Good morning and welcome to your Morning Briefing for Friday 4 October 2024. To get this in your inbox every morning click here.
FCA’s advice guidance boundary review ‘is a huge mistake’
While realising I am probably in the minority in this industry, I fear the Financial Conduct Authority is about to score a major own goal that will have dire consequences, writes Ian Mckenna, founder of FTRC.
Changing the advice guidance boundary will cause a huge dilution of consumer protection. It will make it easier for manufacturers and others to sell products without advice, avoiding the inconvenience of being responsible for the consequences of their actions.
This risks setting consumer protection back decades. I passionately believe the advice guidance boundary is in the right place. Now is exactly the wrong time to change it.
Solving ‘vacuum’ caused by cost disclosure rule removal
The recent announcement by the Treasury and the FCA that it will temporarily ban the “double counting of costs” for investment trusts was welcomed by the sector.
However, the immediate removal of the requirement to provide costs disclosures has left a “potential vacuum”, according to Abrdn.
The company has released a ‘Statement of Operating Expenses’ (SOE) template as an interim measure to deal with this issue.
The new template document is for disclosing expenses incurred by investment trusts.
Honesty is key to staff retention
Being honest with your employees is key to staff retention, Cairn Independent operations director Laura Young has insisted.
She was responding to an audience question about the best way to keep people within advice businesses at the Lang Cat’s HomeGame 4 event in Edinburgh yesterday (3 October).
“In terms of retaining the team, the only constant is change,” Young said.
“People’s needs and wants evolve, and what they initially say they want might not be the same as what they desire by the end of the process.”
Quote Of The Day
No one seems to be talking about inflation anymore, and that could be a mistake. While attention is on the ECB and the Fed, investors ought to look more closely at developments in China.
-Eric Vanraes, head of fixed income at Eric Sturdza Investments, says the ECB’s policy of monetary easing risks allowing recession to take hold.
Stat Attack
Institutional investors and wealth managers are expecting a surge in new digital asset funds this year as traditional financial institutions increasingly look to the sector, new global research by Nickel Digital Asset Management shows.
70%
questioned predict a rise in digital asset focused fund launches in the next 12 months compared with the last 12 months.
14%
One in seven forecast dramatic growth.
93%
questioned believe the number of traditional firms launching funds in the sector will increase over the next three years.
38%
predict a dramatic increase.
5%
Around 1 in 20 said they were already invested in tokenised funds.
13%
said they expected to be invested in tokenised funds within 12 months.
99%
Almost all said they are, or will be, invested in similar funds within four years.
Source: Nickel Digital Asset Management
In Other News
Bupa has launched its health and wellbeing subscription service, Bupa Well+ Silver, to UK consumers. It provides fast access to affordable digital healthcare services.
The Silver tier subscription service follows the launch of Bupa’s GP subscription service – the Bronze tier in Bupa’s Well+ portfolio, in June.
Alongside the access to digital GP and nurse appointments, customers with Bupa Well+ Silver will be able to book digital consultations with physiotherapists and mental health specialists, starting from £20 per month.
Customers will also be able to use digital wellness services including gym classes and wellbeing programmes like guided meditation.
Sacker & Partners LLP has announced that Andy Lewis will be joining the firm as a partner.
Lewis joins the specialist law firm for pensions and retirement savings from Travers Smith.
He is well known in the industry as an ESG, sustainability and productive investment expert and is also a strong supporter of EDI initiatives. He trained and qualified at Hogan Lovells before moving to Travers Smith where he became a partner in 2019.
David Saunders, senior partner at Sackers, said: “Andy is a highly regarded pensions lawyer in the DB and DC space, with extensive experience of advising the trustees and sponsors of large pension funds. He is a perfect fit for Sackers, and we are delighted he approached us.”
Pension funds rethink hedging tactics after UK crisis (Reuters)
Italy seeks to raise more windfall taxes from companies (Financial Times)
Carmakers dangle £2bn in EV discounts to boost UK sales (Bloomberg)
Did You See?
The cost-of-living-crisis is the single biggest driver of people seeking financial advice or guidance, a new report from St James’s Place (SJP) has found.
Major life events or milestones are the biggest prompts for people to seek financial advice or guidance, SJP’s Real Life Advice Report shows.
Almost half (48%) of those who have accessed advice or guidance – 12.5m people – did so following a key moment.
This includes buying a property, getting married, or dealing with an unexpected change like divorce.
