Hello. The hills are alive, with the sound of regulation and policy. Or something like that.
Maybe folk watch the leaves falling off the trees and it reminds them of their own mortality and they figure we should be talking about stuff that makes us that makes us feel like we’re dead. KIDDING (mostly). Obviously, it’s somewhat a function of a Budget that still seems so far off. All I am going to say is there’s a lot of it below.
If I’m quite honest, there is a bit of a dull man inside me that has a certain appreciation for dull things (I was once banned from talking about pint glasses on one of my pal’s birthdays because what was “initially quite interesting” became “I just can’t take it anymore.”). I think there’s a level of majesty in unique and unthreatening dullness and I believe that if more people had one or more uniquely dull interest, then the world would be a better and more fulfilling place.
There was an English man who went vial in China and earned the moniker ‘Old Dry Keith’ because he made otherwise pretty mundane British fare such as ham and tomato sandwiches, scrambled eggs on toast, egg and soldiers etc. This caused widespread fascination which took on a philosophical, almost messianic bent. Apparently Chinese supermarkets began to have ‘dry sections’ at the height of his popularity.
What am I on about? Regulation and policy, local government, DIY shops, when done right, could possess comforting staleness to them. Beige with a hug. Bureaucracy doesn’t have to be needless, maybe it can stand out the way when times are right (specific innovation, duplication, etc) and give you a reassuring “do you think that’s wise” when it matters. A good romantic dinner will still need someone to wash the dishes.
The long of the short of it, I think we should embrace the dullness of regulation and of ourselves. There are plenty of avenues to make it engaging, eliminate unnecessary dullness (which is our area of expertise), but sometimes a ham and tomato sandwich is just what you need.
The news:
LANG CAT & CLIENT MENTIONS
Advisers must improve confidence with power of attorney – FTAdviser
Our regulatory guru Alison (who has a knack for eliminating all unnecessary dullness when it comes to public affairs) is quoted in this write-up talking about the shift from DB to DC pensions.
Source: FT Adviser
Platform innovation: Terry Huddart on 7IM’s Online Reporting
Terry on a fundamental upgrade to the platform’s client area, with a hat tip for fellow lang cat Mark Locke.
Source: Professional Adviser
Budget speculation ‘spooking’ clients into irreversible action
A preview of some of the findings from our upcoming Meaning of Value report with Royal London.
Source: Money Marketing
NatWest Cushon: Private market conversation must now move to commitment
Provider says investment in productive assets could be “transformative” for the economy and for savers’ long-term wealth.
Source: Professional Pensions
Nucleus’ Regan gets promoted to newly created deputy CEO role – FTAdviser
Regan is expected to retain his current responsibilities as chief commercial officer.
Source: FT Adviser
Pension transfer times speed up again ahead of Autumn Budget – IFA Magazine
Pension transfer times have been getting steadily faster throughout 2025, according to the latest Origo Transfer Index data.
Source: IFA Magazine
The True Value of Financial Advisers: Insights from Morningstar
Mark Sanderson talks to MM South Africa about advice and human connection.
Source: Money Marketing SA
IHT on pensions: A moment in time for the profession to shine
Policy change is both a risk and an opportunity, writes Andrew Zanelli. Here he explains why IHT on pensions allows advisers to demonstrate their expertise and shares what advisers might consider doing now.
Source: Professional Adviser
Liontrust’s Mark Hawtin: Solving the meme stock valuation problem
Getting philosophical about valuations.
Source: Investment Week
Saturn raises $15mn for development of next gen AI tools
Saturn will put this to good use to expand its engineering, product, and partnerships teams. Our Advice Gap research get a mention.
Source: Money Marketing
Aberdeen adviser outflows halve as service improvements start to pay off
According to its Q3 2025 trading update, the firm’s adviser channel recorded net outflows of £500m, down 50% from the £1bn recorded a year earlier.
Source: Professional Adviser
ADVISERS
Greg Moss: ‘FIRE isn’t anti-advice’
Retirement in your twenties, good lord.
Source: Professional Adviser
PLATFORMS
Quilter sees 61% jump in IFA inflows during third £2bn quarter
That seems like, y’know, pretty good.
Source: Professional Adviser
INVESTING AND WEALTH MANAGERS
BlackRock brings Bitcoin exposure to UK retail investors
Can’t see this going wrong.
Source: Money Marketing
Rethink ‘terrifying’ warnings over buying shares, says Lord Mayor
People find it “terrifying” to invest in the stock market because of warnings from companies about the riskiness of shares, the City of London Lord Mayor has said, calling on regulators to ease consumer protection rules. I think removing consumer protections and trying to shove people off the cliff without knowing how their parachute works may not actually be that advisable. Dullness saves lives in other words. He does suggest consumers should also be warned the value of their bank deposits could be eroded by inflation. This is more helpful, a beige hug.
Source: FT
REGULATION & POLICY
Firms must evidence outcomes in next step of consumer duty, says FCA – FT Adviser
FCA hopes to evolve and simplify aspects of the regulation around Consumer Duty.
Source: FT Adviser
More than 40 MPs back wealth tax early day motion
Including Diane Abbott, John McDonnell and Clive Lewis.
Source: Professional Adviser
Behind the Headlines: Understanding the FCA fine process
A look at how the FCA moves.
Source Money Marketing
CGT penalty cases double as HMRC tightens enforcement
As FSL tax reporting analyst Alex Ranahan says: “It is astonishing that only 350 taxpayers failed to notify HMRC of CGT liability last year.”
Source: Money Marketing
What if financial literacy could boost GDP?
Interesting. Clearly hard to prove definitively, which the article acknowledges, but no doubt food for thought. Teach ’em dull while they’re young.
Source: FT
IHT tax take up £100m to £4.4bn in six months to September
John Rawles liked that.
Source: Professional Adviser
AI
AI could make marketing three times more efficient – so why isn’t it?
A well-articulated piece that gets to the route of the issue of the way some people are (mis)using AI in content creation.
Source: Money Marketing
PENSIONS & RETIREMENT
Weekend Essay: Why – at 37 – I’m worried about my future
MM’s Dan Cooper gets honest about retirement saving. Interesting reflections on an anxiety that will be affecting many.
Source: Money Marketing
Millions more could benefit as govt moves forward with CDC expansion – FTAdviser
There’s hopes that allowing multiple employers to pool pensions into larger funds will help improve private sector pensions, but some warn it will take significant industry adoption and co-operation.
Source: FT Adviser
Pension sector joins forces to fund regional investment drive
The group, known as the Sterling 20, was launched at the government’s first regional investment summit in Birmingham as part of efforts to drive growth in every part of the UK.
Source: Money Marketing
TRADE & ECONOMY
Rachel Reeves targets tax partnerships in crackdown on wealthy Britons
Tax Policy Associates has crunched the number on this one and reveal “around 0.1 % of taxpayers receive 46% of all partnership income, and 98% of the tax raised would come from the highest earning 10% of taxpayers… Taxing people differently just because of their choice of legal vehicle is irrational – and there’s certainly a principled justification for equalising the position.”
Source: FT; Tax Policy Associates
Been a suspiciously good news week for Reeves, must mean AI bubble is going to burst or something. Murphy’s Law and all that.
Source: The Guardian
CRAZY CAT STORIES
‘My cats won’t eat their food unless I do one bizarre thing to them first’ – The Mirror
It’s pick them up and shake them. NEWS.
Source The Mirror
OUTSIDE THE TRADE
Why Penguin bars can no longer be described as ‘chocolate’
The answer is they no longer contain enough cocoa, in other words, chocolate. Same also applies to Club, who may have to rethink their jingle. “If you don’t like an awful lot of chocolate on your biscuit, join our Club”, doesn’t have the same ring to it.
Source: The Times
Terry Ball: The snail farmer, his mafia friends, and a £20m vendetta against the taxman
“It is a drizzly October afternoon and I am sitting in a rural Lancashire pub drinking pints of Moretti with London’s leading snail farmer and a convicted member of the Naples mafia.” Fair dos.
Source: London Centric
Why Are LLMs Fixated On the Number 7? – by Ian Leslie
Fascinating and possibly terrifying look at how LLMs not only imitate but amplify human biases and what it has to do with the number 7.
Source: Ian Leslie Substack
Sumo wrestling at the Royal Albert Hall – picture essay | Sumo wrestling | The Guardian
Loved absolutely everything I have seen of the Sumo wrestling in London – except the Daily Mail making things weird by taking about their wives like football ‘wags’.
Source: The Guardian
Well, I have heard investing in a good chair and making sure there’s some green plants in view improves a lot of people’s at home working.
Source: The Guardian
Sean McKinven is PR account executive at the lang cat
