SJP’s own assessment of whether its funds are providing value has not brought good news for the firm. Thirteen funds have failed its own value test while 75% of the total of 39 funds have fallen short on performance as New Model Adviser reports.
This is, to put it mildly, not great news for the firm given recent charging and regulatory ructions.
It has set out its stall to deliver on asset management with a strong in-house capability for choosing fund management partners. It has, at least, been transparent on the matter.
DB transfers have more than halved in 2023/24 according to the latest retirement income market study, as International Adviser reports.
Quoting the same report, Professional Pensions focuses on the rise in annuities with a near 40% jump on the previous year.
The FCA saw a protest outside its offices on the 26th September, as Money Marketing reports.
“The Rally for Better Financial Regulation” protest was organised by campaign group the Transparency Task Force. It will seek to highlight consumers’ concerns about “a lack of proactivity, transparency and accountability”.
The organisers called for reforms to help make the financial services sector and the FCA more accountable for their actions including through the introduction of a civilly actionable duty of care owed to consumers by authorised firms and individuals or the addition of a private right of action and the removal of unnecessary loopholes from the FCA’s Consumer Duty.
That would be quite a radical proposal and many in financial services might argue that the point of having the Financial Ombudsman Service is that recourse to the courts is much more of a last resort. Would the duty, suggested above, change this?
Ian McKenna is on the FTAdviser podcast warning that it is essential the protection industry works with the regulator as it seeks to reform the market, though he fears too strong an intervention such as occurred in the Netherlands and Australia. For those with a strong protection focus, it is clearly worth a listen.
Increasing the diversity of advisers would make the profession “more approachable” according to Scottish Widows retirement managing director, Emma Watkins.
This does seem incontestable in that many clients may like to be advised by someone who potentially shares at least some life experiences. But there are perhaps nuances. The profile of the industry is changing though perhaps not as rapidly as might have been expected. And plenty of astute IFAs have targeted niche markets, minorities and of course in the case of women the majority.
(Probably a few searching questions could be directed towards fund managers, of course.)
