Ashley Alder, chair of the Financial Conduct Authority, has been criticised for revealing the identity of an internal whistleblower to other staff members apparently by forwarding emails with the identity unredacted.
These subsequently reached the very upset whistleblower as the Financial Times reports.
This reads as rather complicated as the whistleblower left the employ of the regulator following an employment in 2021.
Yet it does read as something of a breach. Alder joined last year, though Georgina Halford-Hall, chief executive of WhistleblowersUK, has called on him to fall on sword.
Life insurance broker, LifeSearch, has announced a partnership with insurtech firm Bluezone in a bid to ensure those with chronic medical conditions can get protection cover as FTAdviser reports.
One in five pensioners will be “dragged” into paying higher or additional rate tax by the 2027/28 tax year due to the government’s frozen income tax thresholds as FTAdviser reports.
The data from HMRC, obtained via a freedom of information (FOI) request by Quilter, suggests 3.1 million will be paying the higher rate by tax year 2026 and 2027.
This is a little older (as in from the first week of August. but worth a look this week, I think.
The Sun reports that plans for simplified advice have been dropped and it looks like much stronger direction from providers could very well be the way ahead.
There is lots of detail in what is being proposed.
- Helping customers make better decisions about products they are already in. For example, it could involve suggesting to pension savers they should change their contribution or withdrawal rates, based on other people like them.
- Suggesting a list or range of products the customer could choose from, based on other people like them, to help narrow their choices down.
- Suggesting a single product for the customer based on other people like them, in the hope this would increase the chance the customer takes action.
It will focus on auto-enrolment but could extent to investment firms. This reads to your humble reviewer as a political briefing out of the Treasury and not the FCA which is interesting to say the least.
Simplified advice may head to the ‘too difficult’ pile or perhaps more accurately ‘back to the too difficult pile’. Indeed one might argue (again my opinion) that regulatory interventions around the Consumer Duty and ongoing advice and the requirements from the Retirement Advice Market Review actually make types of light touch advice difficult to deliver.
Anyway, the underlying aim is an almost age-old one of getting more people investing their money rather than leaving it sitting in cash.
Now, the Sun may be the original tabloid in the modern sense of the word, but I would not doubt its credentials when briefed on a story of this nature.
All that said, when the adviser trades approached the FCA for comment they got this flavour of response.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has told Professional Adviser that it intends to set out its plan for simplified advice later this year and would not confirm that changes are off the table, following the Sun report that suggested the measure could be dropped.
I wonder if senior people at the FCA were a little surprised to read the Sun story with their morning coffee.
Also enhanced guidance does not necessarily preclude simplified advice reforms as well.
PA calls simplified advice controversial. I am not so sure that the suggested approach to guidance with a single recommendation based on a customer being like some other customers isn't much more radical indeed.
