The FCA is cracking down on the practice of so-called ‘double-dipping’ by investment platforms and SIPP operators whereby they keep interest on customers’ cash balances and charge them a fee for doing so.

Canadian-owned investment manager and platform 7IM has snapped up £1bn AUM Financial Planning firm Amicus Wealth, subject to regulatory approval.

The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) has appointed Glenn Murphy ACSI as the new head of CISI’s Wealth Management Forum Committee.

In the last two years annuity rates have risen by more than half, according to Canada Life, giving a 65-year-old with a £100,000 annuity an extra £2,500 a year.

The FCA’s Advice Guidance Boundary Review adds uncertainty rather than removes it, Chet Velani, managing director of Financial Planning fintech EV Financial Solutions has warned.

A quarter of young people aged 18-24 years are unaware of auto-enrolment, despite new proposals being published that will extend the scheme to 18-year-olds. 

The number of retail investment accounts opened in the last three years has slumped to just over a tenth of its peak.

St James’s Place - one of the UK’s largest wealth managers with more than 4,700 advisers - has given a cautious welcome to the FCA’s ‘simplified advice’ proposals published today but warned that the boundaries between advice and guidance must remain clear to avoid consumers being mis-sold.

The FCA has provided more details of what its ‘simplified advice’ or financial guidance proposals may look like if implemented.

The FCA is planning to open the door to millions of consumers receiving ‘financial guidance’ on their personal finances which stops short of regulated financial advice.