Your IndustryNov 24 2017

Budget details and top advisers: week in news

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Budget details and top advisers: week in news

Those of you hoping for an early Christmas present from the chancellor this week will have been disappointed.

But for those of you who missed this week's - ahem - excitement, or those who want to relive it, here is the week in news.

1) Hammond's sack of presents

The main beneficiary of this week's Budget was probably Philip Hammond himself, who continues to linger on as chancellor for another day (or week, or month).

But beyond this Mr Hammond's main focus was housing, as he tried to prove his party has something to offer the young and maybe to distract from the disappointing growth forecasts.

Mr Hammond said over the next five years £44bn will be committed to help the housing market and by the mid-2020s there should be 300,000 homes being built every year - the highest level since the 1970s.

He also scrapped stamp duty for first-time buyers on properties worth up to £300,000 and up to that amount on homes valued up to £500,000.

Mr Hammond also doubled the enterprise investment scheme limit, pledged to crack down even more on tax evasion and avoidance, raised the basic rate income tax threshold to £11,850 and brought forward the uplifting of business rates by the consumer prices index, rather than the retail prices index, by two years to save business £2.3bn.

But as is often the way with Budgets, some of the proposals fell apart on closer examination.

For example the Office for Budget Responsibility claimed the stamp duty cut for first-time buyers would actually increase house prices because sellers would demand a higher price for their homes, knowing there was no stamp duty to pay.

2) Top of the Pops

It is the time of year when Financial Adviser publishes its list of the biggest financial advice businesses in the country.

Two companies broke into the top 10 this year as St James's Place secured the top spot for a fourth year running.

The list ranks financial advice firms across the UK as indicated by gross sales of investment and pension products in the 12 months to 30 June 2017.

The only banks previously in the 2016 list - HSBC and Barclays - have been pushed out of the top 10, making room for two new entries.

These were In Partnership, formerly On-line Partnership, and Brooks Macdonald.

3) FCA ducks the issue

The Financial Conduct Authority went to Wales recently to address concerns surrounding defined benefit transfers from the British Steel Pension Scheme.

Christopher Woolard, the FCA’s director of strategy and competition, recently revealed the regulator would be visiting the area to remind them of their responsibilities following concerns about the number of transfers being recommended.

But Steve Carlson, a chartered financial planner at Cardiff-based Carlson Wealth Management, who attended one of the two FCA seminars, said the British Steel scheme was only mentioned "very briefly".

He said the FCA refused to answer questions that were specifically about the British Steel scheme.

Around 130,000 steelworkers will have to choose to move their DB pension to a new plan being created, BSPS II, or stay in the current fund, which will be moved to the Pension Protection Fund.

More than 7,000 scheme members requested a transfer value quotation between April and September this year, with more than 700 requests totalling more than £200m being concluded or processed.

4) Not worth the paper it isn't written on

Nearly two thirds of advisers on online directory Unbiased may be misleading the public with false claims about their credentials, consumer watchdog Which found this week.

An investigation by the consumer rights organisation into 43 advice firms on Unbiased found 27 of them - or 63 per cent - claimed to employ certified financial planners but did not have a single adviser with the qualification from the Chartered Institute of Securities and Investment.

Which also found seven out of 24 firms falsely claimed to be accredited by the Society of Later Life Advisers and 14 out of 72 claimed to have advisers with chartered financial planner status despite not employing anyone with this credential.

Which did similar research last year and found nearly identical issues with the way advice firms were recording their qualifications.

Never mind qualifications. Clearly many advisers school reports must have read "Could do better."

5) Millionaire's Row

We've all got Premium Bonds stashed in our sock draws or lost somewhere among other paperwork, but rather than wait for that illusive jackpot National Savings & Investments is offering a financial advice firm a more sure fire way of making the big time.

This week it launched a tender process to find a financial advice firm willing to provide its services to the winners of the two monthly £1m Premium Bond jackpots.

NS&I offers financial advice to each winner of the £1m Premium Bond jackpot but it is up to each individual winner to decide whether or not to accept the service.

The existing contract to provide this service was awarded to Matrix Capital in 2014 following an open tender competition but this contract ends on 31 March 2018.

damian.fantato@ft.com