Brexit has not been far from the front pages, but not often in big debate about advisers. The PFS’s chief executive Keith Richards says it has come at a terrible time for financial advisers because it has distracted civil servants from the Financial Advice Market Review. This might have delivered significant changes but it may not when driven by the FCA alone. Much of this is because the Treasury remain distracted by Brexit.
Adviser Chris Budd, who set up an employee ownership trust warns advisers not to pursue employee ownership merely for its tax advantages and says it must be done for the right reasons.
The pensions and financial inclusion minister Guy Opperman tells Parliament that conceding to WASPI would be unfair. The key quote is as follows.
“Any amendment to the current legislation that created a new inequality between men and women would unquestionably be highly dubious as a matter of law.”
The Office for Tax Simplification suggests the creation of a fully integrated digital tax system for inheritance tax including probate.
KPMG faces a formal complaint at the Financial Reporting Council which alleges that KPMG one of its partners either knowingly or recklessly assisted with the provision of untrue and/or misleading and/or materially incomplete explanations about the Pension Protection Fund, the Pensions Regulator, Silentnight and the trustees of the Silentnight Pension Scheme.
Sleepless nights all round.
The FSA says the PI policies cannot exclude the FSCS. Some policies currently exclude FSCS payments which sounds like quite an oversight. The measure will come into force on June 1 2019 in bid to keep FSCS bills low. But will it put more pressure on PI bills?
