What’s 0.04% amongst friends? Standard Life hikes Elevate prices; causes eyebrow raising in Leith.
I’ve always liked folk who buck trends. Counter culture is my favourite kind of culture. So you’d think I’d be supportive of Standard Life’s decision to buck the downward trend of platform pricing by increasing Elevate’s charges. And in some ways I am. In others, though, I’m not, and I’ll tell you for why. It’s […]
Guess who’s back, back again
The last few months have been an exciting time for Leith’s leading * platform and investment consultancy. We’ve never been busier, and increasingly we are convinced that most of our core markets are about to be disrupted. The recent FCA Asset Management Study is without doubt my favourite read of the year, a real page […]
Where are the customers’ yachts?
So, exactly a year after the terms of reference were published, the FCA has lifted the lid on the asset management industry’s Pandora’s box in what could well (and hopefully will) prove to be a landmark market study. If ever you had any doubts of the depth & range of issues, 689 pages of documents, […]
Orange is the new black
So, 9th November proved to be another standout day in what is turning out to be a stunning year in 2016. A man with no previous experience and a history of <snip : lang cat lawyers> was elected to become POTUS. The world collectively drew breath and waited to see what happens next. Within financial […]
HULK SMASH SECONDARY ANNUITIES!
Perhaps I was having a grumpy day (a blip in my otherwise sunny persona) when I wrote/ranted about the truly horrible prospect of a secondary annuity market. Or perhaps it was just a natural reaction to that horrible prospect. In any case, a few aspersions were cast in my direction suggesting I was trying out […]
D2C’s big CPA day out: Nutmeg’s results and Vanguard’s plans
HEALTH WARNING: We’ve had some fun guessing at Nutmeg’s figures in this blog. Our guesses are just that, and we don’t make any claim for their accuracy. We’d love to have accurate figures, but until we do please treat any figures in red as (hopefully) interesting, but no more than that. If you’re interested in […]
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 […]
Slurp! Aegon eats Cofunds for BREAKFAST
(Journos reading this, any part of it is attributable if you want it.) So before we get into this, I need to tell you that the lang cat has been doing a wee smidge of work here and there on matters pertaining to the acquisition (posh) so if that bothers you, stop reading now. If […]
Rates. How low can you go?
Cash accounts on platforms interest (ha!) me. Whilst no one really should be using a platform to be fully invested in cash in the long term it’s clearly an important facility to have. Strategic asset allocations often require a small cash holding, and most clients like the comfort blanket of knowing they can flee to […]
A (slightly resentful) welcome to Scalable Capital
So you go off on holiday, all happy because your new guide to direct platforms and robo-advice has launched. You come back, and some rotten sod has gone and launched while you were away and spoiled all your tables and that. The rotten sod in this case is Scalable Capital. To be fair, we’ve known […]
