Good morning and welcome to your Morning Briefing for Tuesday 9 May, 2023. To get this in your inbox every morning click here.
New independent chair for Nucleus
Nucleus Financial Platforms has appointed Heather Hopkins as chair of its advisory board.
The firm has also announced that, in a move to become more representative of the group’s wider user base, the board’s remit has been expanded to include advisers using the James Hay platform.
Cost of being narrow minded
The worst year of my life was probably 2012 — not because the Mayans had predicted that the world would end on 21 December that year, but because I was diagnosed with an illness that was having a serious impact on my everyday life.
I had just graduated from university and was ready to embark on the next stage of life, yet fate had other plans. I contracted Behçet’s syndrome, which the National Health Service describes as a “rare and poorly understood” condition.
Supercharging net-zero
The government recently published its Green Finance Strategy, setting out its ambition to reinforce and expand the UK as a world leader on green finance and investment.
Not long before this, the Labour Party outlined its five missions for Britain, placing the same objectives at the heart of its plans for the UK economy.
Quote Of The Day
April was a painful month for personal finances, with price rises seemingly coming from all directions
– Myron Jobson, senior personal finance analyst at Interactive Investor, comments on the fact that high inflation is driving retail sales as volumes fall
Stat Attack
Goldman Sachs Asset Management has published its second Family Office Investment Insight report, which surveyed 166 institutional family offices with net worths of at least $500m. The report found family offices continue to maintain strong allocations to risk allocations.
44%
Alternatives remain a major focus for family offices, with an average total portfolio allocation of 44% across alternative asset classes
20-25%
Versus other ultra-high net worth individuals who typically allocate around 20-25% of their portfolio to alternatives depending on their risk tolerance
26%
More family offices are invested in cryptocurrencies than in 2021 – 26%, up from 16%
12%
But only 12% expressed potential future interest, down from 45%
39%
Family offices broadly track the sustainability interests of other investors, with 39% moderately to extremely focused on sustainable strategies, and 48% invest directly in companies with social and environmental impacts
76%
Globally, 76% of family offices support families with operating businesses. Within that cohort, 44% of family office decision makers reported that they remain involved with those businesses
48%
Nearly half of family offices responding support the original wealth creator. When asked if the next generation influences investment strategy, 61% reported no
Source: Goldman Sachs
In Other News
Copia Capital Management has launched the Copia Select Retirement Income Plus (RI+) portfolios.
They use guaranteed income alongside a managed portfolio to increase the opportunity to outperform and provide greater certainty of outcome in retirement without increasing the overall investment risk.
The range of five risk-rated portfolios is designed to address the four main decumulation risks: sequencing, longevity, inflation and interest rate, and help advisers meet the new Consumer Duty rule to ‘avoid causing foreseeable harm’.
RI+ is the first decumulation portfolio strategy purpose-built to work in conjunction with a guaranteed income solution.
Offering attractive rates of income, the guaranteed income asset, which at launch is delivered by Just Group’s Secure Lifetime Income (SLI), is 100% uncorrelated to other asset classes.
From Elsewhere
UBS announces Credit Suisse CEO Koerner to join board after emergency rescue (CNBC)
Bank of England set to raise rates to highest level since 2008 (Financial Times)
Did You See?
“Prime minister Harold Macmillan went down in history with the phrase “you have never had it so good” about rising living standards. That saying could easily apply to the current generation of pensioners.
“Since the financial crisis in 2008, the average income of pensioners has kept up very well with that of workers. Higher levels of home ownership, final salary schemes and the triple lock on the state pension have helped cushion the elderly against various crises of the past two decades.
“That accumulated wealth, combined with the pension freedoms that started in April 2015, has given many retirees an enjoyable life.
“How favourable the current circumstances are for them is explained in an excellent report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). On 20 April it published the first part of a multi-year Pensions Review into the pensions tax system.”
Read Michael Klimes’ Weekend Essay for Money Marketing in full here.
