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...

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...

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...

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...