Our regular round-up of the latest insights on investment distribution

Drawdown chicken and egg

“There has been little in the way of product innovation in retirement income products since pension freedoms came into force.” That’s according to the FCA’s latest Sector Views, published last week. From advisers we’re getting the same feedback: they want...

Democratising investing

Investing is beginning to reach further into the mass market. Our latest Consumer Insights research shows that 29% of British adults are investors, a steady increase over the past couple of years. While the robos have been the cheerleaders of the ‘democratisation...

Platforum predicts

While the political chaos reigns, the retail investment industry continues a transformation in response to the mega trends of digitalisation and shifting retirement demographics. Profound regulatory changes continue to influence the behaviour of companies and...

Advisers’ one-stop shop solutions

Multi-asset and multi-manager funds are a staple of most advisers’ investment arsenal. Motivations to use and their role within client portfolios differs, but one of the most common things we hear from advisers is that they are being used as a one-stop solution for...

Technology in the advice process

Few technology shifts turn out to be big one-off developments that supersede everything that went before them. Many are fairly mundane day-to-day affairs that slowly integrate themselves into our lives. Robo-advice has picked up plenty of news coverage in recent...

How advisers are using passives

Financial advisers have been increasing their use of passives in recent years, although this consists almost entirely of index tracker funds. ETFs have still largely failed to gain traction in the adviser community. Advisers have different views on how passives...