Financial Advisor articles from May 2009

Financial Advisor archives from May 2009

Corporate bonds could be next mis-selling scandal: BNY Mellon.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Catherine Couch UK corporate bonds have the potential to become the next big mis-selling scandal due to the short-sightedness of advisers, Paul Feeney, head of distribution for BNY Mellon Asset Management, has warned. Mr...

FSA bans mortgage adviser for fraudulent applications.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Catherine Couch The Financial Services Authority (FSA) has banned East London-based mortgage adviser Zia Chowdhury for certifying client identities for fraudulent mortgage applications. The regulator said Chowdhury also...

Chamberlain returns with venture.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Hal Austin One of the leading personalities in retail finance has returned to the sector after a long period of gardening leave. Simon Chamberlain, one of the founders of Thinc and a former senior manager of Zurich, has...

Channel Four to shoot life and times of celebrity IFA.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Joy Dunbar Independent financial adviser Frank Cochran will be the subject of a Channel Four documentary. Mr Cochran said the series would be about him and his advisory business, London-based Celebrity Financial Planning. ...

HBoS 'sinks' Lighthouse-Network talks.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Catherine Couch HBoS is believed to have played a key role in the breakdown in talks between Lighthouse Group and Network Data, a source close to the discussions revealed. Malcolm Streatfield, chief executive of Lighthouse...

PPF irons out problems.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Catherine Couch The Pension Protection Fund has responded to concerns about a growing number of insolvency practitioners failing to let them know when an occupational pension scheme sponsor has gone bust. In November last year...

Fos figures show FSA guilty of 'pro-bank' bias.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Joy Dunbar Financial Ombudsman Service statistics prove IFAs and building societies are victims of a pro-banking regulator, according to Simon Mansell, managing director of Worcester-based adviser Temple Bar. His comments came...

UK three vow to push ahead in wake of Hartford withdrawal.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Joy Dunbar The three remaining UK third way annuity providers said they would continue to offer the products after Hartford Life decided to pull out of the market. Aegon UK, Lincoln Financial Group and MetLife Europe said they...

Sesame urges FSA to publish RDR cost-benefit study.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Catherine Couch Sesame is demanding the FSA publish a full cost-benefit analysis of its retail distribution review proposals. Ivan Martin, executive chairman of Sesame, said although one of the regulator's original objectives...

It's time to come out of the closet.(Independent financial advisers)
May 7, 2009... Byline: Hal Austin IFAs need to remind the public of their usefulness before the supermarket-style companies move in to exploit the lack of a decent public relations approach I have long been of the view that IFAs, one of the most...

Measuring liquid.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Simon Lovegrove Regulation In the last six months much has been written and said about liquidity regulation. Way back in December 2007 the FSA published a discussion paper on liquidity requirements for banks and building...

Investors to weigh up options on Cru's future.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Sharon FlahertyJoy Dunbar Cru investors are likely to be given two options by Capita Financial Management on the future of the suspended fund range, according to Cru's managing director. The fund range, which was suspended on...

The joys of spring.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Hal Austin Leader We are beginning to see the green shoots of recovery; but then again maybe we are not. What we are witnessing in some parts of the national and global economies are just optical illusions, or a result of...

Don't beat yourself up.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Hal Austin Leader That excellent media networking and discussion organisation, Editorial Intelligence, held a seminar at the Cass Business School on how the media - financial and mainstream - covered the credit crunch. ...

FSA rulebook harmful to IFAs.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Catherine Couch The FSA's latest prudential requirements force one in four IFA firms to leave the industry, according to the Association of IFAs. In its response to the regulator's Prudential Rules for Personal Investment Firms...

LV= hosts charity golf open tournament.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Emma Ann Hughes Financial Adviser is offering 12 lucky readers the opportunity to play golf at a top course and at the same time raise money for a good cause. Insurance, investment and pensions group LV= is hosting a charity...

Financial reward must have long-term goals, says European report.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Joy Dunbar Short-term financial gain at the expense of long-term viability has been promoted within the financial services sector, according to the European Commission. Last week the European Commission published a raft of...

Partnership keeps income fees despite RPI drop.
May 7, 2009... Byline: David Pawsey Partnership has announced it will not reduce income payments on its retail price index-linked annuities despite the index falling to -0.4 per cent in March. As a result, Partnership said customers whose annuity...

Masterclasses teach IFAs all about guaranteed products.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Catherine Couch Metlife is piloting a series of unit-linked guarantee masterclasses for advisers in response to an increase in demand for the retirement planning products. The two pilot masterclasses will be held on 12 May and...

Make product info coherent: report.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Joy Dunbar Retail product information needs to be improved and made more coherent, according to the European Commission. The European Commission's paper, entitled Communication on Packaged Retail Investment Products, focused on...

Just Retirement expects Q4 recovery.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Joy Dunbar Just Retirement's group sales declined by 11 per cent in the first three months of this year, compared with the same period in 2008 to GBP164.9m. The specialist UK life assurance group reported group total sales in...

EC hedge fund proposals will just not work - Aima.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Joy Dunbar Plans put forward by the European Commission for tighter regulatory control of hedge fund managers are not a proportionate response to the current crisis, according to the Alternative Investment Management Association....

SEI starts off new adviser standard.
May 7, 2009... Byline: David Pawsey SEI, a provider of asset management and investment solutions, has announced the launch of a range of services in the UK, enabled by SEI's Global Wealth Platform. This service, described as Independent Wealth...

Standard Life UK sales down 27%.
May 7, 2009... Byline: David Pawsey Standard Life has reported a 27 per cent fall in year-on-year UK sales as a result of problems with its Sterling fund. In the first three months of the year the provider made GBP2.5bn from the sales of life and...

Clerical Medical merger will trigger 305 job cuts.
May 7, 2009... Byline: David Pawsey The 175-year-old Clerical Medical brand will see 305 staff axed, Lloyds Banking Group has announced. In a statement issued last week, Lloyds said it expected 190 jobs in the sales team to be affected as well as 115...

Zurich site offers pensions updates.
May 7, 2009... Byline: David Pawsey Zurich has launched a website that will enable advisers to keep up to date with all aspects of the pensions market. The website will initially focus on the need for immediate pension reviews and will include...

Bankers made 'astonishing mess' of financial services.(banking industry)
May 7, 2009... Byline: Emma Ann Hughes Some banks were the principal authors of their own demise and lenders made an "astonishing mess" of financial services, according to a 125-page Treasury select committee report. In its second report on the...

UKFI' independence under question.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Emma Ann Hughes Certain aspects of UK Financial Investment's institutional arrangements have led the Treasury select committee to wonder just how "arm's length" the organisation actually is from the Treasury. In the...

Banks had 'shaky grasp' on toxic assets.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Emma Ann Hughes Banks had a "shaky grasp" on what toxic assets were, what they comprised and what their value was, according to the Treasury select committee. The Treasury select committee's report into the banking crisis...

Hargreaves reduces group Sipp team.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Catherine Couch Hargreaves Lansdown has made a member of its group self-invested personal pensions team redundant in a bid to maintain its profits. Dave Petchey, group Sipp business development manager of Hargreaves Lansdown,...

What is in a name?(High Street Banking Co.)
May 7, 2009... Byline: Tony Hazell Not what it says on the tin If you walked into your local supermarket and picked up a can which said baked beans on the label, took it home and discovered it contained carrots you would rightly complain. Yet fund...

IFA Promotion launches research venture.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Emma Ann Hughes Opinium Research has teamed up with IFA Promotion to launch a forum called Independent Voice.A Opinium Research will be recruiting IFAs from the 16,500 individual advisers currently listed on IFAP's database to...

Size doesn't matter...
May 7, 2009... Byline: Peter McGahan Congratulations to the FSA for rethinking the crackdown on the size of mortgages made available to the consumer. To introduce this now could well have sent us spiralling into oblivion. What problem are they...

Fidelity assesses swine flu impact.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Catherine Couch It is too early to know what effect the swine flu outbreak will have on the stock markets, according to a report by Fidelity International. The investment house's report stated outbreaks of severe acute...

Fitzwilliam says March was a turning point for equities.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Catherine Couch A sustained recovery in the equity markets will hinge on an upbeat assessment of the state of major banks, according to Fitzwilliam Asset Management. Catherine McLeod, global macro economist of Fitzwilliam...

Clerical Medical: timeline.(Chronology)(Company overview)
May 7, 2009... Byline: Emma Ann Hughes A history of Clerical Medical * In spring 1824 Dr George Pinckard, a physician from Bloomsbury Square, London, gathered a committee of medical and clerical gentlemen and issued a pamphlet entitled Prospectus...

Equity opportunity is borne in the USA: M&G.
May 7, 2009... Byline: David Pawsey US equities provide an unrivalled breadth of opportunity and should not be overlooked by investors, according to M&G. Although the Standard & Poor 500 index decreased by 22 per cent during the first 50 days of...

European Commission report: the facts.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Emma Ann Hughes Key points from European Commission reports * Improvements to investor protection measures are required for the main investment products bought by retail investors. * Product information requirements and...

Not enough protection is in trust, says Aegon.
May 7, 2009... Byline: David Pawsey More advisers need to ensure their clients' protection policies are written in trust, according to Aegon. According to the provider's latest IFA Insights research currently only one-quarter of protection policies...

Lloyds signs up to fight Commission.
May 7, 2009... Byline: David Pawsey Lloyds Banking Group has joined Barclays in challenging the Competition Commission over the banning of point-of-sale payment protection insurance. Last week the Competition Appeal Tribunal set a date for a...

Britannia to merge firms in super-mutual.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Emma Ann Hughes Britannia members have backed plans to merge with The Co-operative Financial Services. More than 450,000 Britannia members voted at the society's annual general meeting, held at the Birmingham National...

Hearts and minds is key to working with banks: Myners.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Emma Ann Hughes The FSA is redefining its approach to regulating lenders so it is much less about data-catching and more about understanding the culture of banks, according to Lord Myners. During a House of Lords European Union...

UK stocks are 'significantly undervalued'.
May 7, 2009... Byline: David Pawsey Valuation spreads in the UK means much of the market remains significantly undersold, according to Lazard Asset Management. Alan Custis, managing director and portfolio manager of Lazard Asset Management, said...

BlueCrest trader gets double FSA action.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Emma Ann Hughes A hedge fund manager has been banned and fined GBP35,000 by the FSA for mismarking trading positions to hide losses. Loic Albert Antoine Montserret, a former portfolio manager of BlueCrest Capital Management...

Bestinvest Isa success leads to renewed adviser hunt.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Emma Ann Hughes Bestinvest, the London-based investment advisory business, increased its Isa sales by 8.7 per cent in the last tax year and as a result is hunting for new intermediaries. Corporate bond funds proved the most...

Judges: How and why we voted the way we did.(Independent financial advisers)(Life & Pension Awards)
May 7, 2009... Byline: Gavin Tisshaw and Peter Williams The judges of the Financial Adviser Life & Pension Awards offer their thoughts and background to how the accolades were decided on The format was changed slightly this year with entrants (or...

Is it time to go back into commercial property?
May 7, 2009... Byline: Robin Martin When an inflationary environment threatens, commercial property investment offers sanctuary Different asset classes react differently to inflation and the asset allocation decision depends critically on one's view...

Uphill struggle.(Myerson v Myerson)(Case overview)
May 7, 2009... Byline: James Freeman The unpredictability of the downturn will not help those caught in unfavourable terms of an divorce settlement No doubt several divorcees have cursed the day that they agreed to a financial settlement, the terms...

Put off until tomorrow what shouldn't be done today.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Dave Harris The best plan to avoiding a lifetime annuity lock-in to keep all your options open Those hoping to retire this year have been dealt a double blow. Not only will many have seen the values of their pension funds hit,...

Compliance gets a Personal Touch.
May 7, 2009... Byline: David Pawsey Personal Touch Financial Services has launched a compliance package for its directly authorised members. The distribution network has designed seven packages that can be purchased individually depending on a firm's...

Eq release suffers sales blow.(Equity)(Brief article)
May 7, 2009... Byline: David Pawsey Equity release business levels were hurt in the first quarter of the year as the number of loans sold year-on-year fell by 14 per cent, according to Safe Home Income Plans. The industry body, which represents 90...

Too big to fail.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Adair Turner The City watchdog chairman is urging banks to return to what they were originally designed to do - lend The global financial system has suffered a huge crisis - certainly the worst for 70 years. In some ways, in...

Finding another way around.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Peter Done Before you consider redundancy there are plenty of cost-cutting measures that you can implement such as pay freezes and changes to teh working environment Q: The recession has led to a downturn in business for my...

How one acquaintance can make all the difference.(Diary entry)
May 7, 2009... Byline: Ian Hudson Ian Hudson, IFA for Hudson Green, spends his week pondering the merits of spending on advertising, seeing through the installation of a group life scheme for a construction firm and weighing the non-financial rewards...

Aviva restructures reattribution offer.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Catherine Couch Aviva has restructured its reattribution offer, with 90 per cent of eligible with-profit policyholders to receive between GBP200 and GBP1,150 each from its GBP1.4bn inherited estate. The agreement was reached...

Network Data requests trading suspension.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Catherine Couch Network Data has requested a temporary suspension of trading in accordance with AIM rules, following the breakdown in talks with Lighthouse Group for its mortgage broking business. Earlier today (5 May)...

Lighthouse talks over Network Data's ARs break down.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Catherine Couch Lighthouse Group has confirmed its talks over transferring the appointed representatives of Network Data have broken down. Malcolm Streatfield, chief executive of Lighthouse Group, said an offer concerning a...

Woolwich slashes rates on half its mortgage range.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Emma Ann Hughes Woolwich, the lending arm of Barclays, is cutting the rates on more than half of its mortgage range by an average of 0.35 per cent. Two, three, four and five-year fixed rates and offset tracker mortgages are...

Banking bosses to blame for own demise: Treasury.(United Kingdom. Treasury)(Brief article)
May 7, 2009... Byline: Emma Ann Hughes Banking bosses failed to understand toxic assets and several were the principal authors of their own demise, a Treasury select committee report concluded. In its second report on the Banking Crisis, the Treasury...

Hargreave Hale hires former New Star fund manager.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Emma Ann Hughes Former New Star fund manager Patrick Evershed has re-emerged at Hargreave Hale. Back in January Evershed announced he was taking his former employer New Star to court over the terms of his dismissal. Today...

M2 denies single-tied plans.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Catherine Couch M2 Financial has denied it is introducing single-tied deals after adviser Steve Buttercase left the company citing that as the reason. Mr Buttercase said he had been advised at the beginning of March that M2...

M2 Financial takes out Group Pensions award.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Girlie Garduce The spotlight shone on Group Pensions winner M2 Financial at the Financial Adviser Life & Pension Awards 2009. The Nottingham-based IFA firm - which has 25 advisers across the country and boasts GBP400m in assets...

Income for Life set for a slow start.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Joy Dunbar Aegon's Income for Life variable annuity has so far attracted about 300 individuals, according to calculations by Tom McPhail, head of pensions research of Hargreaves Lansdown. Aegon UK revealed that single premium...

Trigold's merger with Crystal completed.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Catherine Couch Trigold and Crystal have received shareholder approval for the merger announced last month, with both companies now having completed the transaction. This month (May) the company, now known as Trigold Crystal...

M2 takes out Large IFA prize.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Girlie Garduce Being big and bold has seen M2 Financial take out the Large IFA prize at the Financial Adviser Life & Pensions Awards, 2009. With GBP400m in assets under management and 25 advisers across the country, the...

Abbey's year keeps getting better.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Catherine Couch Abbey has continued to buck the recession by posting a 25 per cent increase in profit before tax, totalling GBP372m in the first quarter of the year. In a trading statement released on 29 April, Santander said...

Retirement is whole new ball game, says Suffolk Life.(Suffolk Life director John Moret)(Cofunds director Alistair Conway)
May 7, 2009... Byline: Catherine Couch Product-driven retirement planning has no place in the market today, according to John Moret, director of sales and marketing for Suffolk Life. Speaking at a Cofunds roundtable on the future of retirement...

Evershed brings small cap experience to Hargreave Hale.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Joy Dunbar Former New Star fund manager Patrick Evershed has joined Hargreave Hale. Earlier this year the fund manager took his former employer New Star to court claiming unfair dismissal, but the tribunal hearing has been...

Selestia structure change reaps rewards.(Skandia)(Brief article)
May 7, 2009... Byline: Joy Dunbar About 5000 financial advisers have signed up to the Selestia Investment Solutions platform since Skandia introduced its new charging structure in September last year. This increases the total number of registered...

Solutions initiative to offer lucrative connections.
May 7, 2009... Byline: David Pawsey National IFA Positive Solutions has announced an initiative it believes will enable its IFA partners to grow their client base by building lucrative partnerships. Positive Partnerships will enable Solutions'...

Old Mutual follows the Ucits fund trend.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Joy Dunbar A Ucits III offshore fund is being launched by Old Mutual Asset Management. Quentin Smith, investment communications manager of Old Mutual Asset Management, confirmed it was launching a fund with a Ucits III mandate...

Intelligent Office video.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Girlie Garduce A new video which sings the praises of Intelliflo's efficiency tool for advisers, Intelligent Office, has been released. The video, which includes a number of client testimonials from organisations such as...

Legal Issues offers online referral.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Girlie Garduce A free online legal service offering brokers access to a select panel of lawyers, has been launched by the Guardian Financial Group. The Legal Issues bespoke online application system aims to allow brokers to...

Just like Dad.(Leeds & Holbeck Building Society)(Brief article)
May 7, 2009... Byline: Girlie Garduce Recycling corporate uniforms for children.... Insider is all in favour of saving the earth, recycling and donating to charity. But eyebrows were raised when the Insider learned that Leeds Building Society...

Like father, like son.(Paterson Financial Planning)(Ronald B. Paterson )(Brief article)
May 7, 2009... Byline: Catherine Couch Mr Paterson Snr The force behind Glasgow-based adviser Damien Paterson of Paterson Financial Planning is none other than his dad. The Insider learned that Ronald B. Paterson set up the firm in 1984,...

My shirt for a towel.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Girlie Garduce The job spec for an IFA is not what it once used to be...the criteria now extends to towel-lending for one anonymous adviser. Who is the towel-lending adviser who saved England cricket captain Andrew Strauss...

Telling half-truths.(Halifax Bank)
May 7, 2009... Byline: Nick Walker Letter of the Week Friend or Foe (Fair or Greedy). This is probably something the FSA should be looking at, following its publication of What About Dual Pricing in the Mortgage Market? Take the real...

Putting the puzzle pieces together.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Graham Worrall Letter to the Editor I have been puzzled by articles and comments on the costs to the FSCS of IFA firms defaulting. They seem too high. I am also puzzled by the FSA's case for increasing IFA firms' capital...

Passing on the poisoned chalice.(Letter to the editor)
May 7, 2009... Byline: Harry Katz Letter to the Editor Your recent frontpage critique (FA, 16 April) amply illustrates the dissatisfaction that Standard Life seems to engender with IFAs. For many years I have been a critic of this firm that is an...

Platforms will come to the fore: Defaqto.(Independent financial advisers)(wrap accounts)
May 7, 2009... Byline: Joy Dunbar The current economic turmoil will give platforms a real chance to prove their worth, according to Defaqto. The 54-page report by Defaqto, Platforms and wraps in the UK 2009, stated when investments were doing well...

Get a convertible: JP Morgan.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Catherine Couch Investors should avoid compromising on quality or diversification in chasing high yields by focusing on convertibles while they still offer value, according to JP Morgan Asset Management. Olivia Mayell, client...

People on the move.(National Savings and Investments appoints Martin Gray)(Cofunds appoints Andy Creak)(Legal and General Investment Management appoints Hugh Cutler )
May 7, 2009... Byline: Emma Ann Hughes This week's appointments Main Move Martin Gray has been named as the chairman of the board of NS&I.AMr Gray will take up his appointment on 1 September. He joined NS&I's board as a non-executive director on...

Fidelity shuts down more multi-manager.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Catherine Couch Fidelity has confirmed it will close two more of its multi-manager funds by 15 May. Anne Read, associate director, corporate communications institutional for Fidelity, said the two funds were the GBP15m Fidelity...

Aviva moves towards fee-based operations.
May 7, 2009... Byline: Emma Ann Hughes Aviva is still paying too much commission on individual pensions and plans to link payments to the profitability of advisers' clients, according to David Barral. Less than four months after Aviva reduced the...