IT’S COME AND HAVE A GO: THE (LATE) SUMMER SPECIAL
Ah, summer holidays, what memories. School’s out, Alice Cooper’s screaming, the sun is shining, we might be stretching the point here – and it’s time to race down to the newsagent for a bumper edition of your favourite comic. The big debate was generally whether Dennis the Menace could take Desperate Dan (the office remains divided on this point) and which of the Bash Street Kids you could identify among your classmates (we skipped this one as it was only ever going to end badly).
Now, some of us gave up comics because we outgrew them, some because we had to and some not even then. But we all retain a warm affection for summer specials (and when we see what some of them are changing hands for online, wish we’d held on to more of them). Anyway, when it came to this year’s Guide to Direct Investing we thought we’d treat our hardworking (and terrifying) Chairman to a trip to the seaside.
COME AND HAVE A GO: THE (LATE) SUMMER SPECIAL is not just a trip down memory lane, it’s a lang cat away day.
We had a lot of fun putting the Guide together but that didn’t distract us from the serious business of market updates and pricing analysis to help investors as they navigate direct platform investing.
The usual pricing updates are present and correct and we take you through who’s moving and shaking respectively. The direct market has seen a few changes in the last year and we have all the headlines. Regulation is as regulation does, rinse, repeat. But some of it is driving change for direct investors and we look at two topics in a little more depth.
First, there is greater transparency around the transaction costs that you have probably always paid but didn’t know about specifically. This is a good thing, but transparency does not equal clarity. Having all the pieces of a jigsaw is no use if you don’t have a picture of what the finished article should look like.
Our second topic is the rise in apps that let you see your whole financial picture (savings, loans, investments etc.) in the one place and manage them. It’s about visibility and control rather than somewhere to physically put your money. Again, this has potential but there are issues to resolve first.
We feel we should make holidaying investors aware that there is no free game, catapult or lollipop included with the Guide. It is, however, packed with heatmaps, vaguely disturbing cat pictures and a squirrel joke which explains why the Financial Services Compensation Scheme will no longer take our calls.
It’s all there for the downloading. Or, if we’re being strictly accurate, it’s all here. Go on, you deserve a bit of late summer sun and fun.
CONSUMERS HAVE THEIR SAY ABOUT PLATFORMS
Weighing in at 91 pages and backed by a study of more than 3,000 platform users, the consumer research element of the FCA’s Investment Platforms Market Study (IPMS[1]) is a heavyweight. And while it doesn’t land many blows or produce anything particularly revelatory, NMG’s research provides a substantial body of qualitative and quantitative evidence around […]
IT’S GROUNDHOG DAY. AGAIN
Can you remember what you were doing on 17 July 2017? If you work in platform land[1] chances are you were thumbing through the FCA’s Investment Platforms Market Study Terms of Reference paper, or more likely, reading our blog on said paper. Fast forward 12 months, and here we are again. This time, it’s the […]
WE’RE HIRING AGAIN – the lang cat needs a proposition analyst, or maybe two
Hello. We’re the lang cat and we’re hiring again. You can’t stop a good thing when it’s on a roll. (Of course, this isn’t strictly accurate; a well-placed obstruction of sufficient size and density will do the job quite nicely. But that’s not important right now.) We’re expanding the research and analysis side of the […]
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. […]
Assess THIS: our thoughts on the FCA’s Asset Management Market Study paper PS18/08
Today is a significant day for asset management in the UK. The Asset Management Market Study has taken a big step towards its conclusion with the publication of the first set of final rules, addressing most of the main issues highlighted in the first report. The process started in Nov 2015 with the publication of […]
Assess THIS: our thoughts on the FCA’s Asset Management Market Study paper PS18/08
Today is a significant day for asset management in the UK. The Asset Management Market Study has taken a big step towards its conclusion with the publication of the first set of final rules, addressing most of the main issues highlighted in the first report. The process started in Nov 2015 with the publication of […]
JOB AD – WE NEED A CONSULTANT AND WE NEED ONE NOW
This is a job advertisement from the lang cat. Hello. We’re the lang cat and as well as a digital marketing manager we’re expanding the consulting side of our business, which in the main helps platforms, asset managers and larger adviser firms design better stuff and take it to market in a way that doesn’t […]
JOB AD – WE NEED A DIGITAL SWISS ARMY KNIFE
This is a job advert from the lang cat. Hello. We’re the lang cat and we’re on the hunt for someone who can help us: develop and run our digital marketing presence manage our mailing lists better manage some social media stuff (for clients too) keep us visible on search engines, which are things that […]
JOB AD – WE NEED A CONSULTANT AND WE NEED ONE NOW
This is a job advertisement from the lang cat. Hello. We’re the lang cat and as well as a digital marketing manager we’re expanding the consulting side of our business, which in the main helps platforms, asset managers and larger adviser firms design better stuff and take it to market in a way that doesn’t […]
