Good morning and welcome to your Morning Briefing for Friday 15 November 2024. To get this in your inbox every morning click here.
Cutting financial services ‘red tape’
Chancellor Rachel Reeves used her maiden Mansion House speech to announce a package of reforms aimed at driving competition across financial services.
During last night’s speech (14 November), Reeves argued that regulatory changes have “gone too far” since the 2008 economic crisis.
Reeves also announced plans for “pension megafunds” which she said could bring in £80bn to invest in businesses and infrastructure.
Quilter and Aviva lead on net flows
Adviser platform assets grew by £15.9bn to reach a new total of £852.2bn in the third quarter of the year.
Quilter led net flows with £1.44bn, followed closely by Aviva at £1.35bn, according to data from platform consultancy Platforum.
The other strong performers were Transact, AJ Bell and SS&C Hubwise.
Maximising introducer relationships
Marketing consultant Faith Liversedge asks: Have you done any of the following things this past month? Emailed your introducer with a link to your newsletter, blog or latest award win. Offered to host a webinar with them. Or shared an introducer pack.
If not, read on.
Quote Of The Day
UK economic growth has gone down a gear in the third quarter as this latest data shows a slowdown in economic activity following a burst of growth during the first half of the year.
– Scott Gardner, investment strategist at Nutmeg, comments on the latest UK GDP data, published today (15 November)
Stat Attack
Coding copilots are becoming standard-issue tools at enterprises, driving investor interest in the market and plenty of FOMO, according to CB Insights.
Source: CB Insights
In Other News
Scientific Portfolio launches new platform empowering investors to independently analyse the ESG characteristics of equity portfolios and their risk consequences.
Key features and benefits of the Scientific Portfolio platform include evaluating climate and sustainability impacts as part of the investment decision process and identifying trade-offs with competing financial objectives.
Benjamin Herzog, CEO, Scientific Portfolio, said, “Among institutional asset owners and wealth managers, there is a growing need to assume full control of their investment policy and an exponential demand for customisation linked to the advent of ESG and low-carbon and sustainable investing.
“At the same time, asset managers and investment solutions providers lack comprehensive tools to nourish an informed dialogue with their clients. Scientific Portfolio is ready to finally deliver all of equity portfolio science in one single platform.”
Reeves gets up to £10bn from quiet BOE change (Bloomberg)
Barclays ordered to pay ex-banker $63,000 over working hours, sex discrimination (Reuters)
UK must rebuild post-Brexit relations with EU, says Bank boss (BBC News)
Did You See?
The term ‘disabled persons trust’ is frequently used to describe any trust where a beneficiary is deemed vulnerable or disabled. It is not a specific type of trust.
A disabled persons trust can be any discretionary, interest-in-possession or absolute trust.
The key, argues Quilter’s Rachael Griffin, is whether the beneficiary’s vulnerability qualifies the trust for income and capital gains tax (CGT) relief or if their disability qualifies the trust for special inheritance tax (IHT) treatment.
So, who qualifies as a vulnerable or disabled beneficiary?
