Money Management articles from July 2005

Money Management archives from July 2005

Skandia sailing competition.
July 1, 2005... THE SIX LUCKY WINNERS OF Money Management's Skandia sailing competition are IFA Warwick Hooper of Cromer, Norfolk; Andrew Ward-Penny of Saga Financial Planning in Folkestone, Kent; Beryl Carr of Protection & Investment in Andover, Hampshire;...

Menu misery.
July 1, 2005... WITH DEPOLARISATION NOW in effect, issues with the new FSA-required menu of fees and commission have come to a head. Concerns about the commission calculator -- issued by the FSA to report the industry averages required for the menu -- were...

Frontier alchemy.
July 1, 2005... LIFE OFFICES HAVE FAILED IFAs by obsessing about flavour of the month investment concepts, according to David Barclay-Miller head of structured investment for Product Innovations Ltd (PIL). Barclay-Miller accused firms of ignoring the basic...

Blast from the past.
July 1, 2005... IN JULY 1980 COMMISSION was just as topical to Money Management readers as it is today. In the Comment piece, we reported that Crown Life was making waves by resigning its membership of the Life Offices Association (LOA), now the Association of...

Perceptions poles apart.
July 1, 2005... DEPOLARISATION MAY HAVE received a chilly reception from some IFAs, but that was nothing compared with the perception of consumers. Research conducted by IFA network Sesame found that one in 10 people believed depolarisation to be a new...

FPoY awards.
July 1, 2005... THE ENTRIES DEADLINE for the Money Management Financial Planner of the Year awards is just around the corner. John Sergeant, former BBC and ITV political correspondent, will host the 10th annual awards at The Dorchester on Thursday 13 October....

CRASH TEST DUMMY.
July 1, 2005... John Charcol has launched the Triple Protector Mortgage -- a five-year fixed-rate loan offering a guarantee against negative equity. The mortgage rate has been established at 4.99% and all borrowers receive five years' free accident,...

Booze your way to billions.
July 1, 2005... Preferred Asset Management has launched a fund that will invest in fine wines from Bordeaux. The fund is advised by Surrenda-link and wine investment experts Interest in Wine. It is Jersey-based and structured as a closed-ended investment...

Menu revamp adds benefits.
July 1, 2005... Progress, Royal Liver's e-only protection service, has launched a new protection menu, adding several new, and revamping some existing, products. Still included in the new range are level and decreasing term assurance, but increasing term...

Silver savers.
July 1, 2005... Newcastle Building Society has announced the launch of its 55 Base Rate Tracker account designed for people aged 55 and over. The product is available as a direct investment bond or as a mini cash ISA and has an interest rate guaranteed to...

Facing up to the FOS.
July 1, 2005... A CONSUMER WHO COMPLAINS to the financial ombudsman service (FOS) and ends up with a result that he finds unacceptable has the luxury of ignoring that decision and bringing a claim for compensation in the courts. Conversely, the IFA is, of...

Crawling to the summit.
July 1, 2005... INCOME FUNDS WERE LARGELY overlooked during the stock market's boom years in the last two decades of the 20th Century. Their appeal was overshadowed by the stellar returns available from many other equity-based fund sectors, which dwarfed those...

Vultures eye closed funds.
July 1, 2005... THERE MAY BE A SOLUTION ON the horizon for troubled mutual Equitable Life as two consolidators, Resolution Life and Life Company Investor Group, have expressed interest in acquiring it. These companies are among a small group, often called...

the case for with profits annuities.
July 1, 2005... ALTHOUGH MOST ANNUITIES ARE purchased on a level basis for higher starting incomes, level incomes are vulnerable if the economy falls into high inflation over the potential 40 years of the annuitants' remaining lives. But taking out RPI-linked...

Nuclear mis-sales.
July 1, 2005... The so-called 'ambulance-chasing' firms that have been picking off endowment sales at IFAs' expense for the past few years have perpetuated a culture of compensation that continues to plague advisers. The 'free money' that they promise to...

Rip off cover?
July 1, 2005... THE FSA's DECISION TO EXAMINE payment protection insurance will likely bring mortgage payment protection insurance (MPPI) into the limelight. It has been subject to negative publicity over the past couple of years. MPPI is effectively a...

Taking STOCK.
July 1, 2005... OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS A philosophical and practical struggle has taken place over the nature of the European Union. Apparently quite unremarked upon by Britain's Eurosceptic tabloids, the outcome of this has important implications for...

NEW TERMS FOR DEFERRING YOUR STATE PENSION.
July 1, 2005... IMPROVED TERMS FOR DEFERRAL of state pensions introduced in April 2005 merit consideration by those able to afford them. Included is a lump sum option, with a good tax deal for those moving to a lower tax bracket. For the married there is the...

An offset opportunity.
July 1, 2005... PROTECTION GIANTS ARE searching to find a life cover solution for offset mortgages to stop borrowers being left over-or underprotected. Royal Liver Assurance confirmed that it had held high level talks over developing a product within the...

Still life.
July 1, 2005... THE LIFE AND PENSIONS GARDEN did not appear especially rosy last year, but a number of providers have planted seeds of encouragement with a growth in new business. More than half of the firms participating in our annual new life and pensions...

Dispelling the myths.
July 1, 2005... THE DEBATE OVER MULTI-MANAGER fees and whether they are higher than traditional investment solutions has raged for some time in the industry. Managers of managers (MoMs) are often compared directly with funds of funds (FoF) in terms of fees and...

Structural engineering.
July 1, 2005... OUTSOURCING TO A MULTI- manager solution can deliver benefits to IFAs by freeing up their time to concentrate on other areas of financial planning and the task of running a business. But the key to maximising these benefits is to ensure that...

Gaining ground.
July 1, 2005... THE MULTI-MANAGER CONCEPT IS becoming increasingly popular across the whole pensions market. It is gaining ground with consultants, trustees of occupational schemes, employers providing contract-based schemes for staff and IFAs recommending...

A changing landscape.
July 1, 2005... THE INVESTMENT COMMUNITY has always had mixed feelings towards multi-manager investing, taking a view for or against outsourcing asset management and fund/manager selection. But even the most sceptical would be hard-pressed to ignore what has...

Generation affluent.
July 1, 2005... DURING THE PAST TWO DECADES, financial advisers tracked what appeared to be the same financial consumer, but with changing needs and the asset management industry responded in kind. The 1980s were an age of investment products and the industry...

Seizing the day.
July 1, 2005... BARELY A MONTH GOES BY without a multi-manager offering being brought to market. By the end of next year, it is predicted that there will be some 700 multi-manager providers worldwide. With more than 500 already in existence, the sector is...

Strategic boundaries.
July 1, 2005... WE ARE SET TO ENTER A LONG period of low equity returns compared to recent times. More than ever, investment decisions have to be good. Losing 20% of a portfolio through poor judgement or bad timing could take years to recover. So how can the...

Performance is back on the MAP.
July 1, 2005... THE LATEST SALES FIGURES FOR multi-manager products depict a booming global sector. According to US-based consultancy Cerulli Associates, manager of manager (MoM) products saw 80% growth in net new cash last year in the UK alone, while funds of...

Under the bonnet.
July 1, 2005... THE PAST YEAR HAS SEEN NO SIGN of a slowdown in multi-manager launches, but performance has not been as constant. The year to April 2005 was a mixed bag for the sector -- a look at the star OEIC and unit trust performers of the 12-month period,...

Too little too late?
July 1, 2005... THE DEPARTMENT FOR Work and Pensions (DWP) has set out new rules that will define how employers must consult with their workers on changes to company pension schemes. The requirement for consultation was set out in the Pensions Act 2004,...

SIPP rules set to stay.
July 1, 2005... INDUSTRY HOPES OF A relaxation of the borrowing rules for post A-Day self invested personal pension (SIPP) property investing are fading despite continued lobbying efforts. SIPP providers have been putting pressure on the Treasury to change...

To serve and protect.
July 1, 2005... A NEW SERVICE, WHICH claims to offer protection to IFAs vulnerable to mis-selling accusations arising from declined protection claims has been launched. Adviser Guarantee from LifeQuote -- part of the Skipton Group and also known as Direct...

Dividend danger.
July 1, 2005... DIVIDEND PAYMENTS TO shareholders are under threat from the introduction of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) within the EU. In order to pay dividends, companies are required by law to have positive distributable profits....

Portfolios focus on IHT planning.
July 1, 2005... Noble has launched two AIM portfolio management services for those seeking tax-efficient smaller company investments of at least AGBP50,000. The AIM specialist is targeting investors looking to reduce inheritance tax (IHT) or roll over capital...

Inland looks offshore.
July 1, 2005... THE INLAND REVENUE'S (IR) war on secret offshore accounts has potentially serious implications for IFAs, a leading tax adviser has warned. The IR has recently recruited more inspectors to the specialist unit that it established earlier...

Discounted arrangements.
July 1, 2005... "THE CHANGES ANNOUNCED on 10 December 2003 spelt the end of much lifetime tax planning". This statement, made by a leading tax counsel in the wake of the announcement of the new tax charge on pre-owned assets, paints a pretty bleak picture....

Psavings psychology.
July 1, 2005... A SCOTTISH WIDOWS report has revealed that the failure to save for retirement is not the exclusive reserve of those on low incomes. The survey, which studied the demographics of the savings crisis currently hitting the UK, revealed that one...

More to declare.
July 1, 2005... SCOTTISH WIDOWS HAS become the latest critical illness (CI) provider to confirm that it will be publishing details of its declined claims. Standard Life's decision in April to publish details of claims that have been declined set the ball...

P-p-pick of the premiums.
July 1, 2005... Axa PPP Healthcare has launched a PMI plan that aims to meet the affordability requirements and medical needs of the over-55s market. The product, Retirement Essentials, covers a restricted list of conditions -- those that affect quality of...