societies reveal profits rise.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... FRESH evidence of the buoyant housing market emerged as two building societies unveiled strong annual results. The Skipton Building Society revealed its profits had risen from GBP53.4m in 2002 to GBP57.8m for the year to the end of 2003....

Pension paper deals with savings shortfall.
February 12, 2004... PROPOSALS to include an opt-out provision in company pension schemes and improve savings education could help plug savings shortfalls, say experts. The qualified endorsement came as they gave a broad welcome to the latest pensions...

Calls for more info.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... MORE information on the state of individual pension pots is needed, according to Stewart Ritchie. The pensions development director of Scottish Equitable welcomed the government's plan to launch an online pension planner, which would look...

Get them while they're young.(child trust funds)
February 12, 2004... THE new pricing regime for child trust funds is recognition of the modest earnings made from the funds, providers said. The Inland Revenue announced that the government would make a U-turn on child trust funds and set a 1.5 per cent price...

Inter-Alliance IFAs &locking to Positive.
February 12, 2004... The number of advisers working for Positive Solutions climbed last year, with many joining from Inter-Alliance, the firm claims. Positive Solutions, part-owned by Aegon, recorded a 36 per cent rise in registered individuals over the 12...

Sesame shifts focus to GI and loans.(general insurance)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... Sesame has reshuffled its operations, shifting staff from life and pensions into mortgages and general insurance. The network made 29 positions in its life and pensions division redundant last week, with job losses spread across its offices...

New fund operates within Islamic law.(Integrated Property Investments)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... Integrated Property Investments has launched a property fund aimed at relatively wealthy Muslims. The sharia-compliant fund, called the Beacon 1 Limited Partnership, is designed to tap in to demand for property as a more stable asset class...

A fast-growing company thrives in an increasingly diverse world.(Interview)
February 12, 2004... FINANCIAL ADVISER: You said the acquisition of The Bureaux was done to enhance the services you offer. How do you plan to integrate it with AFFS? TIM MORGAN: We had been looking at the area of annuities and found that in terms of processes...

Twisted logic and a lack of transparency.(Deloitte consultants)
February 12, 2004... At some stage in the next few months one of the most-read documents in life office product development circles will be the one written by a team of Deloitte consultants on behalf of the Treasury. The research paper is the one in which...

Standard Life tries to ignore the past.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... Memo to Standard Life: if you are going to defend yourself against an increasingly vicious press, don't leave yourself open to suggestions that you are hiding something from them. For example, when you issue a press release with details of...

Suing the government for mis-selling.(employees' stakeholder pensions)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... You have to admire the government's sense of humour. Last week, it announced that it is considering proposals whereby companies who do not contribute to their employees' stakeholder pensions may have to pay for an adviser to talk to their staff...

It's time to admit you've got it wrong.(Association of Independent financial advisers)
February 12, 2004... THESE are not good days to be an independent financial adviser. High-profile company collapses such as RJ Temple and the David Aaron Partnership, widespread accusations of endemic product mis-selling and the continued problems in getting...

Hangover fear for credit binge.
February 12, 2004... THE Liberal Democrats have warned UK consumer debt could escalate to GBP1 trillion by this summer. The amount consumers now owe to banks and other creditors now matches the total external debt of Africa, Asia and Latin America combined,...

Putting the case for with profits.
February 12, 2004... History does have a way of repeating itself. With profits is a case in point and Standard Life is currently the focus of attention, but - as is often the case - when considered in isolation some recent analysis of the issue can lead to...

Facing up to student funding.
February 12, 2004... THE government is planning to introduce university 'top up' fees, capped at GBP3000 a year, from September 2006. These would replace the up-front tuition fee and the student loan would be extended so that the burden will fall more heavily...

Time to go to work with your clients.(workplace selling)
February 12, 2004... THE year is well underway and IFAs are busy implementing business plans but, despite new business being far from overflowing, IFAs continue to overlook the potential of workplace selling. Workplace selling is a natural partner to the...

Section 32 can ride again.(occupational pension scheme)
February 12, 2004... The term Section 32 policy has been around for a long time - since 1981 to be precise. It was Section 32 of the Finance Act 1981 that put into law the concept of an insurance policy for buying out someone's entitlement from an occupational...

The pensions revolution is here.(Department for Work and Pensions)
February 12, 2004... Last year was a year in which a lot appeared to happen, but appearances can be deceptive. Dominating the landscape has been the outline of the comprehensive reforms of private pensions led by the Department for Work and Pensions and the...

Sipps are dead, long live Sipps.(pensions)
February 12, 2004... AS ANTICIPATED, the Inland Revenue's proposals on pensions tax simplification were finally revealed in mid-December - just one week short of a year after their initial proposals were published in 2002. The latest document confirms that, if...

How to both retire and work.
February 12, 2004... PEOPLE'S work patterns are now very different from a generation ago: a job for life is a thing of the past. Individuals tend to change jobs or professions several times during their working lives; they go from being employed to self-employed...

Getting the OMO message across.(open market option)
February 12, 2004... TOWARDS the end of last year the FSA published a review of the annuity open market option, looking at how consumer behaviour has changed over the previous 12 months. This followed the new rules, which were introduced in September 2002,...

Pile 'em high and sell 'em cheap.
February 12, 2004... If you walk down the aisle of your local supermarket, tucked between the cornflakes and the baked beans you will find an ever expanding range of financial products. And the pile-em-high, price-em-cheap drive to launch more products shows...

N&P launches linked offset mortgage.(Norwich and Peterborough Building Society)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... Norwich and Peterborough Building Society has launched an offset mortgage linked to its current and savings accounts. The account is available for two types of mortgage: the lifetime tracker mortgage - at 0.8 percentage points above Bank of...

Chelsea starts issue of fifth two-year fixed-rate bond.(Chelsea Building Society)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... Chelsea Building Society has launched the fifth issue of its two-year fixed-rate bond, replacing the fourth issue from 30 January. The new bond pays an annual gross rate of 5 per cent (4 per cent net). The minimum investment is GBP1000 and the...

Clough steps down from Schroder Tokyo Fund.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... Denis Clough is to step down from managing the GBP655m Schroder Tokyo fund. Andrew Rose, head of Japanese Equities for Schroder will take over management of the fund, but is not expected to make significant changes to its team-driven strategy....

Gartmore renames fund of funds as Gartmore Portfolio.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... Gartmore has renamed its fund of funds business asGartmore Portfolio. The first fund within the portfolio is the GBP360m Balanced Strategy unfettered fund of funds. It contains seven UK funds, four US, one Japan, two Asian and one emerging...

Exweb to show Scottish Widows' pension quotations.(Exchange's portal)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... Scottish Widows has introduced personal and stakeholder pension quotations on The Exchange's Exweb portal. IFAs can request Scottish Widows Sipp and stakeholder quotations on a single company basis, and using the comparison service, simplify...

Flurry of new deals for end-of-year investors.(Buyers Guide)
February 12, 2004... INVESTORS who have waited until the end of the tax year to use their Isa allowance will benefit from a flurry of new deals. Eloise Collins, an investment manager for London-based IFA Cavendish Young, said: "We have been bombarded by...

Birmingham Midshire's fix should be popular.(fixed-rate savings account)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... Birmingham Midshires' fixed-rate savings account should prove popular with savers, according to a leading IFA. The account offers 5 per cent gross fixed for one year. There is also a monthly interest option at 4.89 per cent gross. ...

IFA calls for manager voting transparency.(Indespendent Financial Advisor)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... IFA Justin Modray has called for fund managers to disclose their voting patterns at AGMs of companies they invest in. Mr Modray, investment adviser, Bestinvest, said: "If fund managers were to collectively carry a lot of voting weight,...

Abbey leads rush to set new fixed rates.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... LENDERS started cutting fixed rates early last week in expectation of increased competition on the back of the Bank of England's quarter-point interest rate hike. Abbey lowered rates for its Sure range of two- and five-year fixes by 0.25...

Amber enters prime market with three-year offers.(Amber Homeloans)(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... AMBER Homeloans entered the prime mortgage market last week, with three prime three-year discounted products. There is a 1.5 percentage point discount against the provider's 5.84 per cent variable mortgage rate (giving a 4.34 per cent pay...

'Not the right time to introduce trackers'.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... IFA David Ellingworth has speculated that Mortgage Trust has chosen the wrong time to launch a three-year discounted tracker mortgage. Mr Ellingworth, managing director of Ashton-under-Lyne-based IFA Effective Financial Planning, said it...

Industry divided over latest pension plans.
February 12, 2004... INDUSTRY commentators have given a mixed response to the government's plans for encouraging more effective retirement saving. A paper called Informed Choices for Working and Saving was published earlier this month, setting out the steps...

A-day may not protect annuity death cash.(Brief Article)
February 12, 2004... Advisers have been warned that the Inland Revenue could still clamp down on annuity death benefits after A-Day. Pensions expert Peter Quinton issued the warning after pension provider Open Annuities has announced changes to its annuity...