THE TOP CLASS WEDNESDAY UPDATE IS FULL OF ANGST

The gaffer is still enjoying a well-earned break so it’s Steve here on TCWU duties. Hiya. Now, I don’t know about you but I had a magnificent week last week, thanks very much for asking. The past few weeks I’ve been feeling a very tangible sense of information overload, particularly on the old social media […]
TEN THINGS WE LEARNED FROM STATE OF THE ADVISER NATION 2018. NUMBER 7 WILL DRIVE YOU WILD!

So, it’s my second to last working day before paternity leave starts and I’m ticking off items on the to-do list faster than an [insert witty metaphor here that I’m too busy to think of]. Our second annual State of the Adviser Nation (SOTAN from hereon) research is in the field and Chester McSillypants here […]
#WorldSuicidePreventionDay

Some of you might already know that I’ve been out and about this year on the conference circuit doing my bit to try and change the way we talk about mental health in the context of the financial services sector, a marketplace (1) traditionally male dominated and as a result (2) really rather bad at […]
THE TOP CLASS WEDNESDAY UPDATE ASKS FOR HELP WHEN IT NEEDS IT

Well hello there. Mr Barrett has kindly passed on the metaphorical baton to cover for the gaffer, who is currently enjoying his well-earned-I’m-sure summer hols. Big shoes to fill. Mind you, a few months back I spoke at a thing and some unnamed darling came up to me and said that, when they closed their eyes, I sounded […]
10 things we’ve just learned about the platform market
The best thing about articles like this is that it frees the writer from the shackles of attempting to write a coherent, well-thought through narrative. Research has shown that 98.4% of readers will just skip right to the list, meaning this introduction is essentially a void. A wasteland. So, that’s what it’s come to then. […]
ALL ABOARD THE HEATMAPS. EMBARK COMES TO MARKET.

Righto, two things. (1) Iâ’ve given myself half an hour to race through this and (2) I’m very sorry about the pun. Terry’s idea. With both of these in mind, let’s move swiftly on. Embark finally announced its long-awaited charging structure the other day and you know the drill by now, we’ve got your back […]
WE NEED MORE CATS (2) – AMAZING ANALYST REQUIRED

YOU’RE NOT NORMAL, ARE YOU? Need a change? Had enough of being treated with dignity? Come ply your trade at the lang cat! We all float down here in Leith. You’ll float too! This is a job advertisement from the lang cat. Have you heard of the lang cat? Daft name, brilliant company. Since […]
A WORD TO THE (HUB)WISE

It’s been ages since I’ve written a pricing blog. It’s also been a decent chunk of time since we’ve seen a new entrant to the advised platform market. A glorious piece of serendipity then to see that Hubwise has (re)launched[1] its advised proposition and given me reason to get the Casio out. Those who monitor […]
YOU CALL THAT A PLATFORM RE-PRICE? AJ BELL YOUINVEST FLASHES ITS NEW CHARGES

It was only a few days ago that I turned to one of my colleagues (I can’t remember who it was. It doesn’t matter, it’s not that great an anecdote and there’s at least a 50% chance I’m making it up anyway.) and complained that there’s not been a re-price in the direct-to-consumer market for […]
DataViz: A fresh look at financial services

If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result, then financial services has gone well and truly mad. Having joined the industry around two months ago, this has been my overwhelming impression of the tired-old lines and scary figures that the industry constantly churns out […]