It's been an interesting few weeks with the FCA proposing a ban on contingent charging at the end of July with reports across the national newspapers including the Guardian.
CanScot Solutions principal Robert Reid urges the financial services industry to answer the consultation. He has concerns about the logistical flaws and anomalies in the paper.
Yet Reid is worried that along with Woodford, LCF and the transfer issue above, we are at a tipping point in terms of challenges and costs for advisers.
A document is being circulated around the industry suggesting the Zurich platform is up for sale according to Money Marketing although Zurich declines to comment.
The Woodford suspension is costing Hargreaves Lansdown £360,000 a month according to its latest accounts. It will be interesting to see if the fund supermarket is losing many Woodford-invested clients to other platforms as changes
FTAdviser.com reports that the clients of a wealth management firm which has entered administration were paying fees and charges as high as 20 per cent of their total investment.
SVS Securities PLC has also seen its assets frozen with the FCA making it concerns know in a update on Friday.
It reads as if this story unites just about everything that is going wrong with financial services at the moment with inappropriate transfers, conflicts of interest, heavy use of introducers, high charges and poor investment choices such as illiquid high risk bonds.
The big question for the industry, the regulator and even the media is to try and understand just how much this is an outlier? Most IFAs would surely not recommend such a firm but something is clearly going wrong.
Hargreaves Lansdown has lost a tax battle with HMRC following an appeal by the Revenue. Loyalty bonuses paid out of what were previously rebates will now be subject to tax. HL had been hoping to return around £15m to around 150,000 customers.
Not a lot seems to be going too well for the Bristol-based firm at the moment.
