Good morning and welcome to your Morning Briefing for Thursday 9 October 2025. To get this in your inbox every morning click here.
PIMFA and TISA flag concerns over Ombudsman reforms
PIMFA has welcomed the direction of reforms proposed in HM Treasury’s review of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).
However, it warned that further clarity is needed in areas where the Ombudsman must exercise judgement to maintain industry confidence.
The review aims to ensure FOS remains a fair, free, and accessible service for consumers while addressing longstanding industry concerns about consistency and alignment with FCA rules.
Families boost children’s pensions to cut IHT bills
Pension contributions for under-18s rose to £79.6m in 2022/23, up from £75.9m the year before, according to Lubbock Fine Wealth Management (LFWM).
The firm says more families are using children’s pensions as a tool for inheritance tax (IHT) planning.
There are now 45,000 under-18s with pensions, up from 42,000 in 2021/22, as parents and grandparents move wealth into pension pots to reduce future IHT bills.
Why advisers should plan their exit from day one
I’ll never forget my first job in the financial advice industry. Having left school with mediocre exam results, I wasn’t sure what to do with my life, writes Richard Harrison, CEO of Sesame Bankhall Group.
But the owner of a local advice firm saw something in me and offered me a junior role that set me up for my whole career.
Sadly, he’s no longer with us, but the lessons I learnt during those first four years have stayed with me. Chief among them was the importance of planning – not just with my finances, but in business, too.
Quote Of The Day
France is increasingly looking like a warning sign that the spending needs of the nation’s social democracy are outpacing its ability to write cheques
-Steve Clayton, head of equity funds at Hargreaves Lansdown, comments on France’s political turmoil as gold prices surge
Stat Attack
A new study from the former UK Small Business Commissioner, Liz Barclay, and MetLife UK, highlights the growing concerns among business leaders today – with rising sickness and absences top of the corporate agenda. The research reveals that
88%
of business owners and senior decision makers are concerned about long-term employee sickness;
86%
are concerned about short-term sickness. Long-term sickness is costing businesses in the UK
£20,735
per employee annually and short-term sickness costing
£13,800
per employee per year. But
15%
of businesses do not estimate how much they spend on short-term and long-term sickness, meaning they could be spending more than they think on absenteeism.
Source: MetLife UK
In Other News
The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) has launched Financial Planning Week 2026, encouraging planners across the UK to give at least an hour of free advice to help people improve their finances.
Running from 26 January to 1 February 2026, the initiative promotes the benefits of financial planning through free sessions and resources from professionals including certfied finanacial planners.
Carly Dunningham CFP™ MCSI, Chair of the CISI Financial Planning Forum, said the week offers “a nationwide opportunity to show the public what true financial planning really means – to raise awareness and open doors for people who might not otherwise have access to support.”
CISI’s Chris Morris added that the campaign is a chance for planners “to offer a helping hand to consumers by giving an hour of their time free.”
Supporters will be listed on CISI’s Wayfinder website, with the campaign slogan “Live your today. Plan your tomorrow.”
British pension provider plots £1bn launch of new look ‘superfund’ (Financial Times)
European giants are trying a radical path to stock market glory (Bloomberg)
‘The debasement trade’: is this what’s driving gold, bitcoin and shares to record highs? (The Guardian)
Did You See?
Since inheritance tax was introduced, legislation has acknowledged that people should be able to give away genuinely surplus income without it attracting any tax, writes Peter Ball, tax partner and head of private client at Bishop Fleming.
Such gifts are tax exempt, with immediate effect – the exemption is uncapped and there is no need to survive seven years before the gift falls out of an individual’s estate for inheritance tax (IHT) purposes.
Making regular gifts from surplus income is therefore a highly effective way to pass wealth to family, free of IHT, provided strict and sometimes complex conditions are met.
The exemption could reportedly be at risk of being changed in the Autumn Budget, given that there is already a £3,000 limit for annual gifts made by individuals.
In 2019, the Office for Tax Simplification recommended that the exemption should be reformed, potentially replacing it with a higher annual personal gift allowance of £25,000.
