Opposition leader (for now) Keir Starmer says he made a mistake in a radio interview when he appeared to suggest Labour would scrap the 25% tax-free lump sum reports New Model Adviser. The confusion appears to have arisen over a current stamp duty concession with a time limit built in.
As the Guardian reports: “A party spokesperson said on Friday it would allow the threshold for stamp duty to fall back to £300,000, after it was raised to £425,000 in 2022 by Rishi Sunak, the then chancellor.”
Of course, we know that with a freeze on percentage of tax free cash, the pension concession is already due to wither away due to inflation, albeit very slowly.
But advisers will wonder if this was something of a Freudian slip from the man now odds on to be Prime Minister by next Friday.
AdvisoryAI is to automate client personalised suitability letters for advisers in five minutes as Professional Adviser reports.
My first thought regarding the headline is ‘careful now!’ Of course, the AI will work at its own speed. It may not be being ‘hasty’ in a way a human might be doing this in five minutes, as it pulls the meeting recording, fact finds, and provider information together.
But I suggest that it is clear that advisers really need to understand the information sources especially if from outside their own firm and have a very robust, AI specific compliance process as well.
I think this interview in FTAdviser with Sheun Oke, founder of Emergenzz Financial Services is interesting in terms of motivations.
She said: “When Covid happened, I saw how it hit the black community.
“Some people who were working three jobs to make ends meet didn’t have insurance or financial protection.
“I was working in the community at this time and my friend said this industry needs more people who are passionate about education, why don't you look into becoming a financial adviser?”
Some advisers remain fans of PruFund including, I believe, for clients in retirement. But they need to be cognisant of big private market investments of up to £30bn as New Model Adviser reports.
The smoothing feature of the £126bn With Profits structure, paired with the long tenure of investors, makes it a suitable home for a massive illiquid allocation, says PruFund manager M&G.
Something to factor in to the AI suitability letter perhaps?
