by Richard Bradley | 19 July 2019 | UK Financial Advisers, UK Fund Distribution
Pre-RDR, much of the ‘power’ in the market was held by asset managers: they charged the fees and remunerated advisers/platforms via rebates/commission. The RDR flipped this on its head. Now it is the advisers who are firmly in control, setting fees and choosing – or...
by Richard Bradley | 21 June 2019 | Europe
We’re seeing a slow rise in the use of clean share classes across Europe, challenging the existing business models of many platforms. And, unfortunately, we can’t look to the UK for a hint of where we’ll end up. While clean share classes are more or less ubiquitous in...
by Richard Bradley | 31 May 2019 | Europe
If the role of the EU’s Financial Services Action Plan is to harmonise financial services across Europe, then MiFID II is, so far, hardly a roaring success. National interpretations of the rules differ, there are carve outs for segments of the industry and lobbyists...
by Richard Bradley | 24 May 2019 | UK Financial Advisers
The debate around how to generate sustainable retirement income has continued to rage this week. Pre-pension freedoms, this problem hardly existed: the requirement of a base level of guaranteed income before accessing flexible drawdown effectively excluded all but the...
by Richard Bradley | 03 May 2019 | UK Financial Advisers
I started a pension transfer at lunchtime last Wednesday. It took me a total of seven minutes to log into AJ Bell Youinvest and ask (all online) to transfer an Aviva workplace pension into my SIPP. I had an immediate email confirming my request; Aviva had closed my...