I know some readers will have stayed up all night trying to drown their sorrows, while others will have been staying up to watch the election, but perhaps we can all stay awake long enough to read the week in news.
1) 'Goldbellamy' eyes world domination
What has St James’ Place chief executive David Bellamy been planning, tucked away in his hollowed out volcano in, erm, Cheltenham? Perhaps we should send Bond in to find out.
While instead of using spacecraft to provoke a war between the Soviet Union and the United States, SJP has a slightly more prosaic ambition: expanding into a number of international markets -aka 'world domination'.
The FTSE 100 company has said it plans to build a “multi-billion” business around the globe.
It already has a presence in Asia and is looking at other markets – maybe the Middle East.
2) Stop! In the name of TVAs
Two advice firms found themselves on the wrong end of the Financial Conduct Authority’s work on pension transfers this week.
One was Welsh IFA firm Strategic Wealth UK, which is subject to a review carried out by an independent skilled person.
It was told by the regulator to immediately stop all pension-related business while Intelligent Pensions agreed to temporarily suspend offering advice and arranging defined benefit transfers.
No further information has been published on why this action has been taken but figures acquired by FTAdviser in April showed there were 54 advice firms voluntarily restricted from carrying out pension transfers.
This year alone the regulator has entered into such an agreement with 16 firms.
3) Pension half empty
Here’s some cheering news for those smug people with defined benefit pensions: more than half of the UK’s DB schemes are now cashflow negative, according to Mercer.
Cashflow negative schemes lack sufficient income from investments and contributions to pay member pensions, so typically need to sell assets to meet their liabilities.
Consequently, they are more vulnerable to market corrections since they may be forced to disinvest during a period of market stress.
Mercer's poll of 1,241 institutional investors across 13 countries revealed 85 per cent of the remainder of defined benefit pension pots expect to be cashflow negative by 2027.
4) Charging charges
Advisers have been warned they could find themselves on the wrong end of regulatory action if they become too reliant on facilitated payments.
Data published by the Financial Conduct Authority on 25 May showed 80 per cent of payments to advisers were facilitated by a provider or platform.
But some in the industry have suggested this method of payment could be interpreted as being in some way contingent on the transaction going ahead, creating a conflict of interest.
One area of particular concern for contingent charging is defined benefit transfers.
5) In other news…
What else has happened this week? There must be something…
Oh yes, that’s right: the Conservative Party somehow contrived to lose its majority in the House of Commons and Labour was unable to win a majority meaning, well…that’s anyone’s guess.
As far as the markets are concerned, the pound was taking the strain and markets were repricing following the result.
From a regulatory point of view, there is now uncertainty surrounding the Financial Advice Market Review and the pensions dashboard after the minister responsible for them lost his seat.
Meanwhile the consequences for taxes and pensions are unclear.
damian.fantato@ft.com
