I get a sense the news is drying up a little bit as we move towards Christmas. Maybe this year, the FCA won’t push out lots of last-minute discussion and consultation papers, as a festive treat.
But the pull of regulation remains strong.
As regular readers of this review will know, we do have a high opinion of a lot of Citywire New Model Adviser coverage throughout the year. It tends to report on what are really big scoops especially on poor behaviour among advisers and the retail market in general. And for its audience it is very good on regulation as well.
Can it sometimes miss a broader societal issue as it angles things strictly for its new model adviser audience?
Anyway, this is an interesting trend and somewhat under-reported.
Fair value and ‘unsackable clients’: How five advisers are letting clients go.
The intro is instructive as well: “In light of consumer duty, adviser firms are looking at client propositions and target markets. Some clients have been offloaded despite wanting to stay”.
I would read that feature alongside another NMA story from a few weeks' ago - Advice firms ‘nervously’ await FCA’s ongoing service review.
Put simply, in your reviewer’s opinion, this widens the advice gap when policymakers want it to narrow. I have heard a wide range of opinion regarding recent regulatory announcements. Some say that advisers have not been meeting their end of the bargain in terms of ongoing charges and value delivered. Others worry that even more connections are being broken. Are we seeking perfect rather than good? Debate and discuss.
Andrew McMillan, founding partner at Nova Wealth, writing in Money Marketing, sets out, in very measured terms, why a cash-strapped government may have blundered into tax on entrepreneurs to a tipping point.
The Consumer Duty Alliance (CDA), in collaboration with Consumer Duty Diagnostic, has launched the tool to help firms assess, quantify and easily report on their client-centric readiness and compliance status. Again, Money Marketing reports.
Lord Michael Spencer, the billionaire founder of city brokerage ICAP and a former treasurer of the UK Conservative party, has increased his stake in, and become chairman of asset management start-up, Nutshell Asset Management. His aim is to grow the business “into another Fundsmith, as FTAdviser reports.
There is a really big shake up coming in the workplace pension sector and I am not convinced the shift towards big is beautiful in this part of the market has been properly understood because it must have some impact on the broader retail asset management market. Corporate Adviser editor John Greenwood considers the implications here.
This paragraph sums up the situation.
"The Government wants to consolidate the current 60 multi-employer schemes into around 15 ‘megafunds’ – and the Chancellor has signalled a desire to bring in a minimum provider/scheme size of £25bn, on the basis that schemes of this size are more likely to invest in productive assets such as private equity and infrastructure."
But defining and measuring remains key.
