There is a ‘clear case’ for simplifying the point of sale disclosure regime which is too complex and confusing for investors, UK platform provider AJ Bell’s chief executive said in an open letter to the FCA.
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.
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.
The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) received 15% more complaints about pensions in 2016/2017, with Sipps one of the most complained about products, despite a 6% drop in the number of people contacting the financial redress service.
The thesaurus doesn’t offer a decent alternative to “uncertainty”, the post-election word du jour, yet Theresa May’s dire performance makes it likely we will be reading the word many times a day for the foreseeable future.
Online investment platform AJ Bell has reported rapid growth in its revenues after it added almost 12,000 customers in the space of six months.
UK consumers withdrew £10.8bn ($13.8bn, €12.7bn) from their pensions during the first two years of the pension freedoms.
The UK government could delay introducing a ban on pension cold calling after British prime minister Theresa May called a snap election for 8 June, according to investment platform AJ Bell.
AJ Bell’s first fund launch, a range of five diversified multi-asset funds that are risk-rated from cautious to adventurous, will start trading on 18 April 2017.
AJ Bell is claiming that the UK Treasury has ruled out changes to pension tax relief within the next few years, despite government sources suggesting that this is on the agenda after the post Spring Budget climbdown on national insurance contribution rises for the self-employed.
There has been little buzz around the last-ever Spring Budget taking place on 8 March, ahead of triggering Article 50. International Adviser has pulled together views from the industry about what it expects or would like to see addressed when the chancellor takes to the despatch box.
The UK’s radical pension freedom reforms have led to over £9.2bn (€10.7bn, $11.5bn) getting encashed from pension plans since April 2015, HM Revenue & Customs revealed on Wednesday.
