There's been some weighty news this week which can feel quite hard to keep track of, so let's take some time to enjoy the story of the week: a man getting slapped in the face with an octopus by a seal.
The kayaker in New Zealand found himself thrust into the limelight after the video went viral, which seems the most productive use of social media for a while. But now that we've all been cheered up, it's time for the week in news.
1) Comrades, come rally
This week the Labour Party gathered in Liverpool for its conference to further its socialist agenda.
Among the policies announced this week was the idea that employees should be given the power to make decisions about their workplace pensions.
Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said decisions about workplace pensions should not be made exclusively at board level and that bosses should "embrace the expertise" that workers have.
Mr Corbyn also reiterated Labour's support for the triple lock on the state pension, which means the benefit is increased by the highest of inflation, wage growth or 2.5 per cent.
The Labour Party also proposed that any company in Britain with more than 250 workers should hand over 10 per cent of its equity to staff.
2) Mifid II? What's that?
It turns out not all rules are made to be broken, as Hargreaves Lansdown found out this week.
The FTSE 100 company confirmed it had unintentionally broken the Mifid II rules in March of this year.
The Mifid II rules, introduced at the start of this year, mean retail fund platforms are required to confirm the nationality and National Client Identifier (NCI) of clients who are not UK nationals.
If clients do not provide this information then their funds should not be invested but Hargreaves Lansdown did, accidentally, invest the capital in March in breach of the Mifid II rules.
During January and February the money was held in client accounts in cash and a spokesman for Hargreaves Lansdown said the broker has contacted clients and offered to reverse the deals it had carried out on their behalf in March.
In subsequent months, the spokesman for Hargreaves Lansdown said, the company reverted back to not investing on behalf of the clients who were still missing a legal entity identifier, as the Mifid II rule requires.
3) The next departure from platform Aegon
Richard Denning, the man tasked with developing Aegon’s platform, has quit to "have a break from corporate life", which might be how many advisers using the provider's platform are currently feeling.
Mr Denning was tasked with leading Aegon’s IT strategy and was responsible for customer services, IT and platform development.
Aegon platform users have been hit with extensive problems since the start of May.
Over the May Bank Holiday weekend more than 400,000 users of the Cofunds retail platform and £37bn of assets were moved across to the Aegon platform.
While one of Aegon's largest adviser clients said a lack of interaction with clients had made Mr Denning's departure "inevitable", others have highlighted replatforming exercises are "immensely complex" pointing out one person was not solely responsible for their success or failure.
4) Portafina's pensions pickle
This week it emerged the Financial Ombudsman Service (Fos) has received 128 complaints against advice firm Portafina, of which the overwhelming majority have been upheld.
The Fos said the majority of the claims related to advice on pension transfers but could not give a timeframe in which the advice was given.
Of the complaints it has received, the Fos has upheld 84 and 41 are still under investigation.
Last week (14 September) it emerged the ombudsman had ordered Portafina to pay compensation after giving unsuitable advice on a pension transfer to a client considered as an "insistent client".
In response, Portafina said it has changed its advice strategy, adding almost all the complaints related to specific funds which it no longer advises on.
5) Bend it like Beckham('s brother-in-law)
David Beckham's former brother-in-law was part of a company which used his links to the football superstar to scam nearly £1m from investors, a court heard this week.
Darren Flood, 39, who was married to Victoria Beckham's sister Louise Adams, was allegedly part of a boiler room fraud which tricked people into "worthless" investments.
The company focused on "high net worth clients" and discussed potential targets including former Chelsea footballer Joe Cole's father, it is alleged.
A jury at Kingston Crown Court was told staff "made great play on Darren Flood being David Beckham's brother-in-law" to win the trust of investors.
But Flood was accused by colleagues at the company, The Commodities Link, of not performing on any level other than to extract expenses, the court heard.
Victims were allegedly encouraged to buy "rare earth" substances, which are mainly used to make tech products, with the promise of big profits.
They invested more than £800,000 between April 2012 and August 2014 - but the materials had no resale value, prosecutor Stephen Shay said.
Flood and four others deny one count of fraud by false representation after claiming "rare earth elements were a suitable investment product".
damian.fantato@ft.com
