Good morning and welcome to your Morning Briefing for Friday 10 January 2025. To get this in your inbox every morning click here.
Kingswood appoints Peter Coleman as new CEO
Kingswood has appointed former Succession Wealth executive Peter Coleman as its new chief executive.
Coleman was hired as CEO on an interim basis last July following the departure of David Lawrence.
He was previously chief commercial officer (CCO) at Aviva-owned Succession Wealth.
Balancing a positive outlook with high valuations will be key in 2025
We begin 2025 with the global economy in relatively good shape, and we have a relatively positive view of risk assets as a result.
However, valuations are elevated in some areas of the market, so a selective approach is necessary despite the healthy fundamentals.
Finding the right balance between the supportive macroeconomic environment and high valuations will be critical to successful investing in 2025.
Should you work on your emotional intelligence?
One topic starting to crop up more in the advice sector is emotional intelligence (EI) – essentially, an awareness of how your emotions and the emotions of others can impact behaviour, communication and wellbeing.
With the role of advisers now being primarily about building and maintaining client relationships, soft skills like empathy and communication are essential to do the job well.
This is particularly true now advisers are required to identify and support clients in vulnerable circumstances. Could advisers benefit from learning how to boost their EI?
Quote Of The Day
The bond markets are riding the rumour rollercoaster when it comes to the inflationary impact of Trump’s tariff plans, leading to expectations that interest rates will have to stay higher for longer. This has caused nervousness among investors
– Susannah Streeter, head of money and markets, Hargreaves Lansdown, comments on the impact of rising bond yields on interest rates
Stat Attack
Net retail sales of investment funds returned to positive inflows of £1.6bn in November 2024, following the UK Budget and US election, according to data published by the Investment Association. Key findings for November 2024:
Equities saw inflows of £243m in November, following extensive outflows of £6.6bn over the previous two months.
North American equities were most popular with net retail sales of £590m, while global equities also saw an inflow of £400m.
UK equity outflows continued, although they fell to £552m, the best figure since the £445m outflow in August 2021.
Fixed Income funds returned to inflow, with net retail sales of £524m.
Index tracker inflows remained strong at £1.9bn.
Actively managed funds remained in outflow with net retail sales of -£317m,
although this was the most reduced outflow since their last inflow in December 2021.
Mixed asset funds saw minor outflows of £45m.
Source: Investment Association
In Other News
Aviva Investors has appointed Gita Bal as head of fixed-income research. Bal will be based in London and will report to Fraser Lundie, global head of fixed income.
Bal brings with her extensive investment research experience and will be responsible for leading the firm’s research team across global fixed-income markets.
She joins the business from Fidelity International, where she spent the past 13 years in a variety of roles, mostly recently as global head of research, fixed income.
Bal previously held analyst roles at PIMCO and CreditSights. Her appointment follows on from the announcement of Fraser Lundie’s hire in May 2024, and represents a further strengthening of Aviva Investors’ existing expertise across global fixed-income markets.
Janus Henderson Investors has launched its first active fixed income ETF in Europe. The firm has significant experience in securitised investing globally, with a specialised team of six portfolio managers with an average of 27 years industry experience and nine dedicated securitised analysts.
Together, they manage assets totalling over $36bn with CLOs representing the most substantial portion of the firm’s securitised assets.
JCL0 will be managed by Colin Fleury, head of secured credit, alongside Denis Struc and Ian Bettney, portfolio managers on the secured credit team. The team has a long-standing track record in CLO investing and has worked together at the firm since 2010.
The fund will primarily invest in European AAA-rated CLOs and can invest up to 30% in non-European AAA CLOs that are compliant with European securitised regulations. Colin, Denis and Ian work closely with Janus Henderson’s US securitisation experts to evaluate non-European investment ideas.
UK debt market sell-off threatens mortgage pain for households (Financial Times)
Reeves heads to China amid market trouble at home (BBC)
Nvidia criticises reported Biden plan for AI chip export curbs (Reuters)
Did You See?
New legislation, rapidly progressing through parliament, is destined to have a major impact on the advice market, writes Ian McKenna, founder and director of FTRC.
This should be excellent news for advisers and clients. That said, it looks likely to present significant challenges to providers of all shapes and sizes, and may also have unexpected consequences for adviser and adviser tech firms.
When parliament was dissolved before the July election, the Data Protection and Digital Information No 2 Bill did not make it on to the statute book.
While not announced formally in the King’s Speech, the Data (Use and Access) Bill (D(UA)) was discreetly announced in its notes.
This is the new government’s replacement legislation.
Read the full article here.
