For professional adviser use only
The Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMCR) has now been extended to all firms authorised by the Financial Services and Markets Act. Advice firms will need to remember that the new regime includes ongoing obligations, so it’s not something that can be forgotten about. From the December 2019 deadline, anyone holding a senior management function […]
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Lack of time for client meetings A survey of 133 financial advisers, carried out in September, by Square Mile Investment Consulting and Research, has revealed that advisers are continuing to spend most of their working week involved in administration and compliance tasks, to the detriment of client service. Although 39% of those surveyed stated that […]
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While the conversation around engaging millennials becomes ever louder, Tim Sargisson believes advisers should do better at marketing to their primary audience before trying their hand at a younger demographic As advisers we are frequently reminded about how we fail to engage with millennials. Seemingly blind to the fact that this group stand to inherit […]
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Research1 has highlighted the effect that poor systems integration is having on advice firms, not just by impacting profits, but also in terms of time and resources, and crucially affecting client service. The research surveyed over 100 advisers and asked questions about processes in three main areas: new business, annual reviews and fee reconciliations. Results […]
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At a recent Investment Association event, keynote speaker Charles Randell, Chairman of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) highlighted that one of the biggest expectations of the investment industry is allocating clients’ money wisely to investments that can add sustainable long-term value. Although this is not a revelation, and is something we all work hard to […]
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Everything we do at Sandringham is driven by the belief that time is extremely precious. We are totally focused on helping financial advisers to fully optimise their time in the achievement of business goals, best outcomes for their clients, personal fulfilment and the personal enjoyment that comes from being a professional financial adviser. We understand […]
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The deadline for implementation of the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SMCR) is now less than three months away. The regime was rolled out to banks and insurance companies three years ago and, after 9 December 2019, it will also apply to all 47,000 companies regulated by the FCA (Financial Conduct Authority). The FCA describes […]
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Since pensions freedoms were introduced in 2015, the financial advice world has seen an increase in the demand for advice, as well as an increase in demand for distribution from product providers. Over the last year, many product providers and advice businesses have moved to owning multiple parts of the value chain or have established […]
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Behavioural finance looks at how psychological influences and emotions can affect the decision-making process and identifies how investors are assumed to behave, based on traditional theories. Established financial theory focuses on risk and return, whereas behavioural finance suggests investors are overconfident with respect to gains and oversensitive to losses. An understanding of factors such as […]
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We have recently spoken about the amount of time advisers are spending on administrative and office management tasks, which is estimated to be as much as two hours per day. You could consider some straightforward solutions to reduce administration time: Challenge your processes Challenging your current processes and brainstorming with people from all areas of […]
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FCA figures suggest smaller advice firms are a good deal more profitable than their larger counterparts but, wonders Tim Sargisson, does this suggest not enough resource is allocated to risk management and oversight? Earlier this month, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) provided its latest analysis of the intermediary sector based on data from the Retail […]
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The recent survey from Nucleus showing that the number of advisers spending more than 40 per cent of their time on admin has tripled in a year should worry us all. Clients do not pay fees for advisers to deal with paperwork, so working two days out of five for free is not good business. […]
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