Here’s what’s been happening in the financial advisory world of late. Large firms, funded by private equity, have been buying up small local firms, often giving older advisers a route to retirement. They gamble, I guess, that they won’t lose too many of the clients, can increase charges a bit and reduce service levels to boost up the profits. Those private equity firms aren’t in it for the good of their hearts or the clients, and want to turn a profit. So here’s the next step, they sell on to a still bigger fish, in this case one of the biggest, Aviva. And why would Aviva want to own a firm of advisers who don’t give or transfer all of their business to Aviva? Well, they probably wouldn’t, would they…
“Sunak and Hunt accused of ‘damaging UK plc’ over NatWest boss’s exit”
Here’s the flip side. Should a business not have the right to choose whom it serves? If you as a client, or more likely potential client, rub us up the wrong way, are a declared anti-vaxxer or support the barges, can we not, as a business, say ‘Be Gone’?
