There is an interesting split in the relevant stories for advisers. You can’t ignore what is going on in the Middle East, yet much of an adviser’s work will be providing reassurance and telling clients to focus on the long term. We will try and reflect that in this review.
This is a good consideration of what is happening with oil including full pipelines and storage leading to this explanation of why Middle East oilfield shutdowns threaten to keep prices high. The possible future price of a barrel of oil is $147.50.
Morningstar notes that UK mortgage interest rates are surging past 5%. However, this is, arguably a contrarian view on base rates from ING suggesting that base rates may not rise as much as some commentators think - Why the bar is high for the Bank of England to hike rates.
This is a useful blog from Duncan Lamont from Schroders with four points supported by graphs - the data which can help you keep a cool investing head in a crisis.
Consultancy Platforum research shows a shift in the nature of portfolios as Money Marketing reports.
As the consultancy’s latest UK Financial Advisers: Retirement Advice report shows advisers are increasingly turning to income solutions and guaranteed income products as the retirement landscape evolves.
The report also found 43% of advisers now recommend ‘natural income portfolios’ for clients in decumulation, almost double the 23% recorded in 2023.
FTAdviser looks at how ETFs are performing in the midst of the Middle East war in five graphs.
Interesting that an IFA trade is doing this. Not sure ETFs would have been such a focus even ten years’ ago.
Andrew Aldridge, partner and head of marketing at Deepbridge explains why renewables should now be considered a core asset class, rather than an alternative because of the income produced and its ability to offer inheritance tax planning capabilities. He writes in Professional Adviser.
A story in the FT (£) shows that 60 ESG funds from the likes of Blackrock, L&G and UBS have not sold out of BP and Shell despite the oil majors U-turning on many of their plans to embrace renewables.
This is a neat write up from law firm Latham & Watkins looking at the FCA’s recent work on vulnerable customers.
