Our regular round-up of the latest insights on investment distribution
Adviser platforms end 2020 on a high
Many adviser platforms suffered a noticeable downturn in new business in the second and third quarters of 2020. This was the inevitable knock-on effect of the downturn in advisers’ new business during the pandemic. Advisers have managed to keep hold of their...
Robust retirement PROD-ing
Client segmentation is incompatible with treating each client as an individual with particular goals, needs and circumstances – we hear this regularly from advisers. The regulator’s desire for advisers to categorise clients sounds great on paper, but advisers are...
We’re going to need a bigger brand
The company formally known as Standard Life is selling the name, but this isn’t a total surprise given that 200 years of brand awareness had been diluted by mixing in Aberdeen. How to retain some of the positive associations of a brand recognised widely in the UK,...
Understanding end investors’ shifts on ESG: not just the ‘what’, but also the ‘why’
UK retail investors have become much more conscious of environmental and social issues than they were before COVID-19. Even more important, investors are now much more likely to act on these ideas. Fund flows in 2020 are clear proof of that. This shift in attitude...
COVID’s cohort of younger investors
The last 12 months has been a bumpy ride, but strong growth in 2020 has been the silver lining for the direct to consumers (D2C) investing market. New customers have poured into D2C services like AJ Bell Youinvest, Hargreaves Lansdown and Vanguard Investor. The...
UK advisers are shifting their views on ESG, but…
Advisers are starting to discuss how responsible / ESG investing can be profitable in their conversations with clients, our new research finds. Investors, they say, can “do well by doing good”. Advisers’ concerns about the downside risk of poor returns from these...