How to buy magic beans
Recently I’ve found myself looking at D2C platforms. Partly for work stuff and partly because of a nagging feeling that I really ought to be investing in a share class other than Mulberry bags. While actually looking at the direct to aspect.  I’ve been thinking about the consumers. People who are approaching D2C platforms (and their websites specifically) […]
Another blog about retiring
Six months ago or so I wrote a blog about my Dad’s imminent retirement. I’m not egotistical enough to assume you’ve been on the edge of your collective seats waiting on an update (The Deathly Hallows this ain’t) but here it is anyway. Nelson Sr. got off to a disheartening start thanks to some pretty […]
PS13/1 The Annual Review
Although the new platform rules given to us by PS13/1 (Payments to platform service providers and cash rebates from providers to consumers, to give it its full name) only came into force on 6 April, they have been a part of the financial services landscape for a year (or near enough for a blog title […]
A new dawn rises – but not on exit charges
Nick Paler’s interview with Hargreavesâ?? Ian Gorham in Professional Adviser last week caught my eye. Headlined ‘We will not scrap exit fees until FCA tightens transfer rules‘, in it Gorham explains the thinking behind Hargreaves campaign for the FCA to take action and make transfers of stock easier to do across the whole industry. It’s […]
A new dawn rises – but not on exit charges
Nick Paler’s interview with Hargreavesâ?? Ian Gorham in Professional Adviser last week caught my eye. Headlined ‘We will not scrap exit fees until FCA tightens transfer rules‘, in it Gorham explains the thinking behind Hargreaves campaign for the FCA to take action and make transfers of stock easier to do across the whole industry. It’s […]
Oh, what a feeling! Aegon dances on the ceiling.
Another day, another price movement. Fresh on the back of the Cofunds SIPP update yesterday, the Dutch massive have entered the fray, announcing revised charging structures on both the ARC platform and One Retirement pension product. From 3 May there is a now a price ceiling at £250k in both cases. We think this is […]
Free pension with every purchase! Cofunds sharpens its pencil.
Just a short post to confirm that as of today Cofunds has removed the establishment (setup) and annual charge on its Suffolk Life-provided Cofunds Pension Account (CPA). This is a welcome development. For a long time I’ve been banging on about ‘mid-market’ (sorry) platforms cutting off their noses to spite their faces with differential pension […]
Pension and platform transfer research: the lang cat needs YOU!
It’s a funny old industry we operate in. You’re sat at your desk; eating lunch and listening to the budget speech; mainly to see how much wine is going up by; and then! well, we were all there. There’s been a lot of discussion about the impact of Budget 2014 on various aspects of the […]
Friday fun: What if buying a tin of beans was like picking a direct platform?
Kind of a big deal – Budget musings
No-one expected that. Budget? we thought. ‘Meh,’ we thought. We were wrong. This is the most impactful budget in terms of personal finance for a long time; certainly since the A-Day days, and maybe since I joined the industry in the mid 90s. Industry response has been feverish and has had us thinking of Anchorman […]
