Resisting the advances of networks
Aside from the juggernaut that is St James’s Place in terms of growth of assets, partner numbers and, it seems, share price a few other networks have called for attention in the past few months.
IFA
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Advisers reveal uncertainty over future prospects
Over 40% of adviser firms believe they will have shut down, merged with a competitor or been acquired in three years according to a survey conducted by Action Consulting.
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Shape acquisition expands AFH
AFH has acquired Shape Financial, a Somerset-based financial adviser with a £1.5m turnover, as it looks to boost its presence in the south west.
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Bellpenny completes eighth acquisition
Bellpenny has completed its largest acquisition to date with the purchase of The Country Partnership, a financial planning firm with around £200m under management putting itself on course to achieve its year-end target of £1bn under management ahead of schedule.
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Advisers reveal favoured post-RDR fee structures
The majority of advisers have started charging clients a percentage of the investment amount as they seek to establish the best fee models post-RDR.
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a cut out and keep guide
Structured products have had a bad reputation since the financial crisis saw a great deal of people lose money in plans they thought were 'guaranteed'. For downside protection they can still be worth looking at though, as long as you are aware the devil is in the detail.
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Communication key to client-IFA relationship
The majority of IFAs are averse to outsourcing client communication and 84% state that this is an area in which they wish to maintain control.
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IFA acquires smaller firms in RDR fallout
IFA Bradbury Hamilton has made two acquisitions adding £35m to its assets under advisement and a further 450 clients to its books.
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Chase de Vere completes exciting rebrand
AWD Chase de Vere has dropped the AWD as part of the IFA’s “exciting” rebrand.
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advisers advice not premium
Many advisers do not believe that wealth management is a premium service and feel that it needs to be more competitive within the financial services sector, according to a survey conducted by Pershing.
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war of words between adviser directory
Unbiased.co.uk has hit back at mylocaladviser.co.uk after the competitor suggested Unbiased’s membership costs had surged by 69%, saying the latter’s new adviser benchmarking tool is purely a mechanism for updating data sold to asset managers.
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advisers torn between client demand hedge funds
Over one-third of investors feel advisers are not sufficiently clued up on Ucits hedge funds despite research showing that blindly allocating to the vehicles for diversification purposes can be damaging to portfolios.
