Money Management articles from December 2004

Money Management archives from December 2004

Guaranteed situation reviewable.
December 1, 2004... Guaranteed premiums have returned from the brink to breathe new life into the critical illness market. Until recently, guaranteed rates looked to be on their way out as rising costs forced several providers to offer reviewable rates only, as...

Are you worth it?
December 1, 2004... The Women's IFA Group (WIG) has responded to the Treasury Select Committee's recent claims that IFAs do little in return for the trail commissions by publishing research arguing that its members feel that they are underpaid for the time that...

Up close and personal.
December 1, 2004... The recently formed Personal Finance Society (PFS) has denied rumours that it will invite the Institute of Financial Planning (IFP) to join once the LIA and SOFA have completed the merger. However, the PFS has said that it will not rule out...

SIPP slip.
December 1, 2004... Due to a technical glitch in communications, last month's SIPPs supplement did not feature the details of two companies that had responded to our questionnaire. Both the SIPP specialist IPM Personal Pension Trustees and the insurance firm Axa...

Absolut returns.
December 1, 2004... If you are an IFA reading this after lunch, there is a chance that you will be struggling to focus properly. At least, that was the conclusion of research conducted by Peninsula, an employment law firm, which revealed that 79% of IFAs admitted...

Blast from the past.
December 1, 2004... In December 1979 Money Management published a review of annuities. The British Government sold annuities until 1962, before they became available solely through insurance companies. As now, there were several different types of annuity...

offshore arm aims for flexibility.
December 1, 2004... Scottish Equitable International has combined two existing products to produce an IFA friendly IHT package. The Estate Planning Portfolio, launching on 1 December, consists of a discounted gift trust and an offshore investment bond. It is...

a five star investment.
December 1, 2004... The buy-to-let market has been given a new twist with a company specialising in the sale of hotel rooms. Guestinvest originally launched in March 2004, offering investors the chance to buy a room in London's Notting Hill-based Guesthouse West....

Thin end of the wedge.
December 1, 2004... Whether the FSA likes it or not, most IFAs still earn their living from commissions. Although fees have become more prevalent in recent years, the reality is that fees are mostly only acceptable (and affordable) to high net worth individuals,...

family friendly.
December 1, 2004... Homeowners Friendly Society has launched a family insurance benefits plan that offers a tax free monthly income for up to 20 years on the lives of parents. The Better Start Family Income Life Cover is technically a qualifying decreasing...

It's a cracker.
December 1, 2004... Vantis Tax, the specialist tax consultancy arm of Vantis, has launched the TaxCracker, a new electronic tax support service for IFAs. TaxCracker has been designed to assist IFAs in identifying tax-planning opportunities for clients and...

focus on uk equities.
December 1, 2004... JO Hambro Capital Management Group has launched its first onshore OEIC, the UK Equity Income Fund, which will be managed by Clive Beagles, formerly head of UK equities at Newton Investment Management. The fund will be capped at AGBP750m and...

Equity release boom.
December 1, 2004... THE EQUITY RELEASE SECTOR has reported record new business figures for Q3 of 2004. Industry body SHIP, which represents 90% of the sector, reported AGBP338m in new business -- a 30% rise over Q2 2004 and a 13% rise over Q3 2003. According to...

Online underwriting comes of age.
December 1, 2004... Underwriting and under- writers are not exactly synonymous with revolution; nevertheless there is a quiet revolution gathering pace in the underwriting world at the moment. More and more companies are coming to market with enhanced online...

Fantasy portfolio challenge.
December 1, 2004... OCTOBER GOT OFF TO A fantastic start with the markets continuing their September rally. But, this was cut short in the month by increasing uncertainty on three key issues: the US election, the price of oil and worries over the sustainability of...

The cornerstone of financial planning.
December 1, 2004... Income protection (IP), the new(ish) name for what used to be known as permanent health insurance (PHI), is arguably the cornerstone of all financial planning. It protects that on which everything else is based, such as savings, investments and...

serving up menu- based protection.
December 1, 2004... Axa Assurance has launched into the IFA market with a menu-based protection proposition, which will offer both life and general insurance products through the same point of sale system. While some other insurers, such as Scottish Provident and...

Myths of interest.
December 1, 2004... "Home loan rip off!" screamed the headline of one tabloid daily recently. It suggested that lenders were increasing their interest rates way above the Bank of England's increases, forcing borrowers to dig deep to meet mortgage payments. The...

Pension Crisis - worse for which sex?
December 1, 2004... When the Pension Commission report, the Turner report, was published on 12 October, Julie Mellor, chairman of the Equal Opportunities Commission, and 17 other ladies from bodies like the NAPF, the TUC and Age Concern, wrote to the Financial...

Reputations left high and dry.
December 1, 2004... There is a saying that it is only when the tide goes out that you can see just how much flotsam and jetsam there is on the beach. Between December 1999 and March 2003, the FTSE 100 Index fell from just over 6,900 to under 3,300, a drop of...

Taking Stock - December 2004.
December 1, 2004... Christmas this year for investors may well be a time for gloomy questioning. Over the last five years the Money Management 'growth at a glance' tables reveal that unit trusts have failed to produce a living income for investors and, if front...

Pre-owned assets -- the new regime, part I.
December 1, 2004... The average UK house is worth more than AGBP150,000 and home ownership is at nearly 70% of the population. It is not surprising, therefore, that there has been a great deal of interest in schemes designed to take the family home out of the tax...

Cashing in your chips.
December 1, 2004... INDIVIDUAL PENSIONS THAT WERE MARKETED BEFORE stakeholder came into play usually contained a specific retirement date at the outset as part of the contract. Retiring earlier than this, transferring accumulated contributions to another provider,...

CIC off the terminal list.
December 1, 2004... Predictions of a critical illness market meltdown have proved wide of the mark but the problems besetting the industry remain intense. Demographic shifts and advances in medicine and diagnostics are among the factors that have driven claims...

Better for clients and intermediaries.
December 1, 2004... With FSA regulation of protection sales starting on 14 January 2005, many advisers may not have had the opportunity to look in detail at what regulation will mean for them and the advice that they give. However, rather than fearing the unknown,...

Value is in the eye of the beholder.
December 1, 2004... For certain advisers, there are few hours in life more agreeable than those dedicated to the practices of investment research and portfolio construction. As people are often full of admiration for those who can accomplish tasks of which they...

Testing times for multi-management.
December 1, 2004... The popularity of multi- manager funds has grown rapidly over the last two years. While sales of many other types of unit trusts and OEICs have flagged, these funds, where the investment management is sub-contracted to a number of external fund...

Gamekeepers and poachers.
December 1, 2004... The FSA's enthusiastic regulation regime is driving an exodus of staff to the private sector compliance roles that it helped to create. The turnover of staff at the FSA has risen from 7% in the year to 31 March 2004 to 9.5% this year to...

Smart money.
December 1, 2004... With around 2,000 funds in the UK and a further 2,000 offshore funds that are recognised by the FSA, advisers can be forgiven for feeling overwhelmed by choice when trying to make investment decisions for clients. Step in the multi-manager, who...

Immediate relief.
December 1, 2004... There is an important distinction between gifts made to immediately reduce an inheritance tax (IHT) liability and those that are exempt only if the giver survives for seven years after the gift was made. Immediately exempt gifts are more...

Tied agents out of the loop.
December 1, 2004... The onset of depolarisation does not mean that professional bodies in England and Wales will be changing their rules on client referrals. Many IFAs currently receive client referrals from solicitors and accountants. The rules of their...

The future in our hands.
December 1, 2004... Even the most confirmed luddite would surely concede the significant impact that developments in technology have had on our everyday lives. The way that we communicate, find information, pay for our purchases in shops, even how we cook our...

Asset allocation is everything.
December 1, 2004... THE NOTION THAT A MANAGER- of-managers investment management model can help secure an asset allocation that more accurately reflects a client's risk profile may appear, at first sight, to be rather dubious. However, the proposition begins...

The 'Unforeseen'.
December 1, 2004... The unforeseen might sound like the latest Clint Eastwood blockbuster, but are you prepared for the sudden twists and turns that life throws at you? A compatriot of Clint's, Rudi Giuliani, recently commented that preparing for everything...

Treating policyholders fairly?
December 1, 2004... The FSA's Consultation Paper 04/14, 'Treating with profits policyholders fairly' is a re-consultation resulting from feedback received on CP207, and is based on proposals that are generally less severe than those of its predecessor. A...

What are they worth?
December 1, 2004... The biggest single cause behind the reputational problems that with profits bonds have suffered recently is almost certainly the penalties imposed on those who cash in their bonds early. Although the products do not have a fixed term, they...

Critical debate.
December 1, 2004... Critical illness providers are concerned by discussions underway in Ireland that could result in insurers being banned from using family history information. UK insurers keenly aware of the potential for precedents are keeping an eye on...

And it's good night from Smee.
December 1, 2004... Paul Smee's swan song as AIFA director general descended into chaos at the organisation's annual dinner. The event, in the lavish surroundings of London's Draper's Hall, was disrupted when the guest speaker, Oliver Letwin MP, was repeatedly...

Best of the bunch.
December 1, 2004... It is something of an understatement to say that with profits bonds have fallen from favour among UK investors. The products, once the cornerstone of the investment market, were seen as an essential part of any portfolio. The inherent...

To tie or not to tie.
December 1, 2004... In the run up to depolarisation, advisers are choosing sides -- and there are some surprises, along with some unusual arrangements. Rather than switching from independent to multi-tied as earlier announced, Bradford & Bingley has swung to...

Insurance commission disclosure.
December 1, 2004... Crusading New York attorney general Eliot Spitzer has been busy suing insurance brokers across the pond for guiding clients towards the products of providers that paid the most commission, rather than those that were best for the client. This...

M-Day reprieve.
December 1, 2004... Last month Money Management reported that with just one month before M-Day, one in three mortgage brokers had not applied for registration with the FSA. Now that M-Day has come and gone, those brokers will be breathing a sigh of relief at the...

Taxing matters.
December 1, 2004... Despite rumours to the contrary, circulating late last year, the Chancellor did not eliminate tax free withdrawal, the valuable concession attached to all single premium life bonds -- much to the relief of the life industry. This also was...

IFAs await the patter of tiny feet.
December 1, 2004... IFAs are set for a wave of CTF enquiries as the first notification letters land on doorsteps. The initial batch of letters raising awareness of CTFs went out on 15 November, with further mailings due in December, January and February. By the...

Exit wounds.
December 1, 2004... With profits bonds used to be thought of as financial products that were so safe that they effectively guaranteed return of capital -- the ideal product for cautious investors. The smoothing process created year after year of stable bonuses,...