Make no mistake, the requirement to develop strategies which can recognise and appropriately service the needs of vulnerable customers is a big deal in financial services this year.
When I was in my early teens Friday night was movie night at home. My brother and I would head down to Blockbuster Video and pick up a film to watch on VHS, often recommended by the guy behind the counter.
If there is one 'engine' which has transformed the financial advice profession over the past 10 years it is the professional bodies. The 30th anniversary celebrations this week for the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment reminded me of the incredible transformation of the sector in recent years and how much of that is due to the professional bodies.
One of the key roles of a Financial Planner is to assess clients’ appetite for investment risk. Selecting investments is nigh on impossible without this and a major industry has grown up around client risk profiling.
In my article for Financial Planning Today earlier in January I questioned just how “fair and reasonable” are the decisions being reached by the Financial Ombudsman Service - particularly in relation to historic events involving SIPPs and SIPP investments.
This week wealth manager St James's Place announced the launch of a bold new logo and rebrand but I wonder if the coming changes will go deeper and be even bolder?
There has been much talk lately about how Financial Planners can spot and work with vulnerable clients.
It’s been an accepted wisdom over the past few decades that we are all living longer, at least as a nation. That’s now being tested.
First things first: Happy New Year. I hope it’s a good one for you, your business and your clients.
I have written before about my concerns about the way the Financial Ombudsman Service is reaching decisions in cases involving SIPPs and SIPP investments and the implications for SIPP providers and advisers.
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Picture the scene: a moderately busy suburban branch of a High Street bank in early 2015. A motor cycle courier arrives. He is carrying a large bin bag full of cash, the wads carefully wrapped.
When I switched from accountancy to financial advice in 1987 the landscape was dominated by a few very large salesforces.
The Pension Freedoms were introduced in 2015 by Chancellor George Osborne and were hailed, at the time, as a “pensions revolution” and the biggest changes to pensions in a century.
At last we finally know who was to blame for all the faults in the financial advisory sector over the past 20 years - it was the appointed reps all the time. Or was it?