Comment Archive

Remember when ‘Robo-Advice’ was the future and was going to take over the bulk of the Financial Advice sector? So convinced of this were Investec, among a host of others, that they invested more...

The MiFID 2 rule requiring advisers to produce detailed annual reviews of investment portfolios from this year end, whether the client wants one or not, is causing some consternation among financial...

This word is normally used to describe a process of deciding the relative seriousness of patient conditions before deciding who gets treated first. Never the most sophisticated of wordsmiths, our...

The National Crime Agency has warned private schools that they should show more of an interest in where the money used to fund their foreign students originates. They are pointing out that anyone in...

The FCA and the CII have launched a new 'Level 4' test for practising advisers. This has to be applauded as many advisers have had no reassessment since first gaining their qualification. Some of...

No one can accuse our regulator of not doing its bit to keep the unemployment stats down. In the last 4 years, the head count at the FCA has increased from 2,511 to 3,379. That’s 35%. Costs went up...

An article appeared recently in one of the pinks where an IFA was complaining that MiFID 2 rules requiring him to undertake annual reviews, in order to justify the cost of ongoing advice, were...

In his Mansion House speech of 2014, Martin Wheatley, the then CEO of the FCA stated that future regulation would place far more emphasis on good judgement rather than compliance with a narrow set...

In 1998, 10 years after the start of regulation, some 80% of advisers were acting as appointed representatives (ARs) of networks or of larger IFAs. Over the last 10 years though this has fallen back...

The FCA and before them the FSA, set great store by 'whistle blowing' whereby employees or anyone else 'in the know' could report skulduggery in their firms which might not otherwise go...