Advisers and consumers are increasingly worried that the volume of cold calls is increasing significantly. Protection specialist Alan Lakey is very worried about the increase in cold callers discussing insurance. He believes at least some of these are from British-based firms.
This is quite an interesting observation – “I’ve personally received calls from a firm claiming to deal with such trusted insurers as Ageas, Bright Grey and PruProtect, despite these brands having disappeared more than three years ago”.
Kay Ingram of LEBC argues that the 1950s born women are subsidising future generations' pensions using, in particular, an argument about the national insurance fund. The article in Money Marketing did come in for a lot of flack from many in the pensions industry across social media. But interesting to see someone from FS take the WASPI women’s side as the case progresses.
The Lifetime Sipp company has been declared in default opening the way for hundreds of claims.
There has been quite a lot of media coverage of Alex Brazier, executive director for financial stability at the Bank of England who, in a speech in Warwick last week, said that perhaps funds like Woodford’s would be better staying open though the speech did not mention the fund by name.
This quote is interesting - "redemptions can be suspended – funds can be gated – to limit the selling pressure. But such measures are a double-edged sword. They can allow time for an orderly re-structuring of a fund, avoiding unnecessary fire sale pressure, but the expectation that such measures could be imposed tomorrow can create an incentive to be at the front of the redemption queue today."
Not sure the FCA would agree.
The Times reports that Woodford Investment Management has sold nearly £100m of shares.
New Model Adviser reports that in the midst of selling stocks to raise cash, Woodford also had to meet funding pledges to two biotech firms.
He has invested a further £25 million in Proton Partners International and $10 million (£7.8 million) in Evofem Biosciences in the last week, the website reports.
In addition, Hargreaves Lansdown has dropped the Woodford Income focus fund from its high income fund multi-manager portfolios.
Actually, I suspect it is difficult to know if the worst has passed at least until the shuttering ends.
