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

This week Vanguard launched its long-awaited direct-to-consumer proposition, offering low-cost access to Vanguard funds. Hargreaves Lansdown’s share price fell by a hefty 8% on the day, fuelled by fears of a price war. I’ll use this week’s email to share our views...

Over a third of European investors who say they deal with their investments entirely by themselves are actually paying for advice. This is a striking finding from our latest report European Consumer Insights: Behaviours, Propositions and Digital Engagement. Our...

Old Mutual Wealth’s decision to terminate its contract with IFDS and to engage FNZ for its platform upgrade is big news to industry pundits. But does it matter for financial advisers and their customers? Perhaps it is like the spark-plug in the racing car, the chip...

Uniquely in the UK, advisers control around 80% of retail fund distribution. The competition to attract advised assets has been increasing in intensity since the removal of any commission bias following the RDR. And in recent years, discretionary fund managers have...

The FCA announced this week that it will conduct an Investment Platform Market study to look at “how D2C and intermediated investment platforms compete to win new and retain existing customers.” Importantly, the FCA has the authority to look at competition, which...

Heather Hopkins and Miranda Seath discuss fund distribution in the UK, the importance of financial stability and firms to keep an eye on in this short 5 minute video.  Watch it now.