It was a little strange this week that the Government got through its beazer scheme to encourage employees to sign away employment rights in return for CGT free shares in their employers as the Guardian reported.

It looks like the concession which got the plans through Parliament was a promise that the employees concerned would have access to free, independent legal advice.

Not being a lawyer, I still wonder what this legal advice would be. Like this – the law says you can do this. (Well unless there is a constitutional clash with other laws, in which case employees will need to seek the advice of the Supreme Court.)

Surely it should have been financial advice. As in… Well it is quite difficult to put a value on those employment and redundancy rights, but they certainly have some value in protecting your income a little.

This is compared with a shareholding in your firm which does, to an extent, double up your potential liability. ..read more

When Lord Flight talks about simplified advice he is genuine in trying to find ways to convince more people to save and invest. Some advisers on the comment boards see some sort of pro-bank plot, maybe with the Money Advice Service involved, but I really doubt that. Whether simplified advice would be offered through the banks or even through insurers or platforms or tacked on to an IFA, it is surely a reasonable goal to work towards. We certainly don’t want to see some sort of ‘reprieve’ from the RDR so that banks and insurers can rehire all their old sales forces. In fact, any suggestion that the RDR would allow something called primary advice without ombudsman recourse was dropped years ago. But surely it is possible to devise a very simple suite for those simplified advisers to sell. It would require some disclaimers and possibly something close to a basic approved kitemarked list with FCA approval or at least ..read more

Ernst & Young is predicting there will be 20,000 advisers by the end of this year down by another 3,000 from the current 23,000. This does not include the bank sales advice retreat. It is only a prediction but it should be in the right ball park.

1.3 million interest-only mortgage borrowers may be facing a shortfall when they come to pay off the capital sum.The average gap may be around £70,000.

Now the interest only mortgage issue isn’t a scandal nor even a crisis yet. But it is a big concern particularly in parts of the North where prices have fallen a lot and property downsizing options are very limited.

All things being equal, one might suggest the best way to deal with this would be to direct as many of these borrowers to proper advisers. Unbiased.co.uk is doing valiant work to do just that. But will there be enough advisers? Twenty thousand advisers – makes about 65 shortfall sufferers for each ..read more