Our regular round-up of the latest insights on investment distribution
New competition in the digital investing market
There has been a spike in trading activity by self-directed investors over the last 15 months and we’ve seen the arrival of a new cohort of first-time investors who are attracted to some of the higher risk options. US tech stocks, cryptocurrency and CFDs have all...
Wealth management distribution – at what cost?
Price pressure in the UK wealth management market continues to intensify. LGIM’s launch of a model portfolio service (MPS) at 5bps last week sets a new benchmark for low-cost portfolio management. MPS providers who charge 30bps or more are starting to look very...
Planning beyond risk tolerance
The use of third-party risk profiling tools continues to be widespread, with nearly 80% of financial advisers telling us at that they use a risk profiling tool from a third-party provider. But many advisers seem to be reducing their reliance on these tools to build...
Rethinking client money
Client money rules are potentially the most frightening for firms and can involve really substantial fines. However, custody arrangements at platforms and wealth managers have often evolved organically, especially where firms have grown through mergers or...
Radical shifts in the European platform market
Allfunds’ recent stock market debut marked a noisy close to an unusually noisy period for institutional fund platforms. Recent years have seen Europe’s two large global custodians (Clearstream and Euroclear) enter the market through acquisitions of well-established...
Adviser platform flows rebound strongly in Q1 2021
Senior analyst Andrew Ashwood looks at adviser platform data for the first quarter of 2021.