Our regular round-up of the latest insights on investment distribution
European platforms as data businesses
If the role of the EU’s Financial Services Action Plan is to harmonise financial services across Europe, then MiFID II is, so far, hardly a roaring success. National interpretations of the rules differ, there are carve outs for segments of the industry and...
Richard Bradley 31 May 2019
The raging debate on retirement income
The debate around how to generate sustainable retirement income has continued to rage this week. Pre-pension freedoms, this problem hardly existed: the requirement of a base level of guaranteed income before accessing flexible drawdown effectively excluded all but...
Richard Bradley 24 May 2019
Platform assets return to growth, but flows continue to suffer
Stock markets rallied in the first quarter of 2019, and with that adviser platforms have returned to asset growth. Based on the latest Platforum market data, adviser platform assets rose by 6.7% in the period to stand just shy of the £500bn mark. The main story of...
Andrew Ashwood 17 May 2019
Delivering retirement income
For all but the wealthiest, generating enough income to meet wants and needs in retirement, is not straightforward. For advisers, building reliable strategies to provide that whole of life income is a major challenge. ONS data shows a rapid shift in the coming...
Andrew Ashwood 10 May 2019
A transfer of delight
I started a pension transfer at lunchtime last Wednesday. It took me a total of seven minutes to log into AJ Bell Youinvest and ask (all online) to transfer an Aviva workplace pension into my SIPP. I had an immediate email confirming my request; Aviva had closed my...
Richard Bradley 03 May 2019
Advice in decumulation… risk and reward for financial advisers
Clients typically have the highest amount of assets and the greatest complexity in managing them at retirement. This presents opportunities for advisers. Furthermore, most advised clients are over 55, and a third are already in decumulation. Decumulation is a...
Richard Bradley 26 April 2019