Money Management articles from March 2007

Money Management archives from March 2007

Computer says no...
March 1, 2007... Byline: Proper portfolio planning is vital as the generation of free love becomes the generation of free prescriptions I'm a huge fan of the hit comedy show, Little Britain, because it so accurately reflects people and situations you meet...

SIPP charges survey.
March 1, 2007... In our survey of illustrative charges for SIPPs in the February 2007 issue,Table 2 assumed 'mass' SIPP pension pots being invested in unit trusts/OEICs through advisers receiving commissions of 2.5% initial and 0.5% annual. Tom McPhail of...

Property bias warning.
March 1, 2007... Byline: FSA calls for caution over portfolio balance At the risk of being accused of stating the obvious, the FSA has warned in its financial risk outlook for 2007 that investors may face significant problems if there is a correction in the...

Bowled over - MM's cricket competition.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Pick your own dream team with FP The Cricket World Cup starts on 13 March and Money Management has teamed up with Friends Provident to offer readers the opportunity to pick their own fantasy cricket team. The winning fantasy...

March of the green.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Technology meets the human touch The ethical arena continues to expand with the launch of an ethical unit trust by M&S Money alongside an ethical bond trust from Royal London Asset Management (RLAM). HSBC Investments will be...

Talents show.
March 1, 2007... Axa Investment Managers has launched a UK based onshore version of its Talents fund. It will closely mirror Axa's existing French-registered mutual fund, Axa Talents, which aims to achieve long term capital growth by investing in companies...

A first for protected rights.
March 1, 2007... Prudential has become the first provider to open up its with profits annuity to protected rights funds. These are funds held in a money purchase pension scheme derived from NI rebates for those who contract out of the State Second Pension (S2P)...

All aboard.
March 1, 2007... Threadneedle has expanded its range of property products by launching its first UK property unit trust. The fund will be invested 80% directly in property and 20% in property related securities and collective investment schemes. Fund...

Managing expectations.
March 1, 2007... Investec has launched a balanced managed fund aimed at the pensions market. There is an initial charge of 4.5%, plus an annual management charge of 1.5%. Trail commission is 0.5%. The fund is benchmarked to invest 65% in equities - 20%...

A place in the sun.
March 1, 2007... Fidelity has launched an Asia Pacific Property fund. Fund manager Polly Kwan will invest in real estate investment trust (REIT) type structures across Asia Pacific, following their recent proliferation in the area. The fund aims to...

Japan gains locked in.
March 1, 2007... Nomura has launched a Japan Strategy 80% Protected fund, linked to the Nomura Japan Strategy Index. The fund provides an 80% lock in for investors, meaning that investors are guaranteed to receive 80% of the fund's highest ever net asset...

Turning a blind eye.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Life offices ignore churning to boost new business Life offices have been accused of turning a blind eye to churning, despite losing money, because it boosts new business figures. An adviser is taking a churning case to the FSA...

Some smashing ISA returns.
March 1, 2007... Many predicted that 2006 was set be the year that investors would regain confidence in individual savings accounts (ISAs). And over the first half of the year it looked as though this might be the case. By the end of quarter two, ISA sales of...

Consolidators get it together.
March 1, 2007... Tales of the woes of policyholders trapped in closed life funds which have been taken over by larger firms are a familiar sight in the weekend money pages, but a cut and dried solution to the problems that they face is somewhat less...

The grand old Duke of York.
March 1, 2007... Today's youngest financial advisers would only just have been born when the Government and regulator first marched IFAs up the hill with more and more rules, only to march them down again. It began in 1985 when the Government published its...

Howzat for a competition?
March 1, 2007... The World Cup should provide a scintillating spectacle with all the drama and suspense that was evident during England's exciting victory against Australia in the recent CB one day tournament. Over the next three months there will be plenty...

Hedge funds and IFAs.
March 1, 2007... Why is it that so few advisers recommend hedge funds? One of the major retail hedge fund distributors, Matrix Group, deals with only 300 IFA firms out of 15,000 and only a much smaller number use hedge funds on a regular basis. Perhaps this is...

No (offshore) hiding place?
March 1, 2007... There is nothing inherently illegal in a UK resident holding an offshore bank account, a property, trust or company. As some of the estimated 1.5m UK citizens owning foreign property have found, there can be complications with local tax...

The answer for low earners?
March 1, 2007... Byline: A new state pension system for low earners would remove means-testing and be affordable, suggests John Chapman The central feature of the Government's pension reforms, the National Pensions Savings Scheme for low/mid earnings,...

Taking stock - income, capital gain, or both?
March 1, 2007... Investors ought to be taking advantage of this year's ISA equity allowance of AGBP7,000 a person, so putting future income and capital gains into a tax-free wrapper. Equally, such investors should be thinking not of immediate gains, nor what...

Taxing investment in VCT schemes.
March 1, 2007... Although called a trust, a venture capital trust (VCT) is actually a quoted company that invests in a range of unquoted companies. This enables investors to spread their risk, in a way that is broadly similar to holding shares in an ordinary...

CRM software for advisers.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Paul Lang reports on the benefits of customer management systems to IFAs in their day to day client management Developments in client management systems continue to draw keen interest from advisers wishing to improve their business...

Confusion reigns.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Commission in lieu of a fee says FSA The FSA has clarified confusion around how commission in lieu of fees should be recorded on retail mediation activities return (RMAR) documents. Advisers must record individual sales on...

IFAs and the legal revolution.
March 1, 2007... The legal profession is going through the biggest changes in living memory. The Legal Services Bill is well on its way to enactment and will transform the way in which solicitors do business and interact with members of other professions. ...

Capital omission.
March 1, 2007... While there is "nothing wrong with interest-only mortgages", up to 15% of the borrowers of such mortgages lack a robust strategy for repaying the capital, according to an FSA survey. The research found that the majority of borrowers taking out...

Emerging ethics.
March 1, 2007... Emerging markets have traditionally produced dramatic, if volatile, returns and combining these opportunities with socially responsible investment (SRI) provides a unique set of risks and opportunities for investors. An increasing number...

A SEE change ahead.
March 1, 2007... Courtesy of Sir Nicholas Stern, climate change has been placed firmly on the economic map - albeit some time after it hit the emotional radar - thanks to the work of media stars like Bob Geldof and Bono. With sales of Fairtrade and...

How ethical are ethical funds?
March 1, 2007... The typical reaction when asking the lay investor about ethical funds is the casual response that it is all very well to have a conscience, but it does not make anybody any richer. Our exclusive Money Management survey shows that this is by...

Tools for pension investment.
March 1, 2007... Whatever a client's age, actions taken today can have a huge influence on their financial situation in retirement, so decisions about pensions should be taken with care. The best decisions are those that are informed, so advisers should arm...

Individual pensions: latest results.
March 1, 2007... You would be forgiven for thinking that with the stock market having enjoyed a couple of years of healthy returns, payouts would be up across the board for those loyal customers who have been saving assiduously for their retirement through a...

Comparing apples with oranges.
March 1, 2007... The run up to A-Day saw growing interest in new personal pension options for the increasingly sophisticated investor. Many contracts offer deferred SIPP options, an extensive choice of funds and managers and integrated income drawdown. So, an...

Many faces of UK equity income.
March 1, 2007... UK equity income funds are a fairly safe bet. When times are good, they perform respectably, and when times are bad they tend to perform better than other fund classes. According to new statistics from the Investment Management...

Who polices the Ombudsman?
March 1, 2007... Byline: Equitable Life report accusations inaccurate says FOS The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has hit back at Lord Neill's report on the Equitable Life saga as "unfair, unbalanced and unrepresen-tative" and containing "serious...

Return of the dividend.
March 1, 2007... Many investors focus on share price moves when looking at equity returns. But relying entirely on this method overlooks the impact of dividend payments. Dividends also have an important part to play when calculating the overall valuation...

Ever the popular choice.
March 1, 2007... The UK Equity Income sector forms the cornerstone of many - or even most - investment portfolios in Britain. The funds have a bit of everything to appeal to the typical investor, offering inflation-beating growth while paying out a typical...

New developments.
March 1, 2007... In the past, equity income funds were traditionally bought by investors who needed to draw a steady income from their investment funds. However, in recent years they have been attracting a wider range of investors and those who do not need to...

ECJ interim ruling overturned.
March 1, 2007... Byline: EU pensions case referred to UK court The European Court of Justice has overturned an interim ruling that could have seen UK companies pay a significantly increased annual levy to the Payment Protection Fund. Convening on...

The green loop.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Ethical funds offer negative correction Ethical funds offer opportunities for negative correlation, a new Money Management survey has shown, as the FSA warns of increasing correlation between asset classes. The average ethical...

Wrap wars.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Polarisation the next step in wrap competition Competition between rival wrap providers could ultimately lead to a polarisation in the market, according to an IFA led provider. David Ferguson, chief executive of Nucleus Financial...

Agreement in principle.
March 1, 2007... Byline: AIFA fears that regulatory role may be foisted upon it Financial services trade bodies do not want to become second tier regulators, says AIFA. While it welcomes the move to principles-based regulation unveiled by the FSA in its...

Supermarkets soar.
March 1, 2007... Byline: Wraps struggle to overcome fund supermarket dominance Fund supermarkets were the main distributor of ISAs in 2006, but advisers have warned that fund supermarkets are already outdated compared with full service wrap propositions....