The soon-to-be FCA boss Martin Wheatley says that he will be looking at things from the consumer not the industry point of view. Okay. No-one expects him to say the opposite in his first big interview with the FT.

But there is a bit of a danger in this. It is not so much that he should take the industry’s side, but if he doesn’t get the industry perspective correct in his thinking, then he won’t be able to see where things might go wrong in future.

In fact, here is the suggested case study – and it’s a douzy I’m afraid. It goes by the name of Keydata/SLS/Lifemark.

We currently have a legal mess. We obviously have advisers who believe they gave the correct advice on a product and recommended a firm that had implicitly passed muster with the FSA.

Advisers may well be found at fault for that advice and the Money Debate is no fan of viaticals based investments. But I ..read more

Someone is going to have to defend what might be called ordinary decent journalism in all this mess. Most journalists I have met have never hired a private investigator, hacked a phone or tapped a phone, nor indeed twisted the words or actions of a grieving family. Unfortunately in some places this has clearly been not far off standard practice.

Unfortunately tabloid style journalism at its worst has infected even the odd trade paper, and become quite pervasive in local rags too. I would argue such a sort of blinkered stance has even hastened the end of some titles as they alienated the population they were writing about.

All this is true and yet without good journalism, to give two recent examples, we wouldn’t have known about MPs’ expenses, mainly from crusading American born journalist Heather Brooke, and we wouldn’t know about the hacking scandal itself, mainly the work of the Guardian’s investigative journalist Nick Davies.  Much further back, in perhaps the ..read more

Looking at the sales figures for IFAs and multi-ties today from the FSA it is clear that advisers continue to take a huge share of product sales across a significant range. That is either a big vote of confidence suggesting rumours of IFAs’ demise are premature or an issue of great concern, given that at least some of it will disappear post 2012/13. But it would be handy if they divided the groups up more.

What I would really like to see in the next few years, is how this breaks down between restricted advisers and independents post RDR particularly if some of the big and currently ‘I’s go ‘R’.

Such a breakdown by the two main types of investment firms could tell us quite a bit about the reform.

Is you disrespectin’ other IFAs if you haven’t passed your exams on time and ask for a delay?

No. Didn’t think you’d think so. Ok a delay to the RDR would be annoying to everyone who has passed the darn thing. But would a delay be a matter of respect as Roderic Rennison seems to argue at an FA roadshow this week?

Here’s the quote: “I don’t agree with the RDR delay, it is unfair to those who have been preparing for the current deadline. It would be disrespectful for those that are gearing up. There has been so long to prepare that asking for another year is unnecessary.”

Are we talking about trying to get as many advisers over the line as possible or not? We’re not? Well the Money Debate is. And if there are worries about a last ditch big commission firesale then split the two issues.  

I would recommend you consider Roderic’s consultancy if you need help or advice on the change. I have heard his ..read more

When you look at the detail of what the Labour Party is now saying, it isn’t exactly agreeing with the Coalition on everything to do with austerity. But it feels like the debate has been shut down.

And just like the decision by former Opposition leader David Cameron to match Labour’s spending pledges once upon a time, I’m not sure who this benefits. Well, actually I do. It benefits the Labour Party’s future electability which is admittedly currently highly questionable.

But does it benefit the country when Opposition and Government mostly agree?

If we look at Europe, especially the periphery of Europe, are huge short term cuts really the solution rather than credible but much more long term ones and accompanying structural reforms? It ain’t working so far as even those sages at S&P have acknowledged in the latest downgrades. And if we look at the US, somehow by hook or crook and in the midst of some pretty ridiculous arguments, they appear to have applied the ..read more