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To view an article in full, click on the word "more" at the end of the extract to go to Money Marketing's website |
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Paper Cuts - 20th December 2007
As an industry, we use a terrifying amount of paper. For as long as I have been involved in technology, the visionof the "paperless office" has been held out as a nirvana that might one day be achieved... |
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Assure Thing - 6th December 2007
In my opinion, Assureweb seriously needs to raise its game to compete with other portals. I have been increasingly concerned about delays to software being launched in partnership with Assureweb. In recent months,... |
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Reconciliation Nation - 22nd November 2007
Commission reconcilliation has historically been one of the most labour-intensive activities carried out bu adviser firms. It is boring, tedious, time-consuming but sadly essential. From a regulatory perspective, advisers have an obligation to account for... |
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Orcid Blooms - 8th November 2007
I was pleasantly surprised when talking recently with Keith Robinson, support director at Origen, who is very happy with the recent deployment of Quay Software's customer care desktop product in his organisation. The software has been rebadged as Orcid... |
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Incubation Period - 25th October 2007
Fidelity is an organisation which elicits mixed emotions from IFAs. Some see it as a highly innovative fund management group, but a significant number of advisers object to the fact that Fidelity actively promotes its products direct to consumers rather than... more |
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Medical Report - 11th October 2007
Doctors and their practice managers have long been the bane of many administrators' lives within IFAs and life companies. As anyone who has ever chased a medical report will know, the attitude of all but a handful of the medical profession towards our industry is... more |
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Smart Thinking - 27th September 2007
Smart devices, effectively phones that you can use to run your life, are going to be one of the major items that phone companies will be pushing in the run up to Christmas. The appearance of Apple CEO Steve Jobs to announce that O2 had won the UK... more |
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Top Up the Tool Box - 13th September 2007
For many years it has been accepted industry practice for life companies to provide specialist technical resources to advisers. There could now be serious implications, with the High Court ordering Scottish Equitable to compensate a client... more |
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Identity Parade - 30th August 2007
Identity theft is one of the fastest growing forms of crime. Most IFAs probably think of it as a risk that big financial institutions rather than advice firms need to address but advisers have a wealth of personal and financial information about clients... more |
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Get in Control for Re-reg - 16th August 2007
The ability of wrap providers to carry out platform to platform re-registration or, in many cases, the lack of it, has long been one of the most contentious issues in the market. There are now concerted efforts being made... more |
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| With profits wizards - 2nd August 2007
The FSA has made crystal clear the importance it places on consumers having access to ongoing advice on with-profits business. Although the title of the regulator's recent insurance sector briefing, quality of post sale communication in the life sector and availability... more |
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Life Systems - 19th July 2007
Now we have all had a couple of weeks to consider the content of the FSA discussion paper on the retail distribution review it must be time to think about what sort of systems might be needed to support the changes under discussion... more |
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| Generation Text - 5th July 2007
With the FSA now having shared its thinking on the future of distribution with the world, the industry can engage fully in the debate. At this point, I think it is important to ask who advice is designed to serve. The financial services industry as we know it emerged to meet the needs of the post-war baby boomers... more |
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Automatic Pilot - 21st June 2007
One of the perennial questions from life offices is why don't advisers submit more business electronically? This is a question I can answer i simply - it is because as an industry we do not make it easy enough for them. The mechanism for submitting applications electronically has existed for many years now... more |
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| Train of Thought - 7th June 2007
One of the most common mistakes I come across when talking to adviser firms about their technology installations is the failure to properly provide for the cost of training when planning their project...more |
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Generic Code - 24th May 2007
Which? and IFAs make unusual bedfellows. The fact that they have both condemned the ABI's proposals to the FSA on distribution has to be seen as further evidence of quite how much the trade body has lost the plot...more |
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| ABI's Act of War - 10th May 2007
I was gripped with a sense of deja vu when reading the ABI's draft response to the FSA distribution review. Twenty years ago, the direct-sales side of the life industry succeeded in persuading the Govern-ment to introduce regulation in a format that they believed would kill off what we came to know as independent advisers...more |
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Signature Tune - 26th April 2007
I believe that Royal Liver IFA market manager Andy Milburn has done the Association of British Insurers a favour by pointing out that its forthcoming guidelines on improved clarity for telephone and online applications for protection business need to identify a consistent approach to the issue of signatures. This message may... more |
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| We'll Meet Again - 12th April 2007
Spending more time with clients is probably the best way for advisers to increase their income. The problem is time is a scarce resource and travelling to meetings can take as much time as the meetings themselves. Having the client come to the adviser's office may delay when a meeting can take place and result in fewer meetings... more |
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Getting the Message on Re-registration - 29th March 2007
Re-registration of assets has been the engine of much of the growth of fund supermarkets and wrap accounts for several years. Conservatively, this has been the mechanism by which most platforms have attracted at least 50 per cent of their current assets... more |
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| Share-Brained Scheme - 15th March 2007
March is one of the busiest times of the year in our industry with the end of the financial year approaching. In my organisation, it is the time of year that we conduct one of the biggest e-Excellence studies and certainly one of the most significant - our analysis on wrap... more |
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Power Tools - 1st March 2007
Over the last month, there has been an intense debate in Money Marketing concerning the correct approach to asset allocation. Much of the discussion has focused on the correct interpretation of Brinson, Hood and Beebower's seminal 1986 work on the subject, ... more |
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| Adept Adaptations - 15th February 2007
In recent weeks, we have seen an excellent example of common sense break out in the market. I refer to the announcement that Friends Provident and Standard Life are to exchange valuation information concerning their legacy products with their respective platforms. My sources tell me at least two more providers... more |
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Protection Prize - 1st February 2007
Protection continues to be one of the fastest-growing areas of the life and pension market and one where e-commerce is having the greatest impact. The process for underwriting protection business becomes ever more automated but menu-based products do not lend themselves easily to comparative quotations... more |
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| Mobile Mission - 18th January 2007
The spectre of the Law Commission and the prospect of non-repudiation conditions are casting an increasingly long shadow over the protection marketplace. Serious questions are being asked about the depth of information that may be needed to underwrite such business... more |
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The Wrap Race - 4th January 2007
A new year brings new opportunities and it is time for some predictions. One I am confident about making is that 2007 is the year when wrap could become a mainstream part of financial planning. There is far broader recognition of the potential of such products and services... more |
