Good morning and welcome to your Morning Briefing for Tuesday 20 June, 2023. To get this in your inbox every morning click here.
Back office
Financial advisers need a strong back-office team alongside robust technology to meet their full potential, experts say.
National independent financial adviser firm Continuum has said it has grown so “quickly” but this has only been achievable due to the support of a “strong back-office team”.
It added that fast-growing advice businesses often overlook building strong support teams.
High correlations
Dan Brocklebank, director UK at Orbis Investments, believes he has spotted something.
He contends many investors may have ended up with much less diversified portfolios despite believing the opposite.
Read this to find out.
Quote Of The Day
We are faced with many major decisions as we approach retirement and it’s vital we seek out appropriate support to help us make the right decisions.
– Helen Morrissey, head of retirement analysis at Hargreaves Lansdown, on the need for people to seek help for their retirement decisions
Stat Attack
Persistent market volatility, high inflation and a return to rising interest rates will see pension funds reduce risk in their portfolios, new research from Aeon Investments shows.
Its global study with pension funds, insurance asset managers, family offices and wealth managers who collectively manage around $545bn found:
81%
Believe that higher expected bond yields/yields from fixed income and a fall in expected equity returns will force professional investors to de-risk
23%
Expect those increases in de-risking to be dramatic
13%
Say there will be a decline in investors looking to de-risk
6%
Predict no change
Source: Aon Investments
In Other News
Mark Fawcett, CEO of Nest Invest, has been awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) as part of the King’s Birthday Honours for services to pension saving.
He joined Nest as CIO in 2008 to design and shape Nest’s investment strategy.
Fawcett has overseen the growth of Nest’s asset under management from £19, the first contribution made 11 years ago, to more than £30bn today.
From Elsewhere
UK billionaire Hamish Harding on board missing Titanic submersible, family confirms (Sky News)
Grocery inflation in Great Britain eases to 16.5% but remains high (The Guardian)
Rent takes up biggest share of pay for 10 years (BBC News)
Did You See?
Claire Trott, divisional director, retirement and holistic planning, at St. James’s Place is keen follower of all the anomalies in our pension system.
Here she writes about the way changes to the lifetime allowance have messed with death benefits.
