Good morning and welcome to your Morning Briefing for Wednesday 5 July, 2023. To get this in your inbox every morning click here.
Protection clients
The requirements of Consumer Duty have led to many advisers thinking about the protection needs of their clients in a new way.
This shift in strategy and outlook will mean those who are not used to talking about protection will need to quickly upskill – unless they choose to refer clients to a protection expert.
In Conversation With
In this episode of In Conversation With, host Lois Vallely chats to Yasmina Siadatan, sales and marketing director at Dynamic Planner, about her journey from owning her own restaurant, to winning The Apprentice, to joining Dynamic Planner.
She also talks about the need to increase trust in the financial advice profession and close the advice gap, and urges anyone looking to join financial services to “just do it”.
Quote Of The Day
Consumers and insurers can be subject to huge costs when credit hire is used. People have told us that they would never knowingly have chosen credit hire had they known the risks of having to pay the costs involved themselves.
– Rachel Lam, ombudsman director at the Financial Ombudsman Service warns of credit hire risks
Stat Attack
Lowell surveyed different family members to reveal the main causes of debt for different generations.
36%
Of 18-24 year olds cite poor money management to be their main cause of debt
25%
Of 25–34-year-olds say credit card debt is their main money problem
20%
Are now taking up an extra job to further support their finances
Source: Lowell
In Other News
One Four Nine Group has announced the appointment of Gabrielle Beaumont to the role of CEO and Matt Taylor as CFO.
Both will work closely with Stuart Harding (COO) to continue to build a first-class national wealth advisory firm with in-house discretionary investment manager.
Beaumont replaces Matthew Bugden who has stepped down from his role to devote more time to his family.
She was previously managing director for the firm, has been with One Four Nine Group since its inception, providing significant input into the direction and operations of the business at all levels.
As a founding member of the Beaumont spearheaded the acquisition programme and maintains a regular and close connection to all regional location teams.
From Elsewhere
‘It has lost its appeal’: Canary Wharf faces an uncertain future (The Guardian)
Train firms plan mass closures of ticket offices (BBC News)
Bank of England considers forcing foreign banks to replace branches with subsidiaries (Financial Times)
Did You See?
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has banned Paul Steel of Estate Matters Financial Ltd (EMF) from working in financial services.
He will also pay £850,000 to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS).
Steel provided unsuitable advice to customers to transfer out of defined benefit pension schemes, including the British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS).
According to the regulator he also showed a lack of honesty and integrity in selling his client book for less than its value, to himself.
This meant that customers who had lost out from the poor advice could not pursue EMF for redress.
Between 2015 and 2018, more than 480 clients were given defined benefit transfer advice by EMF.
