Russian and emerging Europe funds have been shuttered in recent days following the sanctions imposed on Russia, but analysts say this will be end up being just a 'one-time hit' on the wider investment market.
FTAdviser reports that specialists such as Terry McGivern, senior research analyst at AJBell, believe the long-term performance of investment portfolios will not be unduly affected.
There are some specific issues – as revealed by Citywire and amid some stressful discussions, it reports the Fidelity platform has soft closed its £1bn L&G bond fund after an emergency meeting regarding Russian exposure.
I do think advisers should be kicking the tyres of any broader EM exposure. There are clearly questions to be asked about catagion and indeed whether political risks have been given enough weight.
Yet there is obviously a difference between direct problems with either advised or non-advised portfolios’ exposure and the broader potential changes in the world economic system and a likely knock-on effect on markets.
The Economist begins to grapple with that sort of issue.
Advice firm John Dyer has been declared in fault by the FSCS, another failed firm, due to the pensions transfer scandal and has often been the case involving British Steel Pensions.
In this case, there is a lot to be read between the lines given that the FCA has expressed concerns about firms paying out dividends.
As FTAdviser reports according to Companies' House documents, John Dyer (Life & Pensions) had £298,000 cash when it went into voluntary liquidation. In addition, it seems the firm paid £253,000 to ordinary shareholders between 17 January 2019 and 16 January 2020.
In December 2021, the FCA wrote to firms who had advised on BSPS making clear that firms should not dispose of any assets and maintain adequate financial resources. Could this case have provoked such action.
Aviva has paid £385m to acquire private equity-backed IFA consolidator Succession. Professional Adviser’s Tom Ellis thinks this might be the beginning of the endgame for private equity in financial advice.
It is clear that PE was never going to be a long term play because it is not in the nature of the beast to stay for the long game.
Perhaps a better question is whether when the PE era is over, it will have fitted out these businesses for the future possibly under the ownership of big financial services groups?
