FA's week in words (8 April)

It was a week for announcements as the government unveiled its Finance Bill as well as changes to the pension system.

Matthew Rich, IFA for Bath-based Alan Seward Financial Services, got excited about the Finance Bill particularly changes to tax reliefs, he said: "The enterprise investment scheme is the most exciting thing in the Finance Bill. We have already had inquiries from people about EIS in the last few days, which we normally would not get. Encouraging small companies will help boost the economy, while investors will benefit from attractive tax breaks."

The government tried scoring more pr points with the launch of proposals for a flat-rate state pension, Jason Witcombe, director of London-based Evolve Financial Planning, said: "Simplification of the pensions systems has got to be a good thing, as long as nobody is penalised by the changes.

"If younger people realise now that they may only get £140 a week then that should also encourage them to take responsibility to save more because that really is not enough to live off."

The FSA was also busy making changes as it rebranded the Consumer Financial Education Body into the Money Advice Service. Robert Forbes, partner for London-based adviser Plutus Wealth Management, said: "In light of the banks not doing a good job, this new service is a good thing for the mass market and for people who don’t have access to independent financial advice or can’t afford it.

"I would rather people have this advice than not at all."

It was also revealed that the regulator has been working with the Isle of Man to help it implement its own version of the retail distribution review.

Sean Flanagan, senior manager for the Financial Supervision Commission : "The RDR is a UK initiative. It does not necessarily mean that we will follow it blindly. I would not want a situation where we will adopt it wholesale. We are not part of the UK and a lot will be driven by product development. You could end up with an RDR-compliant product for the UK mainland, but for the rest it is international. We would not want to prejudice the industry by just going down one route."

The need for changes was underlined by Keith Iles, director for national IFA firm JHC Partnership, who responding to an HML savings gap report, said: "It is frighteningly inevitable that in some areas people will struggle to pay for household expenses. This is such an expensive country to live in, and fuel prices are set to increase."

His comments came amid concerns about the attitude to risk of cautious investors. Mark Loydall, director of Leicestershire-based IFA Cambourne Financial Planning Limited, said everybody is looking for a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and looking for a better yield than cash - given the low base rates - without taking any risk.