Jeremy Hunt’s package of reforms to financial services regulation has been trailed as a 21st Century ‘Big Bang’. For younger readers, the last one was in 1985, when both Thatcher’s UK and Reagan’s America effectively let the banks have free rein to lend, invest and run the financial markets. A boom or two followed and it took 15 years for the chickens to come home to roost when, in 2008, those uncontrolled banks started to go bust, everything crashed and governments suddenly realised they needed regulating after all. So here we go again, about to ‘unlock the potential of Brexit’, to bring on, they hope, another blood-rush of lending and investing which will, I fear, have the same, inevitable results. But, for this government, on someone else’s watch. Cynical? Moi? Sorry, but I really have seen it all before.
“Timeline boss bullish about resilience of small and medium IFAs”
How we as advisers charge for our services has been the subject of navel-gazing debate in our profession for some time. Should we work on accountant- and solicitor-style hourly rates, charge a fixed subscription or have a menu of tasks and bill you accordingly.