Good morning and welcome to your Morning Briefing for Wednesday 24 September 2025. To get this in your inbox every morning click here.
Those who receive advice are more positive about the future
Those who receive financial advice are more positive about their short term and long term futures than those that don’t, a new report from St James’s Place has found.
SJP’s Real Life Advice Report, now in its second year, revealed half of those who take ongoing professional advice (51%) are optimistic about the remainder of 2025 compared to 34% who do not receive advice.
Looking at long-term care differently
My boss once told me that a good DJ plays the songs you want to hear, but a great DJ plays the songs you didn’t know you wanted to hear, writes Gillian Wilson, a paraplanner for The Timebank.
Long-term care is once of those conversations your clients didn’t know they wanted to have, she argues, so it’s a great idea to open this conversation as early as you can.
Flying Colours launches platform with Seccl
Flying Colours has launched a new investment platform with Seccl to enhance its client offering.
The network aims to support both its full-service proposition and a new, lower-cost solution for clients with less than £150,000 in investable assets.
It currently manages £600m on behalf of more than 2,200 clients, with advice delivered through 26 advisers alongside a discretionary portfolio management service.
Quote Of The Day
Europe stands at a crossroads. The scale of investment needed for the green and digital transitions is far beyond what public finances and banks alone can deliver
– Chris Cummings, chief executive of the Investment Association, on the importance of unlocking private market capital
Stat Attack
There is a widespread lack of understanding about pensions terms, according to new research from Wealthify. It found:
18%
Almost one in five pension holders admit they don’t understand a single pension term.
44%
Fewer than half of people recognise the term “pension pot”, the most widely understood phrase.
2%
Just 2% of pension holders know what “BSP” (Basic State Pension) means.
25%
Both “annuity” and “pensions dashboard” are understood by a quarter of savers.
12%
of women have delayed or stopped contributing to a pension due to lack of knowledge.
8%
This is compared to 8% of men.
24%
Women are twice as likely as men (12%) to say they don’t understand any pension terms.
15%
Fewer than one in six savers understand the “triple lock” despite its prominence in the news.
76%
Nearly three-quarters believe pensions aren’t taught enough in schools or early adulthood.
Source: Wealthify
In Other News
Ortec Finance has appointed John O’Driscoll as managing director of OPAL Financial & Wealth Planning.
O’Driscoll has more than 20 years’ experience in financial services and was formerly divisional director of business development and advice at St James’s Place Wealth Management.
In his new role, he will lead the product development strategy for OPAL, Ortec Finance’s intelligent advice technology.
At SJP, he led the development of advice and planning tools used by thousands of advisers, including the rollout of AI and automation solutions that improved advice quality and freed up significant adviser time.
He is also a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries.
Ortec Finance, a global leader in goal-based financial planning technology, said it is stepping up its ambition to build a leading presence in the UK wealth management and financial planning market with O’Driscoll’s appointment.
Royal London has completed a bulk purchase annuity (BPA) transaction with the Stora Enso UK Group Pension Scheme.
This latest buy-in covers 758 members and marks the first transaction completed with Quantum Advisory.
This means Royal London has now insured the benefits of over 6,000 members across 11 external buy-in transactions in 2025.
Quantum Advisory already provided actuarial, administration and investment advisory services to the Trustee, and were also chosen to provide risk transfer support.
Chris Mason of Quantum Advisory was the lead on the risk broking services and Burges Salmon are the Scheme’s legal advisors. Royal London was advised by Mayer Brown.
More than £1bn has now been insured since Royal London formally launched its BPA business almost a year ago
Pimco bets on fall in UK inflation to open door to deeper rate cuts (Financial Times)
Saudi Arabia’s stocks soar on bets ownership limits to be axed (Bloomberg)
Denmark’s central bank cuts growth outlook citing US tariffs, pharmaceuticals slowdown (Reuters)
Did You See?
The Personal Finance Society (PFS) has reported more than 250 expressions of interest in its Pathway to the Profession initiative.
Launched in July, the scheme aims to attract and support new talent into financial planning.
The £1m programme includes £200,000 to fund 500 students taking the R05 Financial Protection module, the first step towards a Diploma in Regulated Financial Planning.
Participants also receive free PFS membership, mentoring and networking opportunities.
Within eight weeks, over 200 applicants with no prior experience or qualifications in financial planning have signed up.
