All Commentaries
The Hunters' Tails
September 8 2010
Markets are febrile, and will fall (again) if today’s US (un)employment numbers are bad. Well, it could be worse. One of us, or one of you, could be among the 32 people trying to read grim Gordon’s opus, The Change we Choose: Speeches 2007-2009. We’re delighted that Labour’s luminary will be addressing you at next year’s Evenings with Artemis. So rather than buy his book, you can hear his speeches then. (Only kidding) more...
FSA lays bare platform failings - what you need to know to pass muster.
September 7 2010
The FSA have recently fined the advisory firm Money Wise IFA Ltd just under £20,000 for failings linked to FSA principles 3 and 7 - management controls and communicating with clients respectively. This action resulted from the wider review of investment advice and platforms conducted earlier in 2010. more...
Financial services, regulation and ethics: Gap Analysis and Assessment Tool
September 3 2010
Wizard Learning provide a wide variety of online learning solutions for CII & ifs School of Finance qualifications as well as online training on key skills. Follow the link on the next page to try out their quiz - only five quick questions. more...
CPMA 22 September 2010 consultation deadline approaches!
September 1 2010
This seems to be something that could easily be missed and it is not receiving a lot of press- at the moment. HMT have published a consultation "A new approach to financial regulation: judgement, focus and stability" which sets out the Government's plans to reform the UK's financial regulatory framework, following on from the Chancellor's Mansion House speech. more...
Scottish Widows - Productive marketing pays dividends
September 1 2010
There are two main challenges for marketing: how to find the time to organise it and how to maximise its productivity. The case study summarises how to invest a day to overcome these challenges and achieve commitment to the plan.
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People in glass houses... remember Knight Williams?
September 1 2010
People in glass houses... remember Knight Williams? They closed in 1995 after a sustained media campaign. Whilst purporting to be independent they only ever recommended their own in-house funds. more...
IFA letter of the week
September 1 2010
I have sent this to the current (Labour) MP & the Conservative PPC for the area. I just think it is the end for loads of small people like me…
I guess I should be ashamed of my income, but I am trying to do it the ‘new’ way and charge fees but my clients are ordinary people more...
"The FSA speak with forked tongue"?
September 1 2010
The FSA speak with forked tongue!
In CP09/18 - The Retail Distribution Review (RDR) paper the FSA encouraged advisers to make better use of structured products in their advice to consumers!
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What is Hector Sants' legacy?
September 1 2010
What is Hector Sants' legacy?
Being charitable I could say that he was so preoccupied with the banking crisis that he ignored the ministrations of the IFA sector when they shouted that they were being treated unfairly in comparison to the banks and that the RDR was a disaster looming ever closer on the horizon.
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Huge FSCS supplementary call on IFA practices
September 1 2010
Huge FSCS supplementary call on IFA practices
Dear Mr Darling, Lord Myners and Mr Byrne,
I write to you as those ultimately responsible for the Financial Regulatory structure of the FSA and FSCS. I had wished to include Gordon Brown but it is noted that the ability to email him has been withdrawn (something to do with a security issue?).
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Huge FSCS supplementary call on IFA practices
September 1 2010
Huge FSCS supplementary call on IFA practices
Dear Mr Darling, Lord Myners and Mr Byrne,
I write to you as those ultimately responsible for the Financial Regulatory structure of the FSA and FSCS. I had wished to include Gordon Brown but it is noted that the ability to email him has been withdrawn (something to do with a security issue?). more...
"Let them eat cake"
September 1 2010
Let them eat cake. Production without sales (profit) equals scrap! The only groups that fail to understand this are those removed from the reality of profit and the need to make a return on outlay i.e. government departments, local authorities and regulators! more...
More "True Lies"???
September 1 2010
"When he said I do, he never said what he did".
More "True Lies"???
For the last six months I have been involved in a dreary correspondence with Paul, Lord Myners, via my own MP, regarding Myners June 2009 submission to the Joint Committee on Human Rights regarding the surreptitious removal of the 15-year longstop defence.
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Update - Good news
September 1 2010
Update - good news
Andrew Tyrie MP has been appointed Chair of the Treasury Select Committee. The FSA fits the BIG STATE small citizen problem outlined by David Cameron and now the FSA is on the back foot and answerable to its critics! more...
Prevention is better than cure
September 1 2010
Prevention is better than cure... We're an irrational bunch - investors that is. We always will be; we can’t be cured. We seem to go out of our way to destroy our long term wealth prospects. We bottle it when markets fall, sell and then miss the recovery. A passive or active strategy - it doesn't matter, our irrational more...
CGT dilemma for those not keen on multi-manager funds
September 1 2010
CGT dilemma for those not keen on multi-manager funds - By Jeremy Askew, Conduit Financial Solutions. Investment and financial planners often ignore multi-manager funds because they do not believe they offer value for money. Where the manager is providing real value it's hard to argue against them. more...
Ethical Investment: A Wolf In Sheeps Clothing?
September 1 2010
Ethical Investment: A Wolf In Sheeps Clothing? It seems there are a lot of cynical people out there who are not convinced that ethical investments are the real deal. Not surprising really because the mistake often made is that ethical investment must be perfect - which of course it isn't!
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The Ethical Partnership - my next blog....
September 1 2010
IFA LETTER OF THE WEEK.
Apathy, as quoted by Wikipedia, is a state of indifference, or the suppression of emotions such as concern, excitement, motivation and passion. An apathetic individual has an absence of interest or concern to emotional, social, or physical life. They may also exhibit an insensibility or sluggishness. more...
Time to end this misleading Mis-Labelling
September 1 2010
There is nothing more infuriating than thinking you are buying one thing - and then getting another. Still, when that happens with a mail order shirt then it is very simple, you just post it back and get your money back. If you buy something which is clearly labelled as one thing but turns out not to ‘do what it says on the tin’ then you chuck it back at them. However, just in case none of that works we also have the power of the law to back us up in the form of a whole range of Trades Descriptions Acts. more...
AEGON - Referrals from professional connections. Interested?
September 1 2010
Today's progressive financial adviser is becoming intensely aware that having good connections with the right professionals will be invaluable to future success. The impact of the Legal Services Act means solicitors are faced with a growing need to become more commercial and move their businesses beyond straightforward transactional work. more...
Scottish Widows - Productive marketing pays dividends
August 27 2010
There are two main challenges for marketing: how to find the time to organise it and how to maximise its productivity. The case study summarises how to invest a day to overcome these challenges and achieve commitment to the plan.
more...
Fighting off the British Malaise
August 26 2010
After several weeks' sojourn in South Asia I came back refreshed and reassured that actually the global economy is in quite rude health. It is only when one lands back in the UK that the pall of determined pessimism starts to flow back across you. I had forgotten our astonishing ability to not only assume the worst outcome as the most likely but also our trenchant views towards normally rejecting any form of positive prognostication. more...
"National Complaints Day" - sponsored by the FSA and FOS???
August 26 2010
An occasional look at the FOS website can offer revealing and sometimes disturbing insights into how that particular organisation operates. "National Complaints Day" is one such example. more...
Take 2 beers and jump?
August 23 2010
Does anyone remember "Your Life in Their Hands"?
It was a long-running BBC sixties TV documentary series on the subject of surgery examining surgical practice from the point of view of both surgeons and patients. There was an early 1970s revival (the first in colour) presented by Jonathan Miller. more...
How low can it go?
August 23 2010
"How low can it go?" - Whilst this phrase was once synonymous with the ever plummeting waistband of Britney Spears' jeans, and the depths to which Kerry Katona's drug-fuelled life could sink, it is a phrase now more commonly heard in the challenging world of bond investing. more...
Scottish Widows - our new Retirement Account service charges
August 19 2010
We're pleased to announce that from 16 August, we're launching our new Retirement Account service charges. These will replace our existing service charges. These new charges maintain the competitive pricing of Retirement Account.
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Going long is the new black
August 17 2010
Oscar Wilde once said "Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months". In fact, it was just recently reported to me by an enthusiastic friend that 'greige' is the new black. Greige, in case you are as puzzled as I was, is apparently a blend of grey and beige. It's a relief one doesn’t have to stick to this bizarre colour for more than a few months. more...
Enhance Support Solutions - Regulatory Update
August 17 2010
Check out the latest stories from Enhance Support Solutions: 1. Systems, controls and standards. 2. An Oxymoron? 3. Financial promotion rules of UCISs more...
M&G - Fixed interest funds - update on sovereign and corporate bond markets
August 11 2010
Richard Woolnough and Stefan Isaacs, two of M&G's leading fixed income fund managers give a summary of how the credit default swap (CDS) market continues to price in a high risk of default for Greece, as well as other European countries. They also explain which sectors they believe are offering value.
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Is Commission an "RDR" dirty word?
August 11 2010
"The FSA pays "commission" to its staff, except it refers to it as a "bonus" although how it measures who gets what and why is another matter". more...
M&G - Reasons to invest in corporate bonds
August 11 2010
The recent releases of quarterly economic data have shown that the UK economy has returned to growth, and unlike some governments, many companies are in good financial health. Yet corporate bonds are still priced for recession and a higher level of defaults than they have actually experienced historically. more...
Great Expectations... (of the unexpected)
August 9 2010
When you live a single life in this constantly busy metropolis of London, you're reliant on certain things that are imperative to maintain the on-the-go lifestyle. Good friends who possess great energy, an 'in' with the party hosts at the best clubs, flat shoes to run around in (heels are to be kept in a hold-all so one can slip into them moments before making an entrance)... and last but by no means least, a functioning freezer. Yes, you did read that right. Being able to go from pack to plate in under five minutes is essential when you're regularly racing the clock. more...
Is retirement about to become more flexible?
August 4 2010
Many of you will have seen the HM Treasury announcement on 15 July confirming a short consultation period on the newly proposed legislation to remove the requirement to annuitise by age 75. This is something the industry has generally campaigned for, and the new proposals do appear to bring a strong degree of flexibility. more...
Gartmore news in brief
August 3 2010
Asia: should we be concerned over inflation? According to Jan de Bruijn, manager of the £101 million Gartmore Pacific Opportunities Fund, there appears to be a mismatch in Asia at the moment. On the one hand, fears of a double-dip recession abound whilst on the other hand, inflationary concerns have resurfaced. Jan considers this quandary to be a contradiction in terms. Whilst either of these fears could happen, both could not. more...
So who is Frank Dodd?
August 2 2010
Forget Frank Dodd, it is in fact Dodd Frank that we should remember. Chris Dodd is the chairman of the US Senate banking committee, and Barney Frank (who should be a cartoon character, surely) is chairman of the House (of Representatives) financial services committee. more...
Time for Life Settlement Funds to grow up?
July 28 2010
High, smooth, uncorrelated, and risk free returns. Sound familiar? Sounds like a life settlements promotion to us. Only a handful of years ago few IFAs were even familiar with longevity as an asset class, now retail money is pouring in like there's no tomorrow.
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MoD must stop living beyond its means
July 26 2010
The BBC has reported that the NAO, the independent body that monitors government spending, said the MoD had a tendency to revise up each annual budget as the year progressed. more...
Cocking a CNOOC?
July 23 2010
At the time of writing this, the BP gusher appears to have been capped. If true and sustained, then in Churchillian terms this is "Not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps, the end of the beginning", because this is just the stopping of the core damage and nowhere near the stopping of the financial damage. It seems almost inevitable that the BP we know today won't be the same BP this time next year. From where we are and what we know today, BP is unlikely to go bust, unless this 'spill' becomes an unstoppable flow. more...
Double dipping?
July 21 2010
I always thought that a double dip was some terrible faux pas at a cocktail party with limp celery and the warm houmus. Now I know better – it is of course a non specific economic term that appears to have now become common parlance. It certainly has little precision, as some imply that it could mean a dip back into recession and others that it is a mere slowdown. Either way though it seems to be talked about in the terms that imply that only dark days and doom lie ahead. more...
Barry's blog
July 21 2010
In speaking with a number of advisers recently it's clear that an increase in wrap research is now being carried out following the latest RDR papers which were published in the spring. Not only are the due diligence questionnaires we regularly receive here at Nucleus HQ becoming longer and more detailed, they are also beginning to focus on much wider elements of the wrap proposition. more...