The Personal Investment Management and Financial Advice Association (PIMFA), a trade body for investment managers and financial advisers, has appointed four new board members including Mark Duckworth, CEO of the Openwork adviser network.

A Lancashire IFA will host a free investment advice event this month to mark its northward expansion.

More than 200 advice firms signed up during the first couple of days to the new Gold Standard for best practice in relation to and consumer guide for Defined Benefit transfers advice, the PFS has revealed. 

Arbuthnot Banking Group, owner of wealth manager Arbuthnot Latham, has donated more than £44,000 to Brexiteer Tory MP Dominic Raab.

National IFA firm Tenet is the first adviser support group to partner with the new referral tracking platform, TrackerHub.

The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) has raised concerns with the FCA at the decision to increase the Financial Ombudsman Service’s (FOS) compensation limit from £150,000 to £350,000, as it may have “serious unintended consequences for its member SMEs”.

Financial Planner and wealth manager Quilter revealed a 5.1% boost in assets under management for the first three months of the year.

The results came despite what it called a “challenging market”.

The firm’s first quarter results showed assets under management were at £114.9bn and increase of 5.1% from 31 December.

Net cash flow was down, dropping from £0.6bn in 2018 to £0.5bn this year.

Elsewhere the report highlighted outflows of £0.9bn within Quilter Life Assurance, which included £0.6bn in respect of the deliberate run-off of the institutional book.

The report also emphasised Quilter’s offer for Lighthouse Group plc, which was announced on 3 April.

There were defined benefit to defined contribution gross sales of £0.2bn in the first quarter of 2019 contrasted with £0.6bn in the first quarter of 2018 as the group’s attitude towards this source of new business remained “cautious”.

The Lighthouse Scheme document was circulated to shareholders on 15 April 2019.

Completion of the acquisition is expected “towards the end of the second quarter, subject to the satisfaction of the outstanding conditions including Lighthouse shareholders’ approval and FCA consent”.

Paul Feeney, CEO of Quilter, said: “As indicated at our full year results, net client cash flows have continued to be affected by the challenging markets.

“However, we continue to be encouraged by the resilience of integrated flows which have remained robust during this period, and the high level of customer asset retention across our businesses which was broadly stable on 2018 at 89%.

“While near-term headwinds remain, this demonstrates that our clients and their advisers value Quilter’s integrated advice-led model, and continues to be supportive of our operating margin and revenue outlook.

“To support our continued strategic progress, we were delighted to announce the recommended cash offer for Lighthouse Group.

“The Scheme document was posted to their shareholders earlier this week and we look forward to their advisers joining the Quilter family and helping to secure our position as the best place to go for trusted financial advice in the UK.”

The FCA is set to reduce its fees for advisers by 1.1% over the next year although overall costs for advisers could go up, according to its fee proposals published today.

Smaller DB pension schemes, comprising those less than £1bn, may be unprepared for the diversified investment strategies needed to manage risk and should look to consolidate, according to a leading economist.

Most financial advisers now believe a hybrid of traditional face to face service combined with elements of robo-advice will be the future of Financial Planning.