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Latest insight
“Worry for profession as young adviser numbers plummet”
There are around 31,000 advisers currently authorised by the FCA to give advice. Of these only around 6% are under 30 and 84% of all advisers are male. There are 209,000 solicitors, 7,000 young ones enter the profession each year and 52% of all solicitors are now female.
“‘Helpful change’ or ‘political stunt’?: The debate on the Great British ISA and what investments should qualify”
Don’t hold your breath on this one. The idea is that, if you invest in British Bulldog Stocks and Shares, you may get an extra £5,000 of ISA allowance, but how that might work in practice is up for discussion or consultation until 6th June.
“Budget 2024: £105m for 15 special free schools, and nothing else”
There were a hundred or more different headlines I could have pinched, but I thought this one illustrated what’s most important: that what’s most important to me or to him is not likely for me to be what’s most important to you.
“Advisers fearful of further compliance and regulation”
We know, of course we know, that regulation is, or at least should be a ‘good thing’. If those who need or should seek advice can be confident that they’ll be told the right thing, that someone has looked at those ’too good to be true’ investments before they’re allowed to take your money; or, in the case of a Woodford, while they’re raking it in to make sure it’s going where it’s supposed to.
Economic news
“Do not expect America’s interest rates to fall just yet”
As rehearsed many times on these pages, the next move onwards and upwards for your investments depends largely on the decisions of various bankers and economists in what would once have been ‘smoke-filled rooms’.
“UK slips into recession as economy contracts 0.1% in December”
This week’s big economic and bad election news is that we are, or certainly have been, officially in a recession. You may not have thought you were, or you may have thought you have been for some time, as we and its effects are all different.
“Donald Trump is winning. Business, beware”
There’s a perception that whatever might be the consequences for the rest of the world, Trump as President should be good for business. Surely, as a business man himself, he’d be the friend of Corporate America, and everything, money-making-wise, went pretty well last time around didn’t it?
“Reaction: UK economy returns to growth as GDP rises by 0.3%”
OK, this sounds like good news, doesn’t I? Last month’s figures showed a fall in GDP, and three of those in a row equals ‘technical recession’.
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Financial Services
“Britain has lost 435 financial advice firms since 2022”
Headline figures, there were over 200,000 financial advisers at the end of the ’90s, there are around 30,000 now and our numbers are continuing to reduce.
“Simon Evan-Cook: FCA must wake up to consolidation damage”
This is where I can don my ‘been around the block, seen it all before’ mantle. What’s happening in our business/industry/profession at the moment is a lot of what’s become known as consolidation, big companies, many fuelled by private equity, buying up smaller firms or taking over the clients of retiring advisers.
“‘No need for paper’ as AI emerges”
That’s all very well, and we’re happy to have been officially paper-free for many years now; as in we don’t have any paper files, everything’s stored securely online and it all works very well.
““Sir Howard Davies should be ashamed” – brokers react to NatWest chair’s property ladder comments”
‘Just when bankers’ reputations have started to recover’ might be something of an exaggeration. The image of fat cats and their traders earning big bonuses while crashing the economy still endures and has been given further life and legs by the NatWest chairman’s ultimate out-of-touch-with-the-real-world comments.
“Are financial advisers under threat from AI?”
If we give you actual financial advice which results in you doing something which we arrange for you, then we’re giving you advice.
Stockmarket
“Global stock markets fall sharply amid fears over inflation and China slowdown”
Diesel at my local filling station now costs over £7.50 a gallon (kids etc.). Not my problem these days, but I’m sadly old enough to remember the furore in the 1970s when the price went up to 50p a gallon.
“Coping with a correction – will stock market falls continue?”
There haven’t been any ‘markets plummet, £billions wiped of the value of your savings’ headlines this year. I guess there’s been other stuff going on to keep the headline writers busy. However, markets have fallen, the FTSE World index is down by more than 8% since...
“Asset managers ‘largely failing’ on ESG voting, research suggests”
If you own shares, you’ll know it’s pointless voting at shareholder meetings as it’s only the big fund managers who own big chunks of companies that can make things happen. It seems that, although they’re launching green funds left, right and centre and telling us...
Will the new Roaring ’20s end in a Crash?
The Great Gatsby was one of my favourite books, and I even had a soft spot for the Robert Redford movie (really don’t bother with the new one). All the fun and glamour was doomed to end, and we know how badly it ended, Gatsby in the swimming pool (spoiler),...