Money Management articles from January 2007

Money Management archives from January 2007

Fair compromise?
January 1, 2007... Byline: Personal accounts to be run centrally The Government has confirmed that the insurance industry will not be responsible for running personal accounts, instead handing control of the incoming national saving scheme to a central admin...

TERing down the house.
January 1, 2007... Byline: Investment trust charges fall Total expense ratios (TERs) for investment trusts have fallen this year on average for the second year running. TERs, which consist of the annual management charge plus any additional costs, are...

Be aware, says IP White Paper.
January 1, 2007... Byline: Ignorance of income protection needs halts sales Poor awareness of sickness and disability needs among advisers is to blame for the low priority of income protection (IP) products in the protection market, according to a task force...

MM blog now live.
January 1, 2007... Byline: Join in the debate Money Management's own blog is now up and running and has already started to receive comments from readers. The blog, entitled 'Walford's World', is penned by editor Janet Walford and can be found at...

Manager moves.
January 1, 2007... n Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (SWIP) has appointed Fraser Laird as investment director in the Japanese equities team. He joins from AIB Investment Managers, where he was senior fund manager in Japanese equities. He has 22...

Blast from the past.
January 1, 2007... Byline: News from 25 years ago BACK IN THE 1980s OFFSHORE investing was lauded as the new solution to portfolio diversity following the suspension of exchange controls in 1979. Money Management offered a cautious endorsement of this in...

All wrapped up.
January 1, 2007... Byline: IFA-led platform goes live One of the first IFA controlled wrap propositions was set to officially launch by Christmas after finally receiving FSA approval. The IFA led platform from Nucleus Financial Group was originally...

Next month.
January 1, 2007... n Our survey will be on tracker funds, with a look at their performance now that the stock market has returned to something like its former glory. How have trackers fared compared to their actively managed counterparts? n Plus, REITS are...

PEIS of mind.
January 1, 2007... Byline: Enterprise investment scheme Product offers lower risk way to mitigate tax Octopus has launched the Protected Enterprise Investment Scheme (PEIS) as a low risk way of deferring capital gains tax (CGT) and mitigating inheritance...

Rusty handcuffs.
January 1, 2007... Byline: Commission clawback traps 10% of network leavers Onerous exit clauses prevent as many as one in 10 appointed representatives from leaving their networks to go directly authorised. Bankhall support services said that it has to...

Smoothing ruffled feathers.
January 1, 2007... Byline: With profits pension annuity Liverpool Victoria has relaunched its with profits pensions annuity (WPPA), offering a reduced smoothing period for top up bonuses from five to two years for new and existing business. The WPPA was...

Building returns.
January 1, 2007... Byline: Protected fund Nomura has launched the open ended Global Property 80% Protected fund that uniquely plans to invest 100% of its assets in property equities from day one. The fund also guarantees to protect 80% of the highest net...

Investment master.
January 1, 2007... Byline: PORTFOLIO PLANNING TOOL Tilney Investment Management has launched the MasterAccount, offering Tilney's investment management expertise alongside a portfolio administration and reporting system similar to a wrap platform. A...

Spanish castle magic.
January 1, 2007... Byline: Mortgage Barclay's Spain has launched its highest ever loan to value (LTV) mortgage for British buyers hoping to tap into the Spanish property market. The flexible mortgage allows non-resident property buyers to borrow up to...

Reforming commission.
January 1, 2007... Everyone seems to be talking about reforming our commission for us. How kind. All the usual so called experts are having a go, be they FSA, consumer watchdog people, and everyone else, except of course the IFA. Even more interestingly, they...

Dilution costs.
January 1, 2007... Byline: Letter of the month I was pleased to see the article by John Chapman in the November issue (Single pricing shambles) on the subject of how long-term OEIC investors are unfairly treated by being forced to pay the transaction costs...

Retirement time.
January 1, 2007... Whilst I normally read with a measure of good natured indulgence Harry Katz's regular diatribes in the trade press, I find frankly appalling his suggestion that companies should consider ditching employer sponsored retirement funding. We...

Dilution levies.
January 1, 2007... An excellent article [November Money Management]. This is exactly the sort of agenda setting investigative report that I value. I very much appreciate having the lid lifted on some of murkier practices in which the industry is engaged and most...

Regulating products.
January 1, 2007... Regarding your November comment about regulating products rather than advice, it is slightly ingenuous of the FSA to say that they do not regulate products because, in fact, they regulate most of the aspects of all products. From the solvency...

FPoY awards.
January 1, 2007... This year's coverage of the Financial Planner of the Year awards in Money Management (November) was superb and I will definitely be entering the MM Awards (sorry Oscars!) next year, (I was really disappointed that I did not have the chance to...

A costly switch.
January 1, 2007... Byline: Pre Budget could cost PTA policyholders Pension term assurance (PTA) policyholders could be left paying up to 11% more in premiums if they are forced to switch to conventional life cover after the Chancellor's pre Budget report...

Taking stock: ameliorating risk.
January 1, 2007... Markets have done well since summer 2003, and investors and advisers are happy again. Indeed the low level of price volatility - the synonym for risk expectation - in all securities markets suggests a dangerous level of complacency. Quite how...

Vulnerable women.
January 1, 2007... Byline: Both married and single women face new risks in the proposed future pension regime, suggests John Chapman Women currently draw the short straw in pension incomes, with married women pensioners heavily reliant on their husbands....

Holding strategies.
January 1, 2007... Remortgaging figures are at their lowest level for five years, the CML reports, and it lays the blame at the door of mortgage lenders implementing mortgage retention strategies. shows the statistics on the remortgaging market compiled by CML....

Do networks work?
January 1, 2007... Networks have suffered a real battering from the press in recent years following high profile collapses of several leading firms such as Berkeley Berry Birch and staunch competition from support service providers. At one time the network...

A dishonest picture.
January 1, 2007... Byline: Both TERs and 10 year RIYs may seriously mislead investors, so how can charges best be compared asks John Chapman? The two most widely used methods of comparing charges on investment products are total expense ratios (TERs) and...

The pre-Budget report.
January 1, 2007... The pre-Budget report of the 6 December heralded changes for the personal finance industry that could clearly be categorised under one heading - investments. As usual the speech gave away less and the devil was in the detail that accompanied...

Taking the world by storm.
January 1, 2007... Funds investing in lean hogs, soybeans or zinc may sound too far-fetched for the average man on the street, but such weird and wonderful investments are now available to anyone adventurous enough to try them thanks to the emergence of exchange...

Comparing apples with apples.
January 1, 2007... Sector definitions come in many guises: peer groups, sectors, buckets and even baskets, but ultimately for both investors and fund managers the process is all about clarification. Many argue that it is just a process of simplification. But...

Weaving a route through the web.
January 1, 2007... The online revolution has been good news for individual pensions. People holding a policy with many providers can now view their details online, change their personal details and alter where their pension is being invested. Online tools are...

Best laid plans.
January 1, 2007... Byline: Consumers fail to consider repayment of interest only mortgages More than 15% of consumers with an interest only mortgage do not have an effective repayment strategy in place despite knowing the risks associated with the product,...

Switching out.
January 1, 2007... Many people with a pension, particularly those coming up to retirement, have held that same pension for decades, perhaps suffering years of poor performance and outdated costs. Switching pension provider is of course a possibility but it...

Why go online?
January 1, 2007... Even for the sceptical, perhaps the biggest impact that technology can have is in converting something very complex to something very simple. In the world of the financial adviser and product provider, whether developing and managing annuity...

Boutiques and boomers.
January 1, 2007... Mention the word 'boutique'to a baby boomer and you will see a glistening in the eye as she drifts off into distant memories of six inch platform shoes for sale alongside cheesecloth shirts. This was the generation of love and peace, a...

The village approach.
January 1, 2007... Can you explain RAM's involvement in the third party market? Since 2004 we have adopted a strategy of building a village of boutiques. This has been done to address the demand for high alpha and investment management that delivers for the...

External appearances.
January 1, 2007... In a bid to make their life and pensions products more attractive, life offices began offering external fund links to fund management houses over 20 years ago. Today, investors can choose from a broad array of funds, meaning that life offices...

A festive final word...
January 1, 2007... It was Christmas Eve 2006 and Bob Cratchit sat by his desk shivering. Bathed in the gloomy light of his energy saving 20 watt light bulb in the office of Scrooge & Marley Life Assurance company, he cowered in the shadow of his managing...

Keep in touch.
January 1, 2007... Byline: In Partnership buyout scheme for all IFAs In Partnership, the network with a national IFA arm, has launched a company buyout scheme for retiring IFAs that has no minimum qualifying criteria. The new scheme is available to all...

Systems alert.
January 1, 2007... Byline: 'Human error'affects 140,000 policies Tens of thousands of people have lost money due to a pricing error that affected all Clerical Medical unit linked products. In total, 140,000 policies were affected, 59,000 of which lost...

Annuity sales up.
January 1, 2007... Byline: Annuity strengthens while ASP weakens Sales of annuities are on track to be the highest on record since the turn of the century, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI). And the sector is expecting to see further...

Five year itch.
January 1, 2007... Byline: Investment bonds are losing money due to early redemption Advisers are encouraging policyholders to redeem their investment bonds early, hitting provider profits, Norwich Union has claimed. The group said that investment bonds...

Regulating products.
January 1, 2007... Byline: IFAs think FSA should do it The industry would rather see products regulated than advisers and providers, according to results of a Money Management poll. The online survey at FTAdviser.com, which followed on from MM's comment...

Taking IT head on.
January 1, 2007... Even for IFAs used to rapid technological change, the past year or so has been unprecedented. At times the changes have been unsettling, but not unwelcome for advisers who see IT as playing a central role in their future success. The...