Financial Advisor articles from February 2005

Financial Advisor archives from February 2005

Challenge to top portal spot.(Independent Financial Adviser portal market)(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... THE Exchange's dominance of the IFA portal market is under threat, according to rival Assureweb. Stephen Wynne-Jones, director of strategy for Assureweb, said 2004 had been a record year for the portal, with business and user figures...

New Product - NU offers guaranteed capital return after five years.(Norwich Union)(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... INVESTORS in Norwich Union's new with profits guaranteed fund have been promised their money back after five years. The guarantee is regardless of the performance of the fund. To qualify investors must withdraw the full amount within two...

Red book for Sir Mark.(Sir Mark Weinberg, Chairman of St James's Place Capital)(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... "Sir Mark Weinberg, this is your life," said colleagues of the president of St James's Place Capital at the company's recent annual meeting. During the event at London's Barbican Centre, Sir Mark's wife, daughters and personal assistant of...

Ship reports highest equity release data.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... EQUITY release business topped AGBP1.4bn in 2004, a 2.7 per cent year-on-year rise, according to industry body Ship. Total new business written by all 17 members of Safe Home Income Plans was at its highest level ever last year. Ship,...

Product revamp follows takeover at Mortgages Plc.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... MORTGAGES Plc has overhauled its entire product range following its take over by Merrill Lynch. The sub-prime residential lender claimed the new range, launched three months after its acquisition, allowed intermediaries to choose from an...

New Product - Framlington opens up.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... RETAIL investors can now take advantage of the Framlington managed balanced fund. For the first time since its launch on 31 December 1992 the fund has been made available to the retail market. The fund aims to provide a smoothed return...

Repayment holidays given cold shoulder.(mortgage repayment)
February 3, 2005... BORROWERS are shunning mortgage repayment holidays in favour of underpayment and overpayment options. Robert Clifford, managing director of Mortgageforce, said fears that clients were delaying their mortgage repayments to pay off debts...

Lenders spend around AGBP345m on regulation.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... MORTGAGE lenders spent about AGBP345m preparing for regulation, according to a survey by Marlborough Stirling. The survey indicated the average amount spent by lenders was AGBP2.3m, but three out of 10 spent more than AGBP4m bracing...

Protection market boon as Zurich begins return.
February 3, 2005... ZURICH'S return to the protection market and Scottish Equitable's renewed guaranteed critical illness rates are positive signs, according to intermediaries. Zurich has embarked on the first phase of its re-entry into the protection market...

Pension bodies rebuff Turner.(Pensions Policy Institute and Association of Consulting Actuaries submits to Turner Commission)(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... A HIGHER retirement age and rejection of compulsion were the main themes as pension bodies responded to the Turner commission. The Pensions Policy Institute and Association of Consulting Actuaries both submitted their responses to the...

St James's Place plugs gaps with multi-tie deals.(St. James's Place Capital PLC)
February 3, 2005... ST JAMES'S Place has plugged gaps in its range of products by striking multi-tie deals with providers. Unlike many distributors, which have narrowed the range of products they offer access to, St James's Place has taken advantage of...

New Product - Fidelity's offshore copied onshore.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... FIDELITY Investment will launch a sterling bond fund in April that replicates the successful offshore Fidelity Sterling Bond fund. The fund, which is still subject to FSA approval, will be managed by Fidelity fixed-income manager Ian...

Severn lays into FSA on first day.(Financial Services Authority)(directoral general of Association of Independent Financial Advisers David Severn)
February 3, 2005... DAVID Severn, the new director general of Aifa, has launched an attack on the FSA in his first day in the job. Mr Severn, who has worked in regulation for 15 years, most recently as head of retail investment policy for the FSA, took up the...

Year of growth for Pru but Standard Life stalls.(Prudential)(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... LIFE office business figures have shown strong growth for Prudential but stalling UK sales for Standard Life. Prudential's new business figures for 2004 showed UK and Europe annual premium equivalent sales up 40 per cent on 2003. Sales...

Principia first with a defined solution.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... PRINCIPIA has become the first IFA to provide a defined-cash fund solution to the final salary pension conundrum. The London-based IFA has worked with Scottish Life to establish the first commercial occupational scheme to help IFAs...

New Product - Abbey's offer 'uncompetitive'.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... ABBEY has refreshed its fixed-rate mortgage range. Homebuyers looking to borrow up to 95 per cent of the property's price can fix their rate at 5.14 per cent for two years. Those looking for a longer fixed rate, but still wanting to...

Cofunds plays down talk of L&G backing.(Legal & General )
February 3, 2005... COFUNDS has played down speculation that Legal & General could become an equity backer for the fund supermarket. Cofunds has entered a strategic partnership with L&G that will see the fund supermarket providing an open architecture fund...

FSA finally releases rules on with profits.(Financial Services Authority)
February 3, 2005... AFTER a four-year wait the industry has finally seen new rules on how it should treat with profits policyholders. After beginning its review of with profits in February 2001, the FSA has unveiled rules for areas such as penalties for the...

Major decline in annuity rates.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... ANNUITY rates have fallen by almost half over the past 10 years. The annual annuity review produced by Investment, Life & Pensions Moneyfacts also revealed a continued decline in annuity rates during 2004. Average rates for a customer...

Second takeover by Torquil.(Torquil Clark acquired LifePolicies Direct)(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... TORQUIL Clark has more than doubled its turnover with the acquisition of Shropshire-based LifePolicies Direct. The deal, for an undisclosed sum, is the latest in a series of acquisition announcements made by the IFA group, which snapped up...

Fees will not exceed inflation, says FSA.(Financial Services Act)
February 3, 2005... THE FSA plans to spend AGBP266.6m in 2005-06, but promised regulatory fees would only rise in line with inflation. In his business plan for 2005-06 Callum McCarthy, chairman of the FSA, said the City watchdog looked set to spend 6.5 per...

New Product - C&G boosts its range.(Cheltenham and Gloucester Building Society)(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... CHELTENHAM & Gloucester has enhanced its mortgage range with the launch of a two-year premium fixed-rate mortgage. The mortgage offers a rate of 4.99 per cent until 31 March 2007 and is aimed at customers with a large deposit. It is...

'Easy to fall short' on fair treatment.(Financial Services Authority's 'Treating Customers Fairly' standards )(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... THE risk of IFAs and providers falling short of the FSA's Treating Customers Fairly standards is significant, according to Barclays. Andrew Podd, compliance director for Barclays, said a company's response to the initiative needed to...

Nvesta investors told to wait on payments.
February 3, 2005... INVESTORS in the troubled Eurolife Secured Bond will be made to wait for plans to repay the AGBP15m of capital they invested in 1999. The provider of the Eurolife Secured Bond, Nvesta, is working to meet a deadline of 6 February to inform...

Vow to make all IFAs aware of FSA's role.(Independent Financial Advisers)(Financial Services Authority)
February 3, 2005... THE FSA needs to "up its game" in communicating its regulatory role to IFAs. David Kenmir, managing director of the City watchdog's regulatory services business unit, told Complinet's second annual compliance conference last week that many...

Companies to be hit by rise in claims.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... COMPENSATION claims against companies will double this year, according to the FSA. The authority told the Complinet conference that claims made against companies would rise by 53 per cent, from 13,400 to in the year to March 2004 to 20,500...

Regulation shifts spending priorities.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... MORTGAGE and general insurance regulation has forced the FSA to shift its priorities and spending towards IFAs. The FSA's business plan revealed that the watchdog's new responsibilities for mortgages and general insurance regulation had...

Alarm over threat to role of with profits.(market value reduction)
February 3, 2005... RESTRICTIONS on the use of market value reductions could end the role of with profits inside stakeholder pensions, according to providers. Pension providers are waiting for the final regulations from the Department for Work and Pensions on...

FSA's CRD requirements 'well meant but ill-timed'.(Capital Requirements Directive)(Financial Services Authority)
February 3, 2005... CAPITAL adequacy requirements for providers may be well intentioned, but their timing leaves a lot to be desired, according to IFAs. On Thursday the FSA finally set out its proposals for the UK implementation of the Capital Requirements...

Parties urged to raise stamp duty with prices.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... Halifax has urged all political parties to back increasing the stamp duty threshold from AGBP60,000 to AGBP156,900. In a survey conducted by the lender, 70 per cent of those questioned wanted the government to adjust stamp duty to bring it...

Stand-out range from Winterthur.(Winterthur Life (UK) Ltd.)(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... WINTERTHUR is planning to enhance its life and pensions multi-manager range to differentiate itself from its competitors. New funds will be added to the existing range of retail unit trusts and Oeics. Winterthur said that more detailed...

New Product - Pumas are set to roar.(Venture capital of Shore Capital)(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... TWO Pumas have been unleashed on the venture capital trust market market by sponsors Howard Kennedy. The London-based law firm has launched four VCTs, including the Puma VCT and Puma VCT II -- both growth funds -- and will try to raise...

New Product - Meeting IHT worries.(Institution of Highways & Transportation)(Legal and General)(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... LEGAL & General has addressed growing concern about IHT liability with the launch of a whole-of-life protection plan. The plan has been launched with guaranteed rates, a measure L&G hoped would be welcomed by the mass market that the...

Prices fall again, but stability is expected.(residential real estate)
February 3, 2005... HOUSE prices fell for the seventh consecutive month in January, but are expected to stabilise. Hometrack's monthly survey of residential property prices showed that values fell 0.4 per cent, a smaller fall than reported for the previous...

April date is set for FA awards.(Financial Adviser Investment Awards)(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... The 2005 Financial Adviser Investment Awards will take place on 14 April. The awards, which were launched last year, recognise excellence not only within the IFA community but also among providers of mutual funds. The results of an...

MVRs off Wesleyan's with profits product.( CURRICULUM VITAE S. PAVAN KUMAR H.NO. 2-2-1118/3/A-1, New Nallakunta, Ph: 55539780. Hyderabad. e-mail: pa1kumar.s@gmail.com pavan_3983@yahoo.com CAREER OBJECTIVE: To get placed in an exemplary organization, where there is an opportunity to share, update my knowledge, improvise my latent talents and contribute for the elevation of organization. ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS: O B.Sc (Maths, Physics, Computer Science) from Sardar Patel College affiliated to Osmania University O Intermediate (Maths, Physics, Chemistry ) from New Govt.Junior College. O S.S.C. from Board of Secondary Education, Andhra Pradesh. O Type Writing Higher grade TECHNICAL SUMMARY: Operating Systems : MS-DOS, Windows 95,98 Programming Languages : C, C++. Internet Skills : HTML, DHTML. Packages : MS-Office 2000 WORK EXPERIENCE: o Working as an INDEXER in CADSYS (INDIA) LTD. since July, 2004. o Worked as a COMPUTER OPERATOR in the office of Mr. T.S.Venkata Ramana, Advocate for a period of 1 year 6 months. JOB PROFILE: As an indexer I index the online reference libraries (journals) information with controlled vocabulary terms so as to enable the online searchers to retrieve the information required by them. PERSONAL PROFILE: FatherEs Name : S.Subrahmanya Sharma Date of Birth : Septemeber 3, 1983 Marital Status : Un u Married Nationality : Indian. Religion : Hindu Languages Known : English, Hindi, Telugu. STRENGTHS: * Good oral and written communication skills. * Hard working and able to achieve tough targets. * Active participation in team work and belief in team work. DECLARATION: I hereby declare that the above mentioned information is true and correct to the best of my knowledge. Place : Hyderabad Date : S.PAVAN KUMAR market value reduction )(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... WESLEYAN Assurance Society has removed all MVRs from its with profits fund after reporting a 14 per cent return in 2004. The Wesleyan life and pensions with profits fund rose 14.3 per cent in 2004, thanks to a large holding in equities and...

Genesis drops its brand names.(to avoid problems for brokers sourcing key facts illustrations documents)(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... MORTGAGE network Genesis is dropping its branded lending product names to avoid problems for brokers sourcing key facts illustrations documents. John Lee, head of sales and marketing for Genesis, said: "It had become apparent that brokers...

Residential property in Sipps could raise costs.
February 3, 2005... THE inclusion of residential property within self-invested personal pension schemes could increase the cost of administration, according to Winterthur Life. Mike Morrison, pensions strategy manager of Winterthur Life, said providers...

Wine investment firm opens its own IFA consultancy arm.(Independent Financial Adviser)(PREMIER Cru Fine Wine Investments)(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... PREMIER Cru Fine Wine Investments has launched its own IFA consultancy division to cope with demand for the alternative investment. Premier Cru said there was growing interest in wine as a source of high growth investment returns, but that,...

Christows shows how to do wrap.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... DISCRETIONARY portfolio manager Christows is hosting intermediary roadshows to discuss the suitability of wrap products. It has teamed up with three specialist product providers for the roadshows, which run from 8 February to 23 February....

Hartford offers bond in the UK.(Hartford Life Inc.)(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... US INSURER Hartford is expanding in the UK and hopes to attract IFA interest with its sales support. Hartford, through its UK subsidiary, Hartford Life Limited, plans to launch a unit-linked investment bond, offering a capital guarantee,...

Standard Life bids to protect.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... STANDARD Life has signalled a bid for the protection market with rate changes across its product range and new online processing. The Edinburgh-based insurer has launched an online system for its protection range -- Life Protection Series...

PYV offers to help 'illegal' IFAs.(Independent Financial Adviser)(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... MANY IFAs that previously held FSA waivers for professional indemnity cover could be trading illegally, according to PI broker PYV. Under the European Union's insurance mediation directive, all IFA companies had to have PI cover from 14...

First Services' express access.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... INTERMEDIARIES using portal First Services now have automated access to data feeds from Financial Express. The portal, developed by technology solutions provider First, is designed to support users of its adviser office software who...

New Product - Bristol & West balances needs.(Bristol and West Building Society)(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... BRISTOL & West Mortgages has launched a mortgage range it claims will appeal to remortgagers and new borrowers. It is offering a 4.89 per cent two-year fix in both purchase and remortgage-friendly versions. Purchasers benefit from AGBP300...

Lawrence takes his merger and acquisition experience to HACL.(appointments at financial services)(HSBC Actuaries and Consultants Ltd )
February 3, 2005... GENERAL HSBC Actuaries and Consultants Ltd (HACL) has appointed a senior consultant and actuary to its team. Simon Lawrence brings with him an extensive knowledge of the merger and acquisition market. He is a former principal of...

Bloomsbury MBO sees end of link with Destini.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... DESTINI and Bloomsbury Financial Planning are parting ways only a year after coming together with much fanfare. On Tuesday, Destini revealed that the same discretionary management business model that first attracted the IFA group to...

Abbey may cut back intermediary sales.
February 3, 2005... Fears have been raised that Abbey will move out of the intermediary market in pursuit of direct sales. Santander Central Hispano executives, attending the first board meeting of Abbey since its takeover by the Spanish bank in October, said...

New Product - Mortgage Works dips toe into adverse waters.(THE Mortgage Works subsidiary of Portman Building Society)(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... THE Mortgage Works, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Portman Building Society, is to offer an adverse credit mortgages range. The two portfolios of credit repair and light adverse mortgages mark the specialist lender's first foray into this...

Snape wins TFC product position.(Simon Snape )(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... MortgagE distributor TFC has named a new head of products. Simon Snape will be responsible for ensuring the availability of the best possible range of products across all the company's distribution channels. Mr Snape started his career...

New Product - A solid selection.(Scottish Equitable International)(www.scottishequitable.co.uk)
February 3, 2005... SCOTTISH Equitable has launched an investment bond and added two funds to its life fund range. The single premium investment bond is aimed at investors with a minimum of AGBP5000 wishing to invest for the medium to long term. The...

Performance-related pay for FSA.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... THE FSA's regulation chief is considering offering his staff a performance-related pay scheme. David Kenmir, managing director of the FSA's regulatory business unit, unveiled his plans at Complinet's second annual conference in central...

Investing in product innovation rather than brand promotion.(Mike Yardley)(Interview)
February 3, 2005... FINANCIAL ADVISER: How do you cope with juggling the different businesses you look after? MIKE YARDLEY: The three main businesses that we are dealing with are the asset management company Royal London Asset Management, the pensions...

FSA accused over fee blocks.(Association of Private Client Investment Managers)(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... APCIMS has demanded the FSA recategorise fee blocks over claims members will have to pay increases of 100 per cent. Angela Knight, chief executive of the Association of Private Client Investment Managers, said the rise amounted to...

Companies fail with profits requirements.
February 3, 2005... SOME with profits providers are failing to fully address the regulatory requirements introduced in April 2004. According to research by Tillinghast, providers have not fully addressed the principles and practices of financial management...

Talent for trouble goes on for B&B.(Bradford & Bingley PLC)(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... Reading the trade press, you might be forgiven for wondering how Bradford & Bingley has managed to become, yet again, the embarrassed and unwilling participants in a HM Bateman cartoon. The bank's 'error' is to do with the fact that it cut...

CAB taking slow road to nowhere.(Citizens Advice Bureaux)(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... Meanwhile, from the corner of my eye, I have also been keeping an eye on the painful and long-running attempt to provide generic financial advice to clients of Citizens Advice Bureaux. Indeed, I wrote approvingly on the subject ages ago, or at...

Bananas' Day boomerangs.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... After a six-month sailing trip, mortgage administrator Cheryl Day has returned to work at Bananas Inc. Cheryl and her husband set sail last summer aboard their 35ft yacht bound for a series of Mediterranean ports. The high point of the...

Bid to lift profile of FSA's key facts logo.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... THE FSA wants to work with advisers to encourage "awareness and importance" of the key facts logo. An awareness campaign to promote the logo, introduced with the onset of mortgage regulation, was launched by the FSA two months ago. The...

Loos are no.1 favourite.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... AN impressive mix of industry professionals and journalists turned out at London's Crazy Bear bar recently for the IFA Promotion depolarisation party. However, toilets somehow made their way into the conversation, and not just when they...

CTF ad is just child's play.(child trust fund )(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... The world's local bank, HSBC, says a child trust fund is as easy as A, B, C. In the HSBC world, A denotes Access. The bank says opening an HSBC CTF is child's play even for busy parents, as the account can be opened online. HSBC's creative...

More bics and coffee breaks than education.(Column)
February 3, 2005... Mea culpa. A few years ago, I recall Victoria Nye, then director of training and education for Autif, banging on about the merits of educating people about money. I was incredibly sceptical, joking that all I remembered from my time in the...

Cash down by the docks.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... A SURVEY by a leading Docklands estate agents has revealed that the fairer sex is making a mint. Research by Rubicon found that the area's well-heeled women command annual salaries that are, in many cases, even dwarfing those of their...

Stamp duty marks us all.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... The housing market will take centre stage in the run-up to the next general election, expected this year. Stamp duty, an issue which has simmered but never fully come to the boil, threatens to dominate. A Halifax report on stamp duty last...

Second takeover for Torquil.(LifePolicies Direct )(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... administration staff or merging with another company. During the past 12 months, LifePolicies Direct has been in talks with several potential buyers but opted for Torquil Clark after finding it shared a similar ethos. Mr King said: "Having...

Bottled growth.(Premier Cru Fine Wine Investments a wine investments company)(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... Raise a glass to Premier Cru Fine Wine Investments. It has set up an IFA to deal with investments in the fruit of the vine. Premier has informed potential investors to expect returns on fine wine to be between 10 per cent and 12 per cent a...

Time to decide on regulation's future.
February 3, 2005... WE have now reached a fork in the regulatory road, following the lack of a clear-cut decision in Legal & General's appeal against the AGBP1.1m fine imposedby the Financial Services Authority. The direction we take will decide for the next...

Industry shows its creativity.(insurance)
February 3, 2005... Those who have made a habit of complaining that private medical insurance providers never think outside the box when designing new products have been silenced by several recent launches. PruHealth, a joint venture between Prudential and...

A deal to stop split capital controversy.
February 3, 2005... Following the announcement of a deal between the FSA and a number of regulated firms on split capital trusts, attention again turns to the fundamental question -- have the lessons of the failed split capital investment trusts been learnt? ...

Danger of prevalent panacea.(financial crime risks in information security)
February 3, 2005... Technology was once hailed as the saviour to an overworked adviser or an under-resourced company. However, now technology could pose a material risk to companies, or so warns the FSA in its latest paper, Countering financial crime risks in...

The fine art of wasting FSA cash.(Financial Services Authority )(Column)
February 3, 2005... Every once in a while I am prompted to turn my attention to one issue or another by calls or e-mails from fellow IFAs. I neglected to use such a prompt last week, as it would begin to look as though every IFA's view of 2005 was shaping up...

Spending big and moving fast.
February 3, 2005... AFTER three years of negligible growth, the prime London property market is finally poised to outshine other sectors of the housing market. This may seem a bold statement to make given that the Halifax, the UK's largest mortgage lender, is...

End a capacity to exploit the ill.
February 3, 2005... THERE is no doubt that the Mental Capacity Bill, which is currently passing through Parliament, is potentially an extremely important piece of legislation. Its impact on financial advisers is less immediately obvious, however the...

Avoid liability of a bad rating.
February 3, 2005... A rare audit qualification relating to FRS17, the financial reporting standard on pensions, at the UK subsidiary of the US drugs group Merck, raised a few eyebrows within the accountancy and actuarial professions and is likely to have an impact...

Individual tailoring to suit every need.(individual private medical insurance scemes)
February 3, 2005... Individual private medical insurance (PMI) is probably now more widely accessible than ever before. Your clients can even buy it along with their weekly groceries at their local supermarket. The blurb accompanying the fanfare of trumpets...

Positive feel in volatile market.(stock markets)
February 3, 2005... ASIA-Pacific markets have performed well relative to all the other major asset classes over the past year, with the FTSE World Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) Index returning 15.52 per cent to the beginning of January. This compares with...

A risky remedy gains approval.(pension funds)
February 3, 2005... JUST when one solution to the pensions crisis is booted out, another is mooted. A myriad of suggestions have been made as to how the AGBP57bn pension shortfall can be made up, but so far no suggestion has satisfied everyone and no decisions...

PFB hedge fund is creative but complicated.(Pinder Fry & Benjamin)(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... PINDER Fry & Benjamin's hedge fund for retail investors has been branded 'complicated' by an IFA. The PFB Guaranteed FTSE Hedge Index Fund, which was launched last month, offers retail investors exposure to hedge funds. Minimum...

AA extends telephone banking with internet offer.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... THE AA has entered the internet savings account market to compete with Egg, Alliance & Leicester and Northern Rock. The AA, which entered the savings market for the first time in July 2004 with a telephone banking service, has launched the...

Britannia's fixed rate is sure to compete well.
February 3, 2005... A NEW two-year fixed-rate mortgage from Britannia Building Society has been hailed as "extremely competitive" by an IFA. Cliff Francis, mortgage adviser for Hertfordshire-based EZI UK, said the rate of 4.89 per cent was something he would...

Fixed-rate fall confirms lenders' expectations.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... Frank Cochran, managing director of FSC Investment Services in Wolverhampton, said it was a "sure sign" that the lenders were expecting interest rates to drop if they were all lowering their fixed rates. He said: "That is a complete...

Adaptable products from Alliance & Leicester.(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... ALLIANCE & Leicester has launched a range of mortgage deals to cater for different consumer's financial situations. The lender is offering two discount mortgages but at different rates. The two-year flexible discount product gives a 2.2...

Pension administrators targeted with Cater account.(Cater Allen Holdings PLC)(Brief Article)
February 3, 2005... A RESERVE account for pension administrators has been called "competitive" by an IFA. Simon Firmin, life and pensions adviser for the Plan Invest Group, said the Cater Allen Private Bank Reserve Account for pensions could be popular with...

Stockbroker group's Sipp fails to enthuse.(Self Invested Personal Pension)
February 3, 2005... A SIPP from a stockbroking and wealth management group, Charles Stanley, has received a lukewarm welcome from an IFA. John Beale, marketing director of Dixon Sutcliffe & Co, said it was encouraging to see more competition entering the...