Financial Adviser's top story this week was the revelation that red flag warnings from providers when it comes to spotting potential fraudulent pension transfers have augmented delays.
In some cases, self-invested personal pension providers and advisers have cited delays of months, not weeks, in getting their clients' transfers processed, even where the case is straightforward.
While all commentators agreed a measure of checks and deep due diligence was necessary to protect clients from potential detriment, some of the checks and balances being put into place by providers was going over and above, leading to unacceptable delays.
Stuart Gibbs, chartered financial planner for Prydis, said the issue was especially prominent with Sipp to small, self-administered scheme transfers.
Following the Financial Conduct Authority's wide-ranging publication on its review of the advice market, the need for better protection for consumers against scams, as well as pressing home the importance of advice to consumers reluctant to pay for financial advice, hit home.
While the regulator rightly found that there has been an increase in the number of advice firms year on year, the regulator also discovered even if advice cost as little as £10, many people did not see there would be a benefit to them in paying for it.
Elsewhere in Financial Adviser, reporter Chloe Cheung reported on a slow return to 90 per cent loan-to-value mortgages, with the prospect of further higher LTV products coming back onto the market in the next few months.
Lenders who tightened their criteria as the economic situation deepened due to Covid-19 have started to loosen up their product ranges.
Investors were also urged to make sure their portfolios were properly diversified, now the UK's dividends have all but dried up over the past year, and consider going further afield to find pockets of growth.
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Simoney Kyriakou
