Money Management articles from July 2007

Money Management archives from July 2007

A recipe for disaster.
July 1, 2007... Byline: The reason why most clients choose to pay by commission is staggeringly simple: because they can The CRA report findings on the effects of the menu system, introduced despite considerable opposition along with depolarisation in...

FSA levy rises.
July 1, 2007... Byline: Mixed bag for firms The FSA has published details of its finalised fees and levies for 2007/8, revealing rates that are generally lower than those initially recommended in February's consultation paper. The FSA cited higher...

Investment watch.
July 1, 2007... - The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) elected to hold interest rates at 5.5% on 7 June. The MPC has raised interest rates four times since August 2006, with the most recent quarter point hike on 10 May putting interest rates at a six year high...

Not adding up.
July 1, 2007... Byline: Mortality statistics need updating Statistics from the Government Actuary Department (GAD) that are used by the FSA to predict mortality rates need to be updated to take account of new research, according to a pensions expert. ...

Automotive personality to drive awards.
July 1, 2007... Byline: Financial Planner of the Year awards presenter is announced Motoring journalist Quentin Willson, who writes for the Top gear and was a presenter of BBC's Sunday Mirror for a decade, is to host this year's Financial Planner of the...

Manager moves.
July 1, 2007... - Axa Framlington has recruited Jeremy Gleeson to manage its AGBP 62.5m Global Technology Fund. Gleeson was previously senior portfolio manager at Close Investments, where he looked after several technology funds totalling over AGBP 80m in...

Confidence perishing.
July 1, 2007... Byline: Wrap investments left without cover Wrap insurance provider Pershing has come under fire after withdrawing its provision of excess cover on investments for two months without notifying any parties. Pershing is one of seven...

Calls for end of with profits.
July 1, 2007... Byline: CEO claims fixed interest crippling market Comments made by the chief executive of cru Investment Management Jon Maguire calling for the closure of with profits funds have caused controversy within the industry. He said that the FSA...

Blast from the past.
July 1, 2007... Byline: News from 25 years ago In July 1982 Albert Spedding, then general manager and actuary for the now defunct UK Provident, wrote an article extolling the virtues of with profits pension plans. He contrasted the reliability of with...

Exam angers IFAs.
July 1, 2007... Byline: Certificate in TCF branded "pointless" Advice by the ifs School of Finance urging advisers to sit an exam in treating customers fairly (TCF) has been criticised by some IFA. Following some high profile FSA fines levied on...

Another third way.
July 1, 2007... Byline: Lincoln throws its hat into the ring Lincoln Financial Group has launched a new retirement planning product that is intended to provide a solution to all phases of retirement planning. The Lincoln i2live product is divided...

An insurance mess 54pt.
July 1, 2007... Byline: Crucial policy information going undisclosed Advisers are not being made aware of crucial policy information on insurance contracts in a situation that AIFA has called damaging to the industry. According to ABI guidance, when...

Much potential.
July 1, 2007... SOFTWARE PLATFORM A new technology platform claims to be the first to provide an 'all in one' solution for IFAs. The True Potential platform is an electronic 'end to end' pipeline system, meaning that IFAs only have to enter their...

A loophole.
July 1, 2007... IHT fund Octopus Investments has launched a low risk fund that aims to mitigate inheritance tax (IHT). The Octopus IHT Income fund takes advantage of business property relief legislation passed in 1984, which states that any money...

A safe bet.
July 1, 2007... INVESTMENT BOND Metlife has expanded its European presence with the launch of a new investment bond in the UK. The US insurance giant's unit linked bond includes a secure capital option, which promises to return the initial investment...

Mortgage targets critically ill.
July 1, 2007... Partnership Assurance is claiming to be the first provider to target a lifetime mortgage product at people with impaired life expectancies. The Partnership Lifetime Mortgage product is designed for those suffering from medical conditions...

Meaningless designatory letters.
July 1, 2007... Byline: Letter of the month I read with great interest your comment column in the June issue. Earlier this month I attended the 2007 PFS graduation ceremony and was awarded Chartered Financial Planner status. It was one of the proudest...

Simon Pym Williamson.
July 1, 2007... I read your comment piece in the June issue on meaningless designatory letters - well said! You can well imagine how recent developments concern me and other colleagues at the IFP who have been striving for years to develop a true...

IHT planning.
July 1, 2007... The decision of the Special Commissioners in the Phizackerley IHT case will have come as no surprise to advisers experienced in this complex area, particularly once the circumstances of the case were laid out. It is known that this set of...

Gordon's tax on pension dividends.
July 1, 2007... I am by no means a fan of Gordon Brown's. However I find much of the hysteria about his tax on pensions to be disingenuous and rather hypocritical. I, amongst several others, was jumping up and down in rage about this act in 1997. When...

Treating advisers fairly.
July 1, 2007... Those who think that life will be easier directly regulated by the FSA as opposed to being members of a (good) network should think again. Some time last year, a directly regulated firm made its best attempt at completing its required...

How good are default funds?
July 1, 2007... Byline: Investors reluctant to take investment decisions end up in default funds. But how good are they, asks John Chapman? Predominantly people will save for private pensions through money purchase pension schemes in the future. They will...

OBE for MM editor.
July 1, 2007... We are delighted to announce that Janet Walford, editor of Money Management magazine, has been awarded an OBE in the Queen's birthday honours. Janet joined the personal finance industry in 1971, and spent the next seven years learning...

A time of great interest.
July 1, 2007... So at last the housing market may be showing signs of slowing. Figures from the Bank of England show that net lending to individuals in April was AGBP 9.4bn, down from AGBP 10.1bn in March and from the previous six month average of AGBP 10.7bn...

Planning with offshore bonds.
July 1, 2007... Directors of many small to medium-sized companies are often too busy running the business to devote the time needed to consider the wider issues of long-term investment and corporation tax planning. This has led to a significant number of...

Green transport.
July 1, 2007... Care of the environment is becoming an increasingly important part of many people's lives, and as we said in last month's column, there are likely to be several possible areas where significant profits can be achieved in the years ahead with...

Taking stock - invest or cash in?
July 1, 2007... These are dangerous times for investors. Household incomes are under intense strain from rising costs and heavier taxes, while neither deposit rates on personal savings, nor bond yields seem capable of alleviating this problem. But equity...

Training hard.
July 1, 2007... There are probably few who would now doubt the value of having in place formal training and competence (T&C) requirements for those engaged in the retail financial services sector but it was not always so. It will soon be 20 years since...

UCIT or lose it.
July 1, 2007... Over the past decade the European fund industry has had unprecedented growth, largely under the framework of the directives regulating UCITS, (Undertakings for Collective Investments in Transferable Securities). In Brussels work is well under...

Constantly moving goalposts.
July 1, 2007... In last month's Money Management, Jonathan Davies, partner in law firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain, explained how financial advisers get a raw deal from the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) compared to other regulators. The raw deal extends...

Unsung benefits.
July 1, 2007... Many consumers know the basics of insurance and are familiar with most of the policies available. Life cover pays out on death, car insurance if you are involved in an accident, critical illness on diagnosis of a serious condition and so on....

New business trends survey.
July 1, 2007... The story last year was of a steady recovery in the life and pensions sector but one which still failed to match the heady heights of 2002, when total new business reached just over AGBP 65bn. Now that the A-Day pensions regime has been part...

Prime cuts.
July 1, 2007... "Sub prime mortgage lending is a growing risk to firms active in this sector of the mortgage market". This was the judgement of the FSA's Clive Briault, delivered during his keynote speech at the Building Societies Association (BSA) annual...

Stealth charges.
July 1, 2007... Byline: Sneaky increases in with profits charges Life offices are increasing charges on their with profits policies by opaque methods, Money Management has discovered. Policyholders may well not notice this increase in charges because...

Wants and needs.
July 1, 2007... Determining retirement income needs appears, on the surface, to be a relatively simple exercise - a question of adding up outgoings and working out how to cover them with the available pension provisions. However, with more and more people...

A duty of care.
July 1, 2007... Amongst the array of reasons for homeowners to pursue an equity release solution is to pay for long term care. On the face of it, a relatively straightforward problem. The homeowner needs care and decides that the best way to pay for it is to...

The right attitude.
July 1, 2007... Byline: Nick Bladen, head of pensions marketing at Skandia, discusses how attitude to risk affects pension decisions Underlying all decisions made in financial planning is the issue of risk. Risk is never static, as an individual's...

To cash in or not to cash in.
July 1, 2007... The offer of a large, tax free lump sum on retirement is a hard one to resist for the average soon-to-be pensioner. But does it always make sense to take the cash when it is on offer? The Actuarial Profession, the combined professional body...

A third way?
July 1, 2007... The emerging middle market is set to alter an area that for the vast majority of retirees has been virtually unchanged for more than 50 years. At last consumers will be offered something that they demand and value in other parts of their lives...

Post retirement revolution.
July 1, 2007... Last year the number of self invested personal pensions (SIPPs) grew by around 40% to about 156,000 with about AGBP 32bn invested. Once seen as the preserve of the wealthy, SIPPs are set to continue making inroads into the mainstream pensions...

Long term care, age old problem.
July 1, 2007... Like it or not, as a nation we are getting older and living longer. The official statistics tell us that the UK boasted 1.17 million over-85 year olds in 2005 and that number is expected to increase by two thirds over the next 20 years. At...

Raising awareness of wraps.
July 1, 2007... When Amex launched its wrap in the UK to much fanfare in 2004, it seemed certain that the financial services giant would cruise effortlessly to a dominant market position. Within months, Adviser Service, its platform, had signed up several...

Assets under advice - or just numbers?
July 1, 2007... IFA firms that are considering the change to a fee based business model built around a wrap strategy take their assets under advice (AUA) as an important yardstick for judging viability. Or 'client records', 'funds under management' (FUM),...

Outsourcing alternatives.
July 1, 2007... The arguments in favour of an adviser consolidating client investments within a single platform are now fairly common currency. Consolidation can reduce administration time and cost, improve portfolio control, make more time for clients,...

Thorny issue.
July 1, 2007... Byline: Merger plans criticised The Thornton review has come under fire over its recommendation that the Pensions Ombudsman (PO) be merged with the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). Concern over processing times for cases handled by...

A wrap comparison.
July 1, 2007... There is still very little clarity on wraps. This despite the fact that they have been around for a good few years now. Skandia launched its wrap in 1999, followed by Fidelity FundsNetwork in June 2000 and Hargreaves Lansdown in March 2001. A...

Joining the wrap race.
July 1, 2007... Byline: Wraps can be either provider or IFA led. But does it make a difference to performance? Anouchka Burton investigates Since the emergence of wrap platforms in the UK in recent years, wraps have grown in popularity among the adviser...

Getting personal.
July 1, 2007... Byline: Mixed reaction to update The Government's June response on personal accounts has met with varying reactions from the pensions industry. Key highlights included confirmation that the band earnings for personal accounts will be...

In brief.
July 1, 2007... - From November, advisers will no longer have to show clients a copy of the Menu or the initial disclosure document (IDD). The FSA announced the U turn at the end of May, saying that it would not be retaining the documents when Markets in...

Churning fears.
July 1, 2007... Byline: Regulation and low commission rates said to be cause Advisers are being forced to churn business due to spiralling regulation costs and declining commission rates. This controversial view came from investment house Arjent;...

An even keel?
July 1, 2007... Byline: SIPP providers differ over allowable investments The FSA should consider whether SIPP providers that do not offer all possible investments are treating customers fairly, a SIPP provider has argued. Neil Marsh, managing director...