Latest - REGULATION / COMPLIANCE

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  Digital suitability reports included in software beta launch

  19 February 2019

  Advicefront is launching a beta version of the next module of its software aimed at streamlining the advice process, which will include a digitally-enabled suitability report. The software provider is seeking paraplanner beta testers. Advicefront founder and CEO José Supico (pictured) says the firm is looking to help advice firms blend digital with the...

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  What might we expect of the Regulator’s RDR and FAMR Review?

  12 February 2019

  While not having a crystal ball, ATEB Consulting’s Steve Bailey looks at FCA commentary to date and makes some comments and predictions. Initially due to be undertaken in 2017, the FCA’s review of the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) will now be done this year (2019) and will coincide with a review of the, not...

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  Tom McPhail to be founding chair of STAR Steering Group

  12 February 2019

  Tom McPhail, head of Policy at Hargreaves Lansdown, has been announced as the founding chair of the Steering Group for STAR, a venture established to help bring the industry together to address the inconsistencies in transfer times for pensions and investments. The announcement was made at an ABI-hosted seminar attended by over 90 industry representatives...

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  New fund management due diligence service launched

  11 February 2019

  A new discretionary fund management due diligence service has been launched to help adviser firms cut down the time they spend on researching investment services.  The DD|hub, which is free to use, provides adviser firms with instant online access to due diligence responses from DFMs, cutting out the delays and inefficiencies of traditional questionnaires....

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  Regulatory consultations are interesting in a number of ways

  11 February 2019

  …at least they are to geeks like me, says Gareth James, head of technical resources at AJ Bell Part of my thought process when considering consultations and the questions raised is always, what questions should the regulator have asked, and why didn’t they? Questions might be excluded for reasons as innocent as keeping the...

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  Need to demonstrate investment pathways for pension drawdown in suitability reports

  10 February 2019

  Thesis Asset Management has flagged the FCA’s focus on pension drawdown investment pathways and warned that too many investment solutions used in accumulation are routinely being used in the decumulation phase.  Following the FCA’s recently published CP19/5 Consultation Paper on Retirement Outcomes Review, Thesis Asset Management has welcomed the idea of ‘investment pathways’ as...

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  Cathi Harrison – 3 top compliance tips for paraplanners in 2019

  1 February 2019

  We asked Cathi Harrison, managing director at Para-Sols and Apricity Compliance, to give us her three top tips for paraplanners from a compliance perspective. Cathi says: 1. Get your head around charges disclosure – as best as you can! Mifid II has caused all manner of bother, with very complex requirements that, for the...

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  FCA Retirement Review pinpoints remedies for key consumer issues

  31 January 2019

  Four years on from the pension freedoms, the FCA has published its Retirement Outcomes Review policy statement, introducing a set of remedies designed to protect consumers and help them make better choices before accessing their pension savings and throughout their retirement. The rules, which will be implemented by 1 November, include changes to ‘wake-up’...

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