Has the coronation turned into an election? Polls have tightened and sterling traders are nervous – it could be as much as a 20 point lead falling to five or six per cent for Theresa May and her Conservatives.
Will IFAs find themselves advising their clients many of whom would be caught out by Labour's tax rises on tax mitigation?
Markets are a little nervous and the Telegraph says sterling could fall to $1.20 in the event of a Corbyn Prime Ministership.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies is unimpressed with both main parties’ plans – it is sceptical about how much tax Labour can raise from corporates and the better off, but sees big financial holes in the Conservative plans too on immigration and considerable damage to public services from continuing austerity. It says neither party is honest about the policy choices as the Guardian and the Telegraph report.
Quite a debut column from Money Week’s Merryn Somerset Webb in the Financial Times. She wants a universal cap on fund management charges arguing unit trusts were once capped, as of course are stakeholder pensions and auto enrolment default funds. This, she says, would help solve the long term care crisis and help the country overall as fewer people would be on benefits and more could afford care. We know what active fund managers will think about all this, but what about advisers?
The FCA is to force providers to provide an annuity comparison tool as FTAdviser reports. The FCA clarifies that advisers will be able to rely on the provider’s information in certain circumstances.
Standard Life has appointed a Brexit chief, Paul McGhee, the former head of the Association for Financial Markets in Europe.
Hargreaves Lansdown’s Mark Dampier questions the performance of Vanguard life strategy funds. No doubt only the beginning of a war of words.
The Pension Regulator estimates that defined benefit transfer numbers hit 80,000 over the last year according to a Freedom of Information request.
Commission provides up to a quarter of IFA revenue says the FCA with most apparently deriving from legacy business. This should increasingly fall out of the system but it feels significant and may still be used as a stick with which to beat the industry for a little while yet. How much has been ‘adviser charged’? Clearly these contracts were struck in a different era, not all can be altered, but even very pro-IFA journalists such as myself may ask a few difficult questions. I have always been cynical about pre-RDR trail being merely a drawn out upfront commission payment. Much to discuss.
Rowan Dartington’s Guy Stephens assesses the risk of stagflation in developed world markets.
Moody’s warns China it could face further downgrades if it doesn’t address high debt levels despite applauding many of its reforms.
Daniel Godfrey’s the People’s Trust which, among other things, will aim to address high charging concerns, reveals its manager line-up including Mark Niznik and Martin Lau. Quality managers.
Design firm Space’s Paul Lindsell discusses the initiative to allow bank customers to open up their own data to other providers and what this might mean for providers and IFAs.
Nasty business in the Telegraph where a women’s mother loses money on an unregulated property investment but IFA Kerry Nelson wins her at least some compensation. Nelson wonders why on earth such cases are still happening and why can’t regulators act? Indeed.
