Independent Wealth Planners (IWP) has acquired Chartered Financial Planning firm Professional Wealth Management (PWM) to create a new Newcastle hub.

HMRC returned £115.6m in overpaid emergency pension tax in the 2020/21 tax year.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has proposed new rules to require defined contribution pension providers to offer to book Pension Wise appointments for members before they access their pension savings.

Two in five working aged women have taken action when it comes to their pension saving after having heard about the gender pension gap, with 8% seeking financial advice, according to new research.

Assets under management for the wealth management arm of WH Ireland rose 18% to £2.18bn for the year ending 31 March as the group returned a full year profit for the first time in five years and revealed it was seeking more acquisitions.

Financial advisory firm Frenkel Topping has raised £13m to fund its merger and personal injury and clinical negligence firm acquisition strategy.

The number of people using flexible pension withdrawals rose by 6% in the first quarter of 2021 to 383,000, according to the latest HMRC data. 

Latest data from the FCA has revealed that in the second half of 2020 the number of complaints received by financial firms - excluding PPI complaints - rose by 3.3% to 1.93m.

The FCA is to consult on stronger rules on special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs), an increasingly popular takeover vehicle. 

Schroders Personal Wealth (SPW), the Financial Planning joint venture launched by Schroders and Lloyds Bank, has expanded into Northern Ireland and hired two advisers in the region.