Big Bristol beasts bring the beat back – Hargreaves Lansdown unveils its pricing
So this is an unusual blog for us. I’m very conscious that quite a lot of real people, as opposed to financial industry apparatchiks, are going to read this given the nature of the subject. I’m afraid I’m going to have to be a bore and outline a couple of things up front. First, we’re […]
Happyish New Year – ATS hikes its charges
Well, here we are on the last day of 2013 and I’m writing about platform pricing. Plus ca change, and all that. Our subject today – and I’ll be brief – is Alliance Trust Savings (disclosure: ATS is a client of the lang cat), which has hiked its price for both advised and direct customers. […]
The lang cat’s albums of 2013
So for no other reason than I can, let’s leave all that financial services crap aside for a bit and concentrate on the really important stuff – what music was on heavy rotation on the lang cat’s patented Tune-O-Matic Stereogram this year. I appreciate this is massively self-indulgent, more so than usual even, but there’s […]
PS13/1 – calling all advisers
It’s been a week since we launched our first ever white/yellow and grey paper, It’s all about you: Tackling your PS13/1 due diligence requirements’ and it’s fair to say that we’ve been bowled over by the response. There’s been a lot of tweeting and some press activity which is great but the thing that really […]
It’s all about you…and PS13/1
Mention a song title and a tune or lyrics will instantly spring to your mind. For you, it’s the most natural thing in the world. But perception differs. The song I think of might be quite different to the one you think of. Such is the nature of consciousness. You can’t fight it. The lang […]
Architaxa takes it up a notch and a surprising admission
Part of being independent is having the freedom to say what you think, even when it’s not popular or doesn’t do you very much good. This normally translates to having a pop at stuck-in-the-past lifecos if you’re me, as the long and growing list of folk who would rather have endless Miley Cyrus videos beamed […]
Whiskers on kittens
Having seen out my first week in my new home at the lang cat I decided to take some time to reflect upon the experience to date. That and the fact that I was locked out of the office meant that there wasn’t much else to be getting on with for a while. Much has […]
The communications gap
The other day I came across a quotation by Steve Jobs which rang a chord with me. He said: Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains. […]
Tiers for fears – Standard Life comes out of the shadows
Note:Hidden craftily throughout this blog are song titles by Tears for Fears. Anyone who gets them all wins a free copy of the lang cat Guide to Platform Pricing, along with regular updates for stuff like this. Enter via the comments form below. Standard Life is the last platform to reveal its post-RDR charging structure. […]
Mr Blonde and the art of platform pricing Cofunds wields the razor
As a business which analyses platform pricing, amongst other things, we do have a rich and varied life, we spend a fair bit of time pressuring platforms who have not adequately described what it is they do and why it’s worth what they charge. It’s those platforms which feel the greatest price pressure and which […]
