Good morning and welcome to your Morning Briefing for Tuesday 2 September 2025. To get this in your inbox every morning click here.
Square Mile reshapes fund ratings after August reviews
Square Mile Investment Consulting and Research announced a series of fund rating changes during August 2025.
The decisions follow 64 interviews with investment professionals from 41 asset management groups and reflect new fund launches, manager changes and corporate developments.
Paul Heath: Vertical integration threatens adviser independence
The advice sector is changing (mostly) for the better, writes Paul Heath, co-founder and co-director of Corbel Partners
The Consumer Duty emphasises fairness and helps the vulnerable, and the shift towards holistic planning is helping to garner the public’s trust in our profession.
There’s one area, though, that is putting independent advisers under serious strain: vertical integration.
Quote Of The Day
If it was dependent on political diktats from one person or another, then the balance of the US economy and consequently the impacts that has on the world as a whole […] would be very worrying
– ECB president Christine Lagarde, when asked what would happen if president Donald Trump were to seize control of US interest rate policy
Stat Attack
A new survey from PensionBee, conducted among 1,000 UK representative parents, found that back-to-school expenses can be a major drag on long-term financial security. Key findings:
74%
of parents said back-to-school costs put some or a great deal of pressure on their ability to save for the future, including pensions and Isas.
20%
said school costs added a little pressure, while only 7% said they created no pressure at all.
52%
said they would prioritise their children’s education and activities over long-term savings as disposable income shrinks.
25%
would prioritise short-term savings such as a holiday or rainy day fund.
12%
would prioritise paying off debts and loans.
Just 11%
said they would prioritise long-term savings like a pension or Isa.
59%
admitted they are very likely or somewhat likely to reduce or pause pension contributions during expensive times such as back-to-school season or Christmas.
35%
said they were not likely to pause contributions, while 5% said they do not contribute to a pension at all.
Only 14%
of parents felt very confident about balancing family expenses with saving enough for retirement.
Nearly 30%
described themselves as unconfident, while 25% said they felt neither confident nor unconfident.
Source: PensionBee
In Other News
Iress has partnered with Aviva to launch its Guaranteed Fixed Term Income Plan via a fully online annuity quote and application process on The Exchange.
The plan provides guaranteed income for a fixed term, with maturity and death benefit options.
Pre-populated data reduces rekeying, saves time and helps advisers secure the best rates.
Aviva is the third major annuity provider to adopt Iress’ system, alongside Standard Life and Prudential.
Iress’ Jacqueline Durbin said the move replaces paper-heavy processes, while Aviva’s Claire Reed said it reflects a commitment to innovation and making retirement income more accessible.
Aberdeen has formed a strategic partnership with Titanbay, the European private markets infrastructure provider, to help UK distributors and wealth managers access private markets more efficiently.
The agreement aims to reduce delays from legacy systems by streamlining fund structuring, client onboarding, capital flows and reporting.
Aberdeen’s Global Private Markets Fund, available on Titanbay, provides diversified exposure with quarterly redemption options.
Titanbay’s platform supports both closed-end and evergreen structures, aligning with Aberdeen’s platform-agnostic approach.
Aberdeen CEO Xavier Meyer said the partnership would meet growing investor demand, while Titanbay’s James Singleton highlighted its role in tackling operational barriers.
Sparrows Capital has partnered with model portfolio and multi-asset fund comparison provider Mabel Insights.
The deal makes Sparrows one of Mabel’s discretionary fund management partners, giving advisers access to performance data, portfolio insights and monthly factsheets for the Sparrows SCore MPS range.
The collaboration is designed to strengthen transparency and support adviser due diligence, suitability checks and client communications.
Sparrows’ evidence-based portfolios currently rank in the top quartile of Mabel’s risk-adjusted group over three and five years.
The partnership follows the fifth anniversary of the SCore MPS and the first anniversary of the SCore-D retirement income solution.
UK long-term borrowing costs on brink of 27-year high (The Guardian)
Starmer reshapes team, names ex-BoE official as top economic adviser (Reuters)
Trump says India offered to remove tariffs on US goods (BBC News)
Did You See?
The summer is usually a quieter period for the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), but this year has been an exception, with a number of consultations and other important developments landing during the supposed “summer break”.
However, writes Foot Anstey partner Alan Hughes, one that stands out is the FCA’s consultation on modernising the redress system (CP25/22), published alongside a parallel paper from HM Treasury.
These propose what look to be some fundamental – and ultimately helpful – changes to the much-criticised Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).
At present, the statutory test applied by the FOS is whether a firm has acted “fairly and reasonably”. This has always been interpreted very broadly, with the result that compliance with FCA requirements has been treated only as a starting point.
Firms could therefore find themselves on the wrong side of FOS decisions even when they had complied with the regulator’s rules.
