There are exciting new market opportunities for the taking, two years after the UK pension freedoms were introduced that raised customer awareness of the need for pension planning, says Matt Ward, communications director at AKG Financial Analytics
Singapore’s financial advice market just got more competitive after DBS opened a financial planning centre that offers free advisory services but does not sell any financial products.
Shifting client expectations and regulatory change is set to transform the overseas financial advice market, according to the latest research by Old Mutual International.
Life assurers are having to make big strides to catch up with advisers and mass market retail providers when it comes to digital innovation to meet growing expectations from high net worth individuals (HNWI), according to Lombard International Assurance’s Aidan McClean.
Plans by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority to crackdown on excessive asset management fund charges and improve competitiveness in the sector has been met with a flurry of contradictory responses from different parts of the financial services industry.
Long-term savings for retirement is a well-established aspect of financial planning – but it is frequently an uphill battle to encourage individuals to take control of their future.
HM Revenue & Customs has kickstarted a new beneficial ownership register targeting those who set up trusts to “generate tax consequences” in guidelines published on Tuesday.
Building a successful advice business is not rocket science but it does require a clear vision, strategic objectives and the adoption of big data. Old Mutual Wealth’s head of international distribution development, Mike Leeson, offers a road map to success.
Transfers to overseas pensions are likely to become even more complicated following proposals from the Financial Conduct Authority to overhaul pension transfer advice in the UK.
Advice on pension transfers is to be provided as a personal recommendation and transfer value analysis replaced with a comparison to show the value of the benefits being given up under plans announced by the UK regulator on Wednesday.
Nearly all financial advisers disagree with the UK regulator’s pension transfer value analysis assumptions and are having to deal with an “information vacuum” from the UK regulator, according to veteran retirement expert Mike Morrison.
What could the potential fallout be for asset managers when Asia’s regulators eventually replace the commission-based wealth management model with a fee-based one? Ben Cherrington, head of intermediary channels in Asia Pacific at M&G Investments, shares some key changes in the UK, which decided to make the leap to fee-based in 2013.
