Financial Advisor articles from March 2004

Financial Advisor archives from March 2004

Sell-off rumour denied by B&B.(Bradford & Bingley)
March 4, 2004... BRADFORD & Bingley could be up for sale following the departure of group chief executive Christopher Rodrigues. James Eden, an analyst for Frankfurt-based Commerzbank, claimed that selling off B&B, the UK's biggest IFA, was one strategy...

Banks should pay more interest on transfers, says OFT.(Office of Fair Trading )(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... The OFT has called on the banking industry to pay more interest to customers when electronic transfers take place. The Office of Fair Trading said that customers making transactions should receive payments right up to the point where the...

The primacy of pricing.
March 4, 2004... WHEN I first studied marketing I remember repeatedly chanting the mantra 'Price, Product, Place and Promotion'. We poured over many theories and models and we knew what marketing was about. I graduated as an expert- or so I thought. ...

There may be trouble ahead...
March 4, 2004... ANALYSTS have predicted "real trouble" in the mortgage market if lenders fail to adequately address their bad debt provisions. The consensus among industry experts is that there will imminently be a market slowdown. This, they claim, will...

Too soon to figure out a trend.
March 4, 2004... THE subject of household debt has become a popular one for newspapers and TV news. There seems now to be more coverage of debt and borrowing growth than possibly any time since the late 1980s. As a result, not only are the monthly...

Bringing marketing back into the light.
March 4, 2004... IT SEEMS impossible to open a mortgage publication at the moment without reading about regulation, choices for brokers, and what this will mean for business. All good stuff and very topical of course, but is it me or is there a distinct lack of...

Rules on money laundering extended.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... New money laundering rules have been introduced to try and detect relatively petty crimes that are usually overlooked. The new rules, which came into effect this week, require accountants and lawyers to report even minor criminal proceeds...

Co-op pulls out of self-cert mortgages.(Co-operative Bank )
March 4, 2004... The Co-operative Bank has pulled out of the self-certification market after claiming that "unscrupulous practices" were taking place. The move comes after a BBC programme suggested that fraud could be still taking place in the self-cert...

More precipice bonds are faced with major losses.
March 4, 2004... At least five more precipice bonds are about to mature with significant losses for investors. New data compiled by Chartwell Investment Management revealed several high income bonds were ripe for maturity, with two of the alleged worst...

DTI winds up housing investment businesses.(Department of Trade and Industry)
March 4, 2004... THE DTI has wound up a number of bogus property investment companies. It wound up Practical Property Portfolio and related businesses which allegedly received AGBP100m by promising investors it would refurbish derelict properties in the...

Knight takes over Gartmore US fund.(Gartmore American Smaller Companies fund )
March 4, 2004... Leading fund manager Gil Knight is to become the lead manager of the Gartmore American Smaller Companies fund. This is part of the company's move to reshuffle its US team and rename two funds. The AGBP97m American Smaller Companies...

Commodities in optimal portfolio.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... The 2004 Equity Gilt Study by Barclays Capital has shown commodities to be a valuable diversifier for investment portfolios. The influential report explained that traditional portfolio theory suggested commodities should account for about 5...

PPML award is absolutely fabulous.(Personal Pension Management Limited)(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... PERSONAL Pension Management Limited, in partnership with Salisbury Playhouse, has won the Arts, Business and Employees Award for 2003. The award was picked up for a mosaic designed by Salisbury artist Lindsay Keir and produced with the help...

Blue rinses pull on blue jeans, says study.(survey of the elderly)(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... SIXTY is to become the new 40, according to GE Life's survey of life in Britain for the over 50s. The survey -" Blue Rinse to Blue Jeans -" focusses on what life could be like for the over 50s in 2030, and covers areas including lifestyle,...

Abbey suffers from FSA solvency rules.(Financial Services Authority)
March 4, 2004... THE FSA's solvency requirements took their toll on Abbey in a second year of big losses by the banking group. The mortgage bank, which reported a pre-tax loss of AGBP686m due to AGBP1.7bn of exceptional charges, had to set aside AGBP373m to...

LMI sets sights on the Continent.(Legg Mason Investors Asset Managers PLC,Europe)(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... Legg Mason Investments is moving to register its new Dublin-based Small Cap fund across continental Europe. The US Smaller Companies fund, managed by Chuck Royce, chief investment officer for Royce & Associates, will be taken to the...

Ifap brings in up to AGBP29m of business.(information for financial aid professionals)(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... MORE than half of consumers who called the IFA Promotion hotline went on to call an IFA in their region, research has shown. The results from the end-of-year report by Ifap showed that 53 per cent of hotline calls and 40 per cent of online...

Northern Rock given reprimand for advert.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... The Advertising Standards Authority last week reprimanded Northern Rock. The bank had claimed that "Northern Rock treats all its customers like a new customer, all of the time". The ASA received complaints from the public who said the...

Slow progress for fast-track mortgage.
March 4, 2004... ACCORD Mortgages has pulled in only AGBP7.5m on its fast-track business since November. However, the intermediary-lending arm of the Yorkshire Building Society will still keep fast-track mortgages going, despite the poor performance. ...

Poor pensioner benefit take-up.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... POOR take-up of benefits revealed the government's plans for ending pensioner poverty are falling short, according to the Conservatives. Nigel Waterson, shadow work and pensions minister, said the low take-up figures for means-tested...

Online system ready for roll-out to IFAs.(independent financial advisers)
March 4, 2004... IFAs have welcomed an online insurance system from Friends Provident that can cut protection application times in half. The online system has been put through trials by selected IFAs and is now due to be made open to the wider intermediary...

Cheaper fixed rate products from UCB.(UCB Home Loans Corporation Ltd.)(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... UCB Home Loans, the specialist lending arm of the Nationwide, has bucked the trend and lowered the rates on two of its fixed-rate self-cert mortgages. The two-year fixed-rate home loan is now available at 5.29 per cent, while the...

Liverpool Victoria cuts most with profits bonuses.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... LIVERPOOL Victoria has cut bonuses on most conventional with profits policies, but managed to maintain rates for its unitised offerings. The friendly society's with profits fund delivered a return of 14.1 per cent, but as a result of the...

Rodrigues' move triggers plaudits.(Christopher Rodrigues resigned )(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... THE resignation of Bradford & Bingley chief executive Christopher Rodrigues has triggered huge praise from across the financial services community. Paul Smee, director-general of the Association of Independent Financial Advisers, said that...

Competition hots up for afiuent clients.
March 4, 2004... INTENSE competition for clients is the single most important issue driving wealth managers' strategies. This is according to PricewaterhouseCoopers, which claimed wealth managers believed that superior quality service would be an increasing...

Prices may mean little to public.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... FIRMS are concerned that the pricings listed on the menu would mean little to consumers. Steven Cameron, head of business development for Aegon UK, said that the pricing comparisons did not work. He claimed that the menu would be...

Fees are on the menu as FSA unveils pricing plans.(financial services authority)
March 4, 2004... IFAs will have to think about the true cost of financial advice after FSA proposals for the menu were revealed. The publication of CP04/3 -" Reforming Polarisation: a Menu for Being Open with Consumers -" marks a first insight for most...

Menu gives IFAs a better way to promote their value, says Aifa.(independent financial asdvisers)(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... TRADE bodies have welcomed the menu proposals as a chance to promote the true value of advice among consumers. The Association of IFAs, which first proposed the menu, and IFA Promotion have said that the menu will give intermediaries a...

Proposals served up after ive years.(five years)(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... THE first sight of the pricing menu has provided the light at the end of a five-year tunnel. It has taken 15 years of sometimes angry debate between product providers, regulators, government officials and IFAs to reach today's product...

Moving from with proits beneits Axa.
March 4, 2004... AXA Life has said it reaped the rewards of shifting from with profits towards unit-linked business in 2003. Paul Evans, chief executive of Axa Life, said that even though the revenues for life and savings business in 2003 were down 11 per...

Support for discounted mortgages.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... DISCOUNTED mortgages are crucial for getting first-time buyers into the housing market, according to Bristol & West. In response to the interim Miles report, B&W's economist claimed discounted home loans are good for the market. This...

Lending up at two building societies.(Principality Building society, Coventry Building Society)(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... The strong housing market saw mortgage lending rise at the Principality and Coventry building societies last year. Gross mortgage lending at the Principality Building Society, which is based mainly in Wales, rose by 39 per cent to just over...

Millionth pension forecast is issued.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... THE ONE millionth combined pension forecast was issued by the Department for Work and Pensions last week. The forecasts, which are issued by the department in partnership with employers and pension providers, give people an individually...

Downing launches high net worth EZT.(enterprise zone trust)(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... Downing Corporate Finance is launching a specialist enterprise zone trust for high net worth investors. Aimed at providing a strong-yielding tax-efficient vehicle for investors in this tax year, the Seventh Downing EZT will provide...

From mutual to advisory giant.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... BRADFORD & Bingley has long wanted to run Britain's largest financial advisory chain. Since demutualising in December 2000, B&B -" number one on Financial Adviser's benchmark top 100 IFAs -" has set out on the acquisition trail. ...

Fine 'should act as a pension warning'.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... PENSION pots must be seen as essential savings and not a route to easy cash, according to Jardine Lloyd Thompson. The insurance broker said that the FSA's decision to fine Berkley Jacobs Financial Services for misleading advertisements...

Directors warned of responsibilities under FSA rules.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... COMPANY directors have been warned they would be under intense pressure from new FSA guidelines on regulatory obligations. Under the City regulator's conduct of business regime, directors will be expected to have overall responsibility for...

IF proitable for irst time in irm's history.
March 4, 2004... Intelligent Finance, the fledgling internet finance arm of HBOS has broken even for the first time. Last week, the banking group said its three-year-old online bank had made a profit in December. This meant that overall last year IF's...

Lifesearch points out big savings in term assurance.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... Rewriting term assurance policies issued in 2000 could save an average of AGBP90m a year, according to Lifesearch. In its quarterly protection report, Lifesearch, a firm of protection specialist IFAs, said that falls in premiums of about 22...

Top IFAs targeted as Wifas is merged.( woolwitch independent financial advisers )
March 4, 2004... LEADING IFA firms are eyeing up top advisers from the former Woolwich IFA brand. Nationwide IFAs have set their sights on recruiting some of the advisers who have been affected by a restructuring at Barclays. The Wifas brand has been...

Homeowners' home insurance too costly.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... HOMEOWNERS are paying AGBP2.06bn a year too much for their home insurance, according to a financial research company. Few are shopping around enough for the best available deal, and on average each household is paying AGBP122 too much. ...

Norwich Union eyes with proits market.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... NORWICH Union expects to increase its share of the with profits market after its profits smashed City forecasts. The insurer's parent company Aviva bucked industry trends last week when it reported a leap in pre-tax annual profits for 2003...

Pensions Bill risk of litigation.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... IFA firms face an increasing threat of litigation as a result of the Pensions Bill, according to RSM Robson Rhodes. John White, national partner of pensions and investment at the chartered accountant and management consultant, said the...

Brokers get offer to join Sesame network.
March 4, 2004... SESAME is offering brokers the opportunity to join its network for mortgage-only business for the first time. The deal is for new business, rather than its existing membership, where membership fees will be calculated according to turnover,...

LTC specialist to cover retired.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... IFACare, the organisation promoting best practice in long-term care, has widened its scope to cover all retired clients. IFACare members decided at the organisation's latest annual conference they should broaden the objectives of IFACare to...

Sell-off rumour denied by B&B.
March 4, 2004... He added that there was unlikely to be any radical change in strategy as this was devised by the board, and Mr Crawshaw played a large part in this. He said: "Steven was strategic director at the time we floated," adding that the company...

Poor French igures damage Egg sell-off.
March 4, 2004... EGG has become a less attractive proposition for potential buyers after a weak performance in France led to sharp losses. The online banking group, which was put up for sale by majority shareholder Prudential last month, reported an annual...

Dunfermline taps buy-to-let market.
March 4, 2004... GMAC-RFC, the large intermediary-only lender, has sold its first pure buy-to-let portfolio to Dunfermline Building Society for AGBP70m. Steven Khan, head of asset sales at GMAC-RFC, said Dunfermline did not have any presence in originating...

Appointees to add to consumer panel.
March 4, 2004... THE FSA has appointed four new members to the Financial Services Consumer Panel. In a move to increase the public's understanding of financial matters, Robert Skinner, Stephen Locke and Adam Phillips will join the panel from 1 March, while...

Call for anti-money laundering coalition.
March 4, 2004... A LEADING money laundering expert has called for the FSA to develop a monitoring standard. Mantas Inc, a provider of anti-money laundering technology, wanted the regulator to establish an industry coalition. The FSA has prompted an...

Lump sum offer for delayed pension claim.
March 4, 2004... A LUMP sum looks set to be made available to pensioners who delay collecting their state pensions. Pensioners who opt to defer taking up their state pension are set to receive a lump sum with an interest rate calculated at least 2 per cent...

Man with a mission to let Sofa members fulfil their potential.(Interview)
March 4, 2004... FINANCIAL ADVISER: How will your approach as managing director of Sofa differ from that of outgoing MD Brian Lawless? BOB BULLIVANT: The main difference is that I am full-time, whereas Brian [Lawless] was part-time; once you reach the point...

The menu says that commission is toast.
March 4, 2004... Don't quote me on this, but I have a strange feeling that over the next few years the commission system is going to vanish in the haze -" at least as the preferred mechanism for remunerating IFAs. My conclusion follows several hours of...

Vital research is out of focus.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... ONE thing that strikes me about the menu document is the heavy emphasis on the use of focus groups as a way of determining what consumers really want. As it happens, in another life I spent many hours either behind a screen watching the...

FSA deinitions lack a certain level of distinction.
March 4, 2004... Something that was promised when CP121 was first published was a rigorous attempt to distinguish between independent and multi-tied advisers. This, it was felt, was an important element in the process of establishing the qualities of IFAS,...

Underwater carnivore.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... Insider didn't expect a recent lunch meeting with one investment marketing lady to be so bullish. The meeting was hosted at London's City-based daring restaurant, Bonds, which boasts a menu fit for the most avid meat-eating visitor. The...

Equitable claimants 'can get more compensation'.
March 4, 2004... EQUITABLE Life policyholders can obtain much more than the 4.5 per cent compensation typically offered by the ailing insurer. This is according to law firm Clarke Willmott, which claimed the insurer's policyholders should not settle for the...

Lady luck strikes twice.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... Lucky lady Debbie Stavely, of Bristol & West Mortgages had a double surprise this Valentine's Day. Ms Stavely, who has not long returned from the Maldives, was presented with tickets for a production of Romeo & Juliet in Shakespeare's home...

Graceless under fire.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... Insider was overwhelmed at the lack of grace with which a certain so-called rival editor declined to grace a prominent Friends Provident gathering to, well, relax over a few drinks at a PR bash. The editor certainly got more than he...

Meeting the challenge.
March 4, 2004... THE announcement by the LIA of a new five-year strategic review is welcome news for the industry. It shows that the three main trade associations -" Sofa, Aifa and the LIA -" are on top of the game and are organisationally agile enough to...

Sharp practice.(Office of Fair Trading)(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... THE Office of Fair Trading has quite rightly drawn our attention to the practice of high street banks removing money from clients' accounts for two days before it reaches the payee's accounts. Although we have said before that there is no...

Making sure that the price is right.
March 4, 2004... MENU pricing for IFAs is the last piece in the FSA's depolarisation jigsaw. Although only a proposal at this stage, it seem likely it will go ahead in something like its present form, given the amount of work and debate that has already gone...

The safety net for pensioners.
March 4, 2004... WE all have a right to security in old age, and paying into a company pension scheme has always been seen as a safe bet. So when we have paid in for years and that security is suddenly taken away from us by the collapse of our employer, we have...

Optoma ills gap as Abbey leaves club.
March 4, 2004... Optoma Broker Solutions is rushing to fill the gap left by Abbey's departure from the Legal & General Mortgage Club. It is e-mailing brokers on its database to let them know that if they want to do business with Abbey, they can now do it...

We have no right to clients' cash.(investment advisers)
March 4, 2004... JULIAN Penniston Hill really has put the cat among the pigeons. How dare he go to the national press and tell all those unsympathetic journalists and sceptical readers there are all sorts of renewal and fund-based commissions payable on those...

With proits and with losses.
March 4, 2004... The concept of the guaranteed annual bonus, plus a terminal bonus that was perceived to be ever-increasing, seems to have cemented in the minds of investors the idea that the proceeds from their policy could only ever go one way -" up. In...

Just three steps to heaven.
March 4, 2004... RESEARCH into the best practices of leading advisers consistently links the value of learning to adviser success. Again and again we see that the more successful advisers tend to focus less on income and more on understanding their clients...

Housing policy needs joined-up thinking.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... GOVERNMENT policy in housing should be more coherent, according to the Council of Mortgage Lenders. The CML said there should be more co-ordination by the different departments dealing with a range of initiatives, otherwise problems were...

Struggle to locate small schemes.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... SMALL businesses are finding it difficult to locate providers willing to offer stakeholder schemes for fewer than 10 employers. Terry O'Halloran, senior partner of Lincoln-based IFA O'Halloran & Co and national pensions spokesman for the...

Commercial property sees surge.
March 4, 2004... This surge has accompanied product development and is expected to be fuelled further by the likelihood of real estate investment trusts becoming available this year. Darius McDermott, managing director of Chelsea Financial Services, said...

SLI remains positive on Standard equities.(Standard Life Investments Ltd.)(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... Standard Life Investments remains positive on equities despite dumping AGBP7.5bn for its parent group, Standard Life. The equities were sold to shore up Standard Life's solvency reserves, with the money reinvested into bonds. Keith...

IF tracker applauded for transparency.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... IFA Marlene Shalton has welcomed a new capital guaranteed tracker from Intelligent Finance. The Tracker Guaranteed Investment Account offers 100 per cent exposure to the growth of the FTSE100 over five years, with a guarantee that the...

Lincoln investment criticised by adviser.(Lincoln Security Services Inc.)(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... Lincoln's new guaranteed investment bond has been called "uncompetitive" by an IFA. Patrick Connolly, investment manager with IFA John Scott & Partners, said: "The rates do not compare with those available for fixed-term products from...

Woolnough-managed bond fund welcomed.
March 4, 2004... THE M&G Strategic Bond Fund has received a warm welcome from IFAs. The fund will have a portfolio of 60 to 80 holdings and will aim to maximise total return by investing mainly in investment grade corporate bonds. However, the...

First-timers' fixed loan welcomed by adviser.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... IFA Chris Tierney has welcomed the launch of a three-year fixed rate for first time buyers. Mortgage packager Exclusive Connections is offering a product for FTBs at up to 105 per cent loan-to-value, free of mortgage indemnity charges. ...

B&W discount mortgage labelled 'uncompetitive'.
March 4, 2004... A NEW two-year discount mortgage from Bristol & West has been dismissed as uncompetitive by IFA June Williams. The product offers a discount of 2.15 percentage points off the lender's standard variable rate (currently at 6.04 per cent)...

Hamptons' three-year fix offers more stability.
March 4, 2004... ADVISER Geoff Barnes has applauded a new exclusive fixed-rate mortgage offered by Hamptons International Mortgages. The three-year fixed-rate product is funded by Bristol & West and offers an interest rate of 4.66 per cent available up to...

Advice and the need to know.
March 4, 2004... THERE are times when the agony of endless waiting and indecision weighs more heavily than any pain that might be inflicted by finally making a choice, one way or the other. For the financial services industry, that moment must surely have...

Opinion divided over Hornbuckle offering.
March 4, 2004... IFA Neil Osbourne has questioned the value of a single-investment Self-Invested Personal Pension developed by Hornbuckle Mitchell Trustees. The single investment Sipp aims to enable advisers to have access to cheaper administration fees...

Winterthur targets cautious investors' pensions.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... WINTERTHUR Life has launched a managed pension fund suitable for cautious investors. Entitled the Elite Distribution Managed Pension Fund, Winterthur said it was the only distribution fund currently available in the defensive managed...

Green ingers at CSC.
March 4, 2004... Investment management firm Carr Sheppards Crosthwaite has once again helped with the costs of the Gardens of England & Wales Open for Charity directory. The directory, popularly known as the Yellow Book, is produced by the National Gardens...

Internet-only offering wins mixed response.
March 4, 2004... THE launch of online private medical insurance by Rapidinsure will get a mixed reception, according to Michael Payne. Mr Payne, of PMI specialist HealthPlan, said: "Some advisers do business online and get frustrated as they cannot complete...

IFAs should promote single over joint policies.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... MOST advisers still arrange joint life cover for couples instead of two single policies, according to IFA Jim Gillespie. But, while joint life policies are cheaper, the benefits can be more limited than those offered by two single polices,...

BUPA greets consultants' call for health insurance.(Brief Article)
March 4, 2004... BUPA has welcomed a contribution to the debate over national healthcare funding. Five hundred consultants took out a full-page advert in a national newspaper calling for compulsory health insurance and radical reform of the NHS. The...