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The Morning Briefing: Duty of care and women building advice firms

Good morning and welcome to your Morning Briefing for Thursday 18 August 2022. To get this in your inbox every morning click here.


Duty of care 

A member of the Transparency Task Force (TTF) has called for the introduction of a duty of care in the financial services industry.

Mark Bishop, who is the leader of the Woodford Campaign at the TTF, was speaking yesterday (17 August) at a press conference following the Panorama programme about Blackmore Bond.

The programme was broadcast yesterday evening on the BBC.


Women building advice firms in their 40s

Statistically, women are less likely than men to start a business, but the number of female-owned small businesses is growing faster than those owned by men.

The number of female-owned SMEs has risen by 59% over the past four years compared to a 51% rise in male-owned SMEs, according to business insurance broker Simply Business.

Anecdotally, financial advisers are noticing a trend of women in their 40s setting up their own advice firm. What makes this stage of a woman’s life and career conducive to starting a business?



Quote Of The Day

It is clear the elevated inflationary environment will favour a very different set of assets than those that generated strong returns in the period of low rates and low inflation witnessed over the last decade.

– Steve Windsor, principal and co-founder of Atrato Group, suggests looking beyond traditional asset allocation for long-lasting inflation-linked returns



Stat Attack

Aviva’s Working Lives Report 2022: The Big Squeeze has found four out of five employers think it is important that a workplace pension fund is invested responsibly.

80%

Of employers think it is important that a workplace pension fund is invested responsibly

65%

It compares to 65% of employees

19%

Of employees said responsible investment is important but only as long as it does not impact the performance of their funds

55%

However, over half of employees do not know if their workplace pension fund is invested responsibly

34%

Of employers think it is essential for the default pension fund to be invested responsibly

46%

Just under half think it is important, but not essential

Source: Aviva



In Other News

NS&I delivered £1.3bn of net financing to the Government in the first quarter of tax year 2022-23.

The figure is part of NS&I’s latest unaudited quarterly results for the first quarter (April-June 2022).

The March 2022 spring statement set NS&I’s net financing target for 2022-23 at £6bn (+/- £3bn).

NS&I Chief Executive, Ian Ackerley, said: “As we moved into Q2, we made a series of interest rate changes across our products, including the rate that we apply to Premium Bonds.

“This has ensured our products remain competitive in an ever changing savings market, and that we continue to successfully deliver finance for the government.”



From Elsewhere

City of London regulators to face shake-up under Liz Truss (Financial Times)

Two-thirds of UK families could be in fuel poverty by January, research finds (The Guardian)

Inflation surge threatens Truss’s tax cut plans, says IFS (The Telegraph)



Did You See?

Whenever I have a catch up, a chat or a meeting with an advisory firm, I always ask the same question: “How’s business?”

And over the last six to nine months I’ve been met with the same response from all the small/medium sized IFA businesses: “Carla, we’re so busy! We’re absolutely snowed under with new client work. The leads keep coming and we’re not really doing much to try and attract these clients.”

Then earlier this month I was having a conversation with one of my contacts from the provider world, and we we’re talking about advisory firms. And the same thing came up from them: “All the firms we talk to are saying they’re so busy!”

Carla Langley, former head of proposition at threesixty services and founder at Langley Consultancy Services, writes for Money Marketing.

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