Learning the language of risk
I recently spent a couple of days with one of our PR clients, Paul Resnik from FinaMetrica. For those who don’t know FinaMetrica, they specialise in helping financial advisers and their clients understand investment risk tolerance through tools and educational material. One of the things we discussed was the language of risk and the fact […]
Does anyone know a decent plumber?
Paul Lewis has hit a raw nerve with many in the financial services industry. His piece about the transparency of charging here (and let’s remember he’s not having a pop at advisers specifically) has caused much consternation below the line and on his twitter timeline. I imagine Paul had never expected such a fierce reaction, […]
Gordon Bennett, that was poor
Confucius say, “Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure.” Having ignored these wise words; Natalie Bennett, leader of the Greens, has no doubt crawled into a hole to hide for a while and lick her wounds. This morning she was quizzed on the radio about some figures […]
THE LANG CAT WILL SOON NEED A BIGGER BASKET
Worldwide press release. 9 February 2015. The lang cat, (probably) Leith’s leading independent platform, pensions and investment consultancy is delighted “no, scrub that” tumescent to announce three new additions of financial services misfits to its burgeoning ranks. Terry Huddart will join the lang cat Market Intelligentsia team on 16 March. He will be tasked with […]
MAKING A DRAMA OUT OF A CRISIS
Those ‘OMG’ I’m going to get fired! moments in the life of a PR are actually quite rare. Thankfully. But they are moments that stay with you for ever. My biggest OMG moment came on 17 January 2008 when a relative non-story (I would say that, wouldn’t I?) around the temporary closure of a property […]
Transferring from Stocks and Shares to Cash
The not-so-NISA sting in the tail On the 1st of July, the whole world will tilt on its axis as swathes of Great British investors rush to top up their ISA allowance to a whopping £15,000. People are positively giddy with excitement at the freedom allowed them by Chancellor Osborne’s sweeping budget reforms. Not only […]
I can’t see the Woodford: The fees!
Here at the lang cat port authority we’ve been receiving quite a few questions on the much hyped forthcoming Woodford fund launch. What’s the cheapest platform on which investors can access the fund? Who’s secured superclean terms? If a provider doesn’t secure preferential terms, does it really matter? Our answer, rather disappointingly I imagine, is: […]
Friday fun: What if buying a tin of beans was like picking a direct platform?
Are you being served?
On the way up from London the other day, I was flicking through the in-flight magazine and there was a feature on a British based luxury phone maker. In the feature, the CEO was talking about his business being completely customer focused. He says his business is driven by his customer’s needs and desires. It’s […]
No victims, only participants in this price war
I’ve been banging on a bit on twitter recently about not being in favour of the Great Direct Platform Price War. However, thinking more about it, I’ve come to the conclusion that the actual price war is fine. It’s the narrative in the media that is the problem. For me, a narrow focus on price […]