Financial Advisor articles from July 2006

Financial Advisor archives from July 2006

Haddrill joins MPs to find care solution.
July 6, 2006... The Association of British Insurer's director general will join MPs on a government group set up to address the problem of long-term care funding. Stephen Haddrill has been invited to sit on the ministerial group, headed by Ivan Lewis MP....

Gov't defying calls to pay pension victims.
July 6, 2006... The government has again ruled out using taxpayers' money to compensate employees whose pensions collapsed. Parliamentary Ombudsman Ann Abraham told MPs the government appeared to have an "attitude'' that it could ignore rulings where it...

Share prices Friday from Standard Life.
July 6, 2006... Standard Life will announce the initial price of its shares tomorrow. The price is expected to come in at about the middle of its 210p to 270p price range, slightly up from the predictions made when Standard Life was forced to revise down...

September start for new Bolton venture.(Michael Bolton to launch new mortgage business)(Brief article)
July 6, 2006... Michael Bolton's new mortgage business will go live on 14 September. The former head of specialist lending for HBoS said the new venture would attempt to make intermediaries' life easier through its investment in technology. He also...

Experts dismiss investment drop data as calm in wake of a storm.(insurance companies investments declines)(Brief article)
July 6, 2006... Net investment by insurance companies, pension funds and trusts fell in the first quarter of this month, according to figures just released by the government. The data shows that in the first three months of the year, investment fell to...

Aon reveals pensions deficit cut as funds urged to target bonds.
July 6, 2006... Pension scheme deficits decreased from AGBP52bn to AGBP35bn in June, according to research from Aon Consulting. The company found that even though stock markets remained flat in June, bond yields increased during this time. Corporate bond...

Consumer confidence hits all-time low.
July 6, 2006... Confidence in the current economic and employment situation has fallen to its lowest level, with only one in three people positive about the current state of the economy, according to figures from Nationwide. According to the building...

CBI inquiries reveals companies bracing for tougher times ahead.
July 6, 2006... Financial services companies are expecting the next few months to be tough, with some expecting profitability to fall, according to a survey from the Confederation of British Industry and PricewaterhouseCooper. Building societies,...

Award financial education with a full role, urges IFS.
July 6, 2006... The Institute of Financial Services has branded personal finance knowledge in schools "chaotic" in its response to the FSA's study into financial education. The regulator's study showed that financial education was represented on the...

PFS putting members first with tailored experiences.
July 6, 2006... Only Personal Finance Society members will be able to attend the professional body's second conference, it has been revealed. The society has confirmed the 2006 PFS Conference, which will be held at the ICC Birmingham on 2 and 3 November,...

Welfare Bill to drive industry to innovation.
July 6, 2006... Welfare reform could drive innovation in the field of income protection as more people turn to the private sector for a solution, according to experts. On Tuesday, the government revealed plans to replace incapacity benefit with a...

TV tips to put paid to ignorance.
July 6, 2006... The FSA and Teachers' TV have developed four programmes to help teachers with personal finance education. Two of the programmes are designed to be shown to students and the other two are designed to help teachers to plan their lessons. One,...

IFS internet advance to cut time and paperwork from qualifications.
July 6, 2006... The Institute of Financial Services has launched a service allowing advisers to register for its regulatory qualifications on the internet. This advance means intermediaries can register for the Certificate in Mortgage Advice and Practice,...

Assureweb service aims to open doors into PMI quoting.
July 6, 2006... Assureweb has launched a private medical insurance comparison quotation service to free up advisers' time. The service provides users with rates from eight providers including Bupa, Legal & General, Norwich Union and Standard Life. ...

Policies unaffected by Friends Provident claim.(policy holder sues Valerie Cuthbertson)
July 6, 2006... Friends Provident has insisted a declined critical illness claim, which has been overturned by a Scottish court will not lead to a flood of claims. The provider received vitriolic criticism following the decision by the Court of Session...

Early bird investors get the most out of their Isas, claims Skandia.
July 6, 2006... An analysis by Skandia has shown that investors would be significantly better off if they invested in Isas earlier in the tax year. According to Skandia, waiting until the end of the tax year could mean missing out on a year of...

Commercial property to add portfolio diversification, claims New Star survey.
July 6, 2006... A majority of financial advisers believe diversification is the number one reason for investing in commercial property, a survey from New Star has shown. More than 60 per cent of advisers said diversification was the most important reason...

Lincoln reports 4m still believe state will provide mortgage aid despite 1995 cut.
July 6, 2006... Nearly 4m people mistakenly believe the government will help them with their mortgages if they lose their job, new research has shown. In reality, since state aid was cut in 1995 by the Tory government, new mortgage borrowers receive no...

LMS attacks anti-Hips claims as irresponsible.
July 6, 2006... A report outlining the high economic costs of home information packs was inaccurate and scaremongering, according to Hips provider LMS. Dominic Toller, director of marketing and new business for LMS, said GMAC-RFC's research was "totally...

Park Row hooks up with Engage Mutual to extend product range.(Engage Mutual Assurance)(Brief article)
July 6, 2006... Park Row has extended its relationship with Harrogate-based Engage Mutual Assurance. The Royal Liver-owned intermediaries distribute two Engage-branded products -" a guaranteed acceptance Over 50s Life Cover plan and a stakeholder child...

Lenders shrug off fall of AGBP1 trillion barrier.
July 6, 2006... Mortgage debt topping the AGBP1 trillion mark should not cause concern, according to representatives within the mortgage industry. Figures from the Bank of England indicate that for the first time outstanding mortgage debt had gone above...

Buy-to-let rises distort, ODPM.
July 6, 2006... A report from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister has concluded that the housing market in some areas is distorted by significant levels of buy-to-let investments. The report from the ODPM said that in certain areas, significant levels...

MPPI cost variations cloud consumer choice, warns British Insurance.
July 6, 2006... The costs of mortgage payment protection insurance vary between companies, even though the products are broadly similar, research has shown The research, commissioned by British Insurance from Defaqto, showed that policies for a...

IFAs thrown a lifeline as Millfield goes down.
July 6, 2006... The deal to save Millfield advisers looks likely to leave shareholders with nothing and compensation claimants at the mercy of administrators. The AGBP10.5m deal by The Money Portal to purchase the share capital of Millfield, along with...

BSA uncovers ethical drives on rise.
July 6, 2006... Building societies have increased their corporate social responsibility activity over the past three years and can use their mutual advantage to lead the sector in ethical practices, according to the Building Societies Association. The...

MiFID inducements tenets could mislead, IMA warns.
July 6, 2006... Inducements rules contained in MiFID could cause trouble for advisers reliant on trail commission, warned the Investment Management Association. Angus Milne, senior adviser for retail distribution for the IMA, said the wording of the...

Bright Grey shift opens panel spot.(Home of Choice)(Brief article)
July 6, 2006... Home of Choice has added Bright Grey to its protection panel after the provider made its online system compatible with that of the network's. The mortgage network, which has been going for a year, now has five protection providers on its...

ICO to clear data rules confusion.(Information Commissioner's Office )(Brief article)
July 6, 2006... The Information Commissioner's Office has published guidance for advisers following queries about using client information. The ICO said that it had received complaints about disputes between tied or IFAs and their companies over the use of...

Gartmore buyout to trigger move to quant.
July 6, 2006... Gartmore has handed its Pacific Opportunities fund to a specialist quant team following the management buy-out of the asset manager. Philip Ehrmann, emerging markets manager for Gartmore, will leave the business following the deal, with...

FundsNetwork continues to up the range of its investment fund.
July 6, 2006... Fidelity FundsNetwork is increasing the number of distribution funds linked to its investment bond. It is adding the F&C Multi-Manager Distribution, Prudential Distribution and Standard Life Investments Dynamic Distribution funds to...

FSA looks to industry-led initiatives for regulation.
July 6, 2006... Trade associations have been asked by the FSA to come up with guidelines for soft commission disclosure. In a policy statement, Bundled Brokerage and Soft Commission Arrangements for Retail Investment Funds, the FSA revealed it had opted...

Italian renaissance wins LCD TV.
July 6, 2006... The World Cup is drawing to a close and the tournament has already provided everything that football fans expect. We have seen Argentine tantrums, Germany winning a penalty shootout and England getting knocked out in the quarter-finals, but...

Artemis cautions against IFAs' passion for equities.
July 6, 2006... Advisers are pushing clients too heavily into equities, according to Artemis. James Foster, strategic bond fund manager for Artemis,has urged IFAs to deliver a more balanced portfolio to protect customers against future wobbles in the...

Regulation costs break FSA good practice rules.
July 6, 2006... Some advice companies reported as much as 35 per cent of their expenditure were costs imposed by the FSA, according to the regulator's own study. The FSA this week published the Cost of Regulation study it had commissioned by Deloitte,...

Report no silver bullet for regulation, says Aifa.
July 6, 2006... Those looking for a silver bullet to remedy the burden of regulation will be disappointed by the FSA work on the costs and benefits of regulation, said the Association of Independent Financial Advisers. It said no clear way forward could...

Provider visits find wraps are used correctly.
July 6, 2006... The key points from the FSA report on wraps are: nVisits to providers and advisers did not uncover evidence that companies use wraps in an inappropriate way. In fact, when looking at wraps, the visits provided examples of companies working...

DWP dithering criticised by Standard Life paper.
July 6, 2006... The department for work and pensions is flip-flopping over pension transfer values and causing concern for advisers, according to Standard Life. The Edinburgh-based mutual accused the DWP of failing to make its mind up on a new...

Gender affects the way people invest, says Amro.(ABN AMRO Bank N.V. (Amsterdam, Netherlands))(Brief article)
July 6, 2006... Men are motivated by the thrill of investing and are happier to take risks, according to research from ABN Amro. The asset manager has found that attitudes to investment vary considerably depending on the gender of the investor. In...

Bankhall rings changes in its contact strategy.(Bankhall Investment Services)(Brief article)
July 6, 2006... Bankhall has introduced a single telephone number for all inquiries and recruited a new member contact team. A new single contact number sees all incoming calls feed into a five-option menu, allowing members to select with speed and...

Trust still an issue as people put off pensions saving, economist claims.
July 6, 2006... Most people would rather watch the World Cup than think about pensions, according to a leading economist. Speaking at the National Association of Pension Funds White Paper seminar, Professor John Kay, director of the Institute of Fiscal...

Aegon finds other savings options to bridge pension gap.
July 6, 2006... For the price of a cafe latte each day, people with private pensions could cancel out the need to work longer, according to Steven Cameron, head of business regulation for Aegon. The financial service provider suggested that many clients...

Radcliffe to start Great City Race.
July 6, 2006... British marathon world-record holder Paula Radcliffe will be starting the Standard Chartered Great City Race. She will get runners started for the 5km race through the City of London on 20 July. The race, which will raise money for Breakthrough...

No FSA regulations for growing wraps market.
July 6, 2006... New regulations on wraps are not required but advisers adopting them should consider whether they can still call themselves independent, the FSA said. The regulator confirmed last week it would not bring in new rules for the web-based...

Principality to make being remote a virtue.
July 6, 2006... Principality Building Society has launched an online mortgage and financial advice service. Moneypilot -" set up us as a subsidiary of the Principality -" will allow users to access products across the mortgage market from a range of...

Ombudsman and compensation payments make up highest costs.
July 6, 2006... The FSA produced four pieces of work to address the cost, burden, benefits and way forward for FSA rules and regulation. The key research from Deloitte found that costs for the investment and pension advice sector were higher than for...

Password clutter limits IFAs, Origo.
July 6, 2006... Mortgage advisers think passwords are a barrier to the use of e-services, according to a new report by Origo. A survey by the electronic trading standards body found that a majority would like to see a Unipass system to combat the...

Hands-on aid key to beating barriers, says 1st.
July 6, 2006... E-commerce is increasing but advisers need close guidance to overcome barriers of complexity and lack of awareness, according to a report. The report, Adviser E-Commerce Adoption, Understanding the Barriers & Solutions, found online...

MEPs accused of complacency in Eq Life affair.
July 6, 2006... Equitable Life policyholders were left with "nowhere to turn" due to a regulatory "loophole", according to an influential European committee. On Tuesday, the European Parliament voted to adopt an interim report from the Committee of...

Spell out annuity options, DWP urged.
July 6, 2006... Hargreaves Lansdown will lobby the Treasury and DWP in an effort to get pensions providers to more clearly spell out the open market option for annuities. The Bristol-based company has produced a discussion paper it hopes will highlight...

Strong response to Service Awards.(Financial Adviser Service Awards )(Brief article)
July 6, 2006... Entries have been flooding in for the Financial Adviser Service Awards as financial advisers have been giving their views on the service across the industry. Advisers have been giving marks out of 10 for providers in the investment arena,...

Quay to cut out fee chasing fuss.
July 6, 2006... IFAs can now track their commissions, using a time-saving tool launched by Quay Software. The automatic commissions module enables the automated delivery of commissions through Quay's Client Care Desktop. The technology means that IFAs can...

The secret to proactive change is understand the customer's needs.
July 6, 2006... The world of finance is a constantly evolving place, where companies continuously update their products in order to keep pace and stay attractive to their customers. And below the surface of this evolution, advisers are expected to stay on...

Time will tell whether clean out has worked.(UK retail financial services)(Brief article)
July 6, 2006... THE radical overhaul of Barclays and Woolwich, with the death of the former mortgage bank, marks another milestone in the history of UK retail financial services. The copywriter's catchphrase: "I'm with the Woolwich", is going to become as...

Last chance to enter the FA Sales Awards.
July 6, 2006... Time is running out for those who want the chance to win AGBP250 in a prize draw for the Financial Adviser Sales Awards. The sales awards is one of the biggest events on the financial services calendar and celebrates the best in the area...

The complaints keep on coming.
July 6, 2006... The Financial Ombudsman Service published its annual report on Tuesday and guess what? Mortgage endowment complaints are still gushing in at the rate of almost 70,000 a year. While complaints against banks and insurance companies on this...

Pru to pay out on pet hate CI.
July 6, 2006... Critical illness insurance is a pet hate of many journalists. It is one of those products we tend to see the dark side of. Around one in five claims is turned down often on the most tenuous grounds. And even when the reason for rejection is...

Faculty captain is a dreamboat.
July 6, 2006... I received an email informing me that a new president had been appointed at the Faculty of Actuaries. I only know one person who gets excited at the mere mention of an actuary, so without delay I forwarded the email to my former colleague...

Biker revs up the New Year resolutions.(riders licensing narrative)
July 6, 2006... So, we are half way through another year. I thought I would take the opportunity to review my New Year's resolutions for progress. Number one on the list -"and by far the most important -" was to make this the year I learned to ride a...

Law for the law.
July 6, 2006... The financial services sector may well wryly think "what goes around, comes around" when it learns that lawyers are to face the biggest overhaul of regulation in over 30 years. On 24 May, the government published the draft Legal Services...

Loch who's got into the spirit.(public relations consultants at Penrose raised funds for Scottish Community Foundation)(Brief article)
July 6, 2006... The public relations consultants at Penrose showed their hearts were in the right place by competing in the Caledonian Challenge, which involved covering 54 miles in just under 24 hours. They kept their morale up by singing all through the...

Good night and good luck from Uri Geller.(Brief article)
July 6, 2006... Following on from last week's news that spoonbender extraordinare and friend to the one-time Peter Pan of pop Michael Jackson Uri Geller had generously given to the Beat The Booze campaign, Insider can reveal the first time he met Edmund...

BSA rakes other teams over the Coles.
July 6, 2006... The Building Societies Association has a hidden sporting talent in their midst. Adrian Coles proved a demon on the table football pitch at their summer party. Nothing could stop his team on the path to the finals, as the director general...

Woolwich to leave the high street.(Woolwich Property Services Ltd.)
July 6, 2006... After 159 years, Woolwich will disappear from the high street following rationalisation and a staff cull by Barclays. Deanna Oppenheimer, retail banking chief executive of Barclays UK, announced last week that all Woolwich high street...

Maybe journalists have hearts after all.
July 6, 2006... Amid all the corporate hospitality surrounding World Cup match screenings, Threadneedle persuaded a room full of advisers and trade journalists to dig deep in aid of a charity founded by Bob Wilson, the ex-Arsenal goalkeeper. After...

The security of predictability.(stock market investing and consistency)
July 6, 2006... Consistency is an elusive idea that can be interpreted in a number of ways. Where stock market investing and consistency are concerned, the actual return generated by a fund is a critical factor. A high level of consistency may be very...

Preparing for a state of shock.
July 6, 2006... Pensions are in for their biggest shake-up in years. If the government holds its nerve it will reform state pensions and create a new form of private pension provision for all those who do not save. The recent White Paper outlined its...

Watching the waffling of the Belgian index.
July 6, 2006... As policymakers try to steer their economies along a steady, yet low inflation growth path, one of the main problems that they face is the lagging nature of data relating to economic growth. It takes time to gather, check and cross-check...

Doing it to themselves.
July 6, 2006... Tin hat time in world markets -" but are they merely undergoing a normal, albeit pretty violent, correction after an extended bull run or is it something worse? I, for one, am happy to admit I do not know, but I suspect the answer is more...

Setting the bar higher.(contract management and dispute resolution)(Brief article)
July 6, 2006... Yet another IFA has been on the telephone pleading with us to highlight the case of one of his clients forced in to the spiralling sub-prime market through an event the facts of which she bitterly disputes. It appears as if this client had...

IFAs take it on chin in Fos grudge match.
July 6, 2006... Sitting in the office can get rather dull. It is good to get out and about and Financial Adviser's London Expo event last week gave hundreds of advisers the chance to do that while at the same time enjoying a fascinating clash between the...

Mortgage mis-selling blame shifts to FSCS.
July 6, 2006... The fall-out from mortgage endowment mis-selling appears to have shifted away from the financial ombudsman and towards the Financial Services Compensation Scheme . Claims to the FSCS for mortgage endowment policies rose sharply in the last...

Meeting goals means playing matchmaker.
July 6, 2006... The main problem with the current breed of managed funds is that the objectives of the fund manager and the investors often do not seem to be aligned. As managers tend to focus on short-term relative performance, this can lead them to take...

Witness the death of the salesman.(insurance industry )
July 6, 2006... For all the outward signs of financial health, the AGBP180bn a year UK life and pensions insurance industry is deeply troubled. Over the past few years, the life and pensions industry's capital base has been eroded, with premiums less claims...

Paying the price of too little too late.
July 6, 2006... While the Treasury continues to look at the proposals, and our colleagues at the Association of British Insurers encourage them to reconsider certain aspects, where does it leave the financial adviser and the client from 22 March to the end of...

New Products.
July 6, 2006... ISA Cheshire Building Society Type: Mini cash Isa. Details: Cheshire Building Society's most recent reinvention of its fixed-rate mini cash Isa offers investors 5.11 per cent interest on investments of AGBP1000 minimum for a...

New Products.
July 6, 2006... PENSION TERM ASSURANCE Scottish Equitable Type: Pension term assurance Details: Scottish Equitable Protect is enhancing its life protection with tax relief policy with the introduction of the option to replace a current life...

Pink and Savills reaching out.
July 6, 2006... n Foreign property is no longer an investment reserved for the rich, according to Pink Home Loans and Savills Private Finance. But would-be investors still face complex legal issues and expensive pitfalls if they try and capitalise on...

Britannia Int'l adding index.
July 6, 2006... n The revamped Optimum Growth bond from Britannia International will include the DJ Eurostoxx 50 index for the first time, the firm has revealed. The 16th issue of the bond will pay a return of 140 per cent of the growth in the FTSE 100...

Snap up insolvent rivals to expand, Tenon tells advisers.
July 6, 2006... Owner-managers of advice firms who want to expand their businesses could buy up insolvent competitors more easily after a change in the law. They no longer need fear being lumbered with a raft of employee-accrued entitlements, according to...

Burns-Anderson guide takes start-ups through first steps.
July 6, 2006... IFAs, tied-agents, mortgage specialists or general insurance advisers looking to start-up their own business now have a new guide specifically tailored to their needs from Burns-Anderson. Called A Guide to Starting Your Own Business,...

Lloyds helps one-man bands stay in tune with insurance.
July 6, 2006... One-man-bands and recently started small and medium-sized enterprises need to take a closer look at their business insurance, according to Lloyds TSB Insurance. The provider has now launched a free guide, which can be downloaded, to advise...

Making the most out of a satisfied customer.
July 6, 2006... T he big splashy billboards, glossy magazine advertisements and multi-million pound television campaigns are losing steam in the crowded battle for the consumer mind. Witness the spectacular growth of Google's share price as compelling...

Threadneedle looks to future after suffering in turbulence.
July 6, 2006... Threadneedle has admitted suffering a rocky start for its Absolute Return Bond fund. The asset manager has blamed market fluctuations for the challenging first six months of the bond despite returning positive returns higher than cash. ...

Returning to the fray shows it is all change at the top.(Diary entry)
July 6, 2006... Monday My commitment to run in next year's London marathon and to get to the gym every morning, seems like a pipe dream now as I race to get small children to school, walk a large black Labrador, move house and build my new business. ...