Money Management articles from August 2005

Money Management archives from August 2005

CII goes modular.
August 1, 2005... THE CHARTERED Insurance Institute (CII) is changing the way that it awards advanced qualifications for financial planning. The current Advanced Financial Planning Certificate (AFPC) will be phased out and replaced with two new qualifications:...

In my day...
August 1, 2005... HELP IS AT HAND FOR young adults lacking the knowledge and confidence to manage money. The FSA has launched a guide, using a number of case studies, to engage and educate 16 to 25 year olds about their finances. Helping young adults become...

Contemplate your fate.
August 1, 2005... AIFA HAS LAUNCHED A consultation to determine who should be allowed membership following depolarisation. The association must decide whether to permit the inclusion of multi-tied advisers -- a controversial proposition as AIFA has always only...

Standards slip for non-standard.
August 1, 2005... PROTECTION ADVISER LifeSearch has claimed that submitting its non-standard life business electronically with Norwich Union is no longer economical. The firm may start sending non-standard business -- applications that are not totally...

Expo event draws near.
August 1, 2005... FINANCIAL ADVISER EXPO 2005 is set to give IFAs the chance to gain inside knowledge from top industry experts, as well as providing key networking opportunities. Speakers will include Sarah Wilson, director of high street firms at the FSA,...

Blast from the past.
August 1, 2005... BACK IN AUGUST 1980, wranglings over commission between life assurance firms and independent brokers were as prominent as they are now. Richard Cockcroft, managing director of Towry Law and chairman of BIBA Life Committee, told how poor...

HSBC takes long-term view.
August 1, 2005... THE LONG-TERM CARE sector has received a boost with HSBC's acquisition of NHFA. NHFA, previously known as the Nursing Home Fees Agency, was established in 1991 and is the largest UK IFA specialising in the long-term care market. The...

R U being served?
August 1, 2005... Probably not, is the immediate answer, and the reason would be the unexpected results of the restrictions imposed by RU64. This is the regulatory update that requires an adviser to explain in writing to the client why the pension he is...

Couture dressed for work.
August 1, 2005... Clinicare has launched a new private medical insurance (PMI) plan that it is trumpeting as a unique and innovative concept. The main feature of the Clinicare Couture plan, which is aimed at the SME market, is its flexibility. It offers clients...

Trustee and sipp plans open up to retail market.
August 1, 2005... Standard Life has extended its trustee investment plan (TIP) and personal pension investment plan (PPIP) offerings to the retail market. The lump sum pension plans have until now targeted only the institutional market, offering no...

software launch.
August 1, 2005... First Software has four new product launches in the pipeline. The group plans to unveil Adviser Office 4 in September, followed by Adviser Evolution, Business Intelligence and a new valuation centre by the end of next year. Adviser...

38th award for money management.
August 1, 2005... The 22nd Aon Pensions & Investment Journalism Awards were held at the House of Commons on 14 July, presented by Stephen Timms, minister for pensions reform. Janet Walford, editor of MM, polled the most votes from her fellow journalists to...

Bonds get a friendly boost.
August 1, 2005... Nottingham Friendly Society has launched the Enhanced Bond, a single premium, with profits life assurance policy with a five-year fixed term and an immediate 5% bonus. Savers can invest between AGBP5,000 and AGBP25,000, which is enhanced...

Promoting a cash comparison for low return times.
August 1, 2005... JPMorgan Asset Management has broadened its total return range with the launch of the Cautious Total Return Fund. The fund aims to deliver a positive return of 3% pa above LIBOR, after the AMC, over a period of two to three years. The...

Security Blunkett.
August 1, 2005... COMPULSION, THE MOST commonly touted solution to the pensions crisis, could be coming closer following recent comments from David Blunkett, pensions minister. Blunkett used the launch of a think tank's pamphlet on pensions to announce the...

Platform focuses on asset diversification.
August 1, 2005... Product Innovations has teamed up with Frontier Capital Management to make a multi-asset portfolio available to IFAs. The Frontier Multi Asset Platform is an absolute return fund platform that features eight asset classes -- including hedge...

GETTING THE BALANCE RIGHT.
August 1, 2005... SINCE ENDOWMENTS SUFFERED their spectacular fall from grace, no one mortgage model has dominated the market in the same way. 10 years ago, endowments accounted for about 85% of UK mortgage sales, but a series of well-publicised shortfalls have...

Working it out.
August 1, 2005... WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF depolarisation, doomsayers are claiming that the network model is no longer viable -- competition from multi-tied bancassurers will squeeze IFAs already feeling the pressure from regulation and compliance issues, as...

Ambulance chasers change gear.
August 1, 2005... ENDOWMENT COMPLAINTS handlers are now responsible for more than 10% of all mortgage endowment claims handled by the Financial Ombudsman Service. The FOS reported that in the year to 31 March, the number of mortgage endowment complaints that it...

Taking STOCK.
August 1, 2005... THE FIRST SIX MONTHS OF 2005 gave all that investors could have hoped for -- good corporate profits, a strong rise in dividends and share buy-backs, and finally a pick up in merger and acquisition activity. Despite this, the technology-rich...

Simplification or nightmare?
August 1, 2005... WHILE APRIL 2006 WAS heralded as the date when eight types of pension would be merged, the more important aspect now is that pensions will be liberalised -- not least through facilitating concurrency and, in particular, the permitting of...

TIme to repackage.
August 1, 2005... MORTGAGE PACKAGERS GREW UP and proliferated in the late 1980s and 1990s when volumes of mortgage business were burgeoning and lenders had more business than they could handle efficiently and accurately. They first came to prominence to serve...

WITH PROFITS Life offices.
August 1, 2005... TWIN PEAKS IS HERE, OR RATHER, the FSA's so called 'twin peaks' approach to the regulation of with profits life offices has been incorporated into Money Management's annual financial strength survey. Under the new rules, firms with more than...

Independence day.
August 1, 2005... THE RISE OF EQUITY RELEASE HAS become the UK's unexpected financial services success story over the past decade. Few would have predicted 25 years ago that equity release could recover from the mis-selling scandals of the 1980s to become one of...

The golden years.
August 1, 2005... THE NEXT FEW YEARS WILL SEE A substantial increase in the UK population aged over 65. Some of those will have made adequate provision for retirement either through conventional pension accumulation or through other sources of wealth to see them...

A market transformed.
August 1, 2005... MORTGAGE DAY, 31 OCTOBER, 2004 -- the date when mortgages came under the FSA's regulatory wing -- had an interesting impact on the equity release market. There were whoops of joy from those who had been campaigning hard for statutory regulation...

Into the regulatory fold.
August 1, 2005... THE INCLUSION OF LIFETIME mortgages under FSA regulation, introduced in October 2004, has dramatically increased trust in equity release schemes, according to Prudential. Its recent survey found that the number of people over age 55 who would...

The future is bright.
August 1, 2005... THE EQUITY RELEASE MARKET HAS seen significant growth over the past few years. According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders (CML), the market is now 25 times the size that it was in 1994. The market is driven by sociodemographic, economic and...

Heirs and graces.
August 1, 2005... THE CONCEPT OF EQUITY RELEASE being used as an inheritance tax (IHT) mitigation tool is a bit like Marmite: the financial planning community either loves it or hates it. Some firms refuse point blank to advise on equity release for IHT...

A-Day woes for borrowers.
August 1, 2005... SIPP PROVIDERS ARE concerned that changes to pension fund borrowing rules post A-Day could lead to tax liabilities for some investors. Currently, SIPP holders wishing to purchase or develop property within their pensions are allowed to...

On the up.
August 1, 2005... THE WITH PROFITS WORLD has finally seen some good news. As the FSA reported that the financial strength of with profits providers is growing, Norwich Union announced that it has raised bonuses for some of its policyholders for the first time...

Between a rock and a hard place.
August 1, 2005... EVERY FINANCIAL ADVISER has a duty to give the best possible advice to clients and to document that advice, not only for the client's sake but for the adviser's own protection. But an IFA from Berkshire has found that his duty to recommend the...

Skandia scores well.
August 1, 2005... SKANDIA LIFE WOULD HAVE placed highly in our life and pensions survey last month, according to figures belatedly supplied by the firm. Results confirm Skandia as one of the fastest growing life firms in new business terms, with total life...

Bananas splits.
August 1, 2005... THOUSANDS OF OUT-OF-pocket split capital trust investors rushed to make the compensation claim deadline amid complaints over the complexity of the claims process. The company administering payments confirmed that it received more than...

Consolidation continues.
August 1, 2005... THE CONSOLIDATION OF closed life funds, as covered in last month's MM, continues with Reliance Mutual Insurance Society's acquisition of the life assurance business of Eurolife Assurance. The Eurolife book contains 11,000 policies with...

ABI denies benchmark blues.
August 1, 2005... THE ASSOCIATION OF British Insurers (ABI) has rejected claims that it encountered a muted response to the launch of a new benchmarking service to measure customer views of the industry. Concerns were raised after the launch about the lack...

Playing it safe.
August 1, 2005... THE PENSION FUND HAS said that it will steer clear of equities or alternative asset classes until its funding position is "robust". The Government-sponsored pensions lifeboat, which acts as the safety net for under-funded final salary...

Cashing in on healthcare evolution.
August 1, 2005... HEALTHCARE CASH PLANS (HCPs) are set for a return to prominence more than 130 years after their conception. They were established in 1870 to help volunteer hospitals that did not have access to state funding, but then were sidelined by the...

Buoying a flagging market.
August 1, 2005... Paragon Mortgages is offering buy-to-let borrowers a five-year fixed rate mortgage at 5.25%. The loan is fixed to 31 October 2010, after which it reverts to three-month LIBOR, plus 1.5% (currently giving a pay rate of 6.3%). Expected...