DB Pensions and why DB transfer flows will continue
Defined benefit (DB) pensions loom large over the UK wealth landscape, with huge assets and even bigger liabilities. Shortfalls (actual or potential) between assets and liabilities, and the choices of funds in managing them, make DB particularly challenging in terms of asset management, while DB transfers have become an important part of wealth industry […]
Read more...Future of ISAs – a tax shelter for high income earners?
In our last edition we looked at the narrowing of the ISA market, in particular the divergence of the Cash and Stocks & Shares markets. Cash ISAs sales have fallen sharply in terms of both the number of accounts and value. Stocks & Shares ISA sales on the other hand, have been largely flat […]
Read more...ISAs in 2018 – a market in decline?
The UK government recently released the Individual Savings Account (ISA) sales statistics for year ended April 2018 – with some concerning trends. Although £ volumes showed healthy growth, this is a narrowing (and highly segmented) market in terms of customers. For those unfamiliar with the UK market, an ISA is a tax-advantaged savings vehicle in […]
Read more...Consumers and Platforms – a new behavioural segmentation model
Our last Citylogue highlighted some key findings from NMG’s consumer research for the FCA’s Investment Platform Market Study – what factors are most important to consumers and how satisfied they are (pretty satisfied at present). The scale of our study – over 3,000 consumers of the top 20 UK platforms – also allowed us to […]
Read more...Key Consumer Findings From the Investment Platform Market Study
Platforms now dominate UK retail advised flows, and we discussed in this recent Citylogue the benefits for consumers and advisers. But are consumers actually satisfied? A study undertaken by NMG for the FCA’s Investment Platform Market Study shows the majority of platform investors are in fact satisfied with their experiences in choosing and using […]
Read more...Price vs value strategies in UK retail protection
The UK retail protection market is characterised by relatively low customer engagement, with most purchases driven by life-stage triggers such as marriage, property or childbirth, rather than concern about the risk of personal illness or death. With consumer perception of a strong social safety net in place in the form of the NHS and other […]
Read more...Platforms and retail market share: how high is high tide?
Platforms have gained a commanding share of retail advised assets. But how commanding and how far will it go? To understand that, it’s worth revisiting the platform value proposition – for investor and adviser. The UK is notable in having a strong platform segment focused on consumers, and another focused on advisers. The two are […]
Read more...Value-for-money in UK asset management: taking a deeper look
What to make of the FCA’s PS18/8 Asset Management Study Remedies released last week? It looks like a damp squib in the wake of the key findings of the Asset Management Market Study June 2017 final report, but the value-for-money assessment and related disclosure requirements represent a significant new undertaking – equally an opportunity […]
Read more...AE: 10 million reasons why you’d rather be an asset manager than shopowner
In around 10 days, the UK embarks on an experiment of grand proportions when minimum contribution rates for defined contribution (DC) pensions rise from 2% of salary to 8% over just 12 months. A major contribution of the auto-enrolment (AE) of workers has been to highlight the gaping hole in UK pensions coverage. At […]
Read more...UK equity release: returning to respectability
In Part 1 of our focus on equity release, we identified the core drivers of a growing equity release market – particularly the gap between the income needs of retirees and the yield potential of their non-housing assets. The potential for an income gap is clear from the gulf between pension and net property […]
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