FT Adviser

Britain's housing market is broken and the property bull market could soon turn into a bear, mortgage advisers told FTAdviser in March this year.

Eye-watering increases in the cost of living, combined with every-high house prices and wage growth that is low by comparison to both inflation and the rate of house price increases in some parts of Britain, have led advisers to question how sustainable the housing market is at the moment.

Speaking to FTAdviser on this podcast, three experts in the field of mortgage advice and property investment, discuss the reasons leading up to the current situation and postulate ways to help fix the market.

Geoff Garrett, managing director of Henry Dannell, Samantha Bickford, mortgage & equity release specialist at Clarity Wealth Management, explain the need for some positive policy changes to improve the housing market for borrowers, renters and buy to let investors alike. 

The FTAdviser Podcast is designed to inform regulated UK advisers on a range of topics, covering investments, pensions, regulation and other key issues.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Emerging markets may be considered less risky to invest in now, compared with the past, but they face a number of headwinds.

Borrowing to tackle the pandemic has left many facing sovereign debt worries.

Additionally, China continues to be a drag on the EM investment sector, exacerbated by its zero-Covid policy.

In this special edition of the FTAdviser Podcast, sponsored by Schroders, deputy features editor Ima Jackson-Obot speaks to David Rees, senior emerging markets economist at Schroders, and Daniel Casali, chief investment strategist at Tilney Smith & Williamson, to talk about the outlook for emerging markets post-Covid and whether it is their time to shine.

The FTAdviser Podcast is the weekly podcast for financial advisers, brought to you by FTAdviser. Each week, FTAdviser is joined by guests from the industry to discuss the week in news and pressing industry issues.

The FTAdviser Podcast is designed to inform regulated UK advisers on a range of topics, covering investments, pensions, regulation and other key issues.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Reforming networks’ appointed representative models is high on the Financial Conduct Authority’s agenda this year, and it’s been a subject of much controversy since the publication of the watchdog’s consultation in March.

According to the FCA, networks generate between 50 and 400 per cent more complaints and supervisory cases on behalf of themselves and their members than firms which are not networks.

This led the watchdog to conclude more issues arise from principals and ARs than they do from directly authorised firms. Hence, it deemed a change to the AR regime - introduced back in 1986 - was needed.

The FCA has said under new reforms, it would require networks to self-assess each member firm on an annual basis. Adviser trade body Pimfa has since said this will turn networks into “nothing more than extremely well-paid human resources consultants”.

Ruby Hinchliffe, Senior Reporter at FTAdviser, spoke with Rory Gravatt, head of distribution and product strategy at Altus, and a former employee of Sesame Bankhall Group and Tenet, which operate AR models, to understand how networks will grapple with these changes.

The FTAdviser Podcast is the weekly podcast for financial advisers, brought to you by FTAdviser. Each week, FTAdviser is joined by guests from the industry to discuss the week in news and pressing industry issues.

The FTAdviser Podcast is designed to inform regulated UK advisers on a range of topics, covering investments, pensions, regulation and other key issues.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Rising inflation and interest rates mean 2022 started with heightened volatility, which has not let up since.So what does this mean for investors?

This week, FTAdviser contributing editor David Thorpe is joined by Peter Fitzgerald, total return fund manager at Aviva Investors and Peter Doherty, fixed income investor at Sanlam, to discuss how then are approaching the issue.

They discuss how sure we can be that assets will perform as they have in the past and that correlations that have been there in the past will be again and whether investors should view periods of heightened volatility as an opportunity or hunker down to preserve capital.

They also discuss whether the turmoil has created any cheap asset classes.

The FTAdviser Podcast is the weekly podcast for financial advisers, brought to you by FTAdviser. Each week, FTAdviser is joined by guests from the industry to discuss the week in news and pressing industry issues.

The FTAdviser Podcast is designed to inform regulated UK advisers on a range of topics, covering investments, pensions, regulation and other key issues.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Platforms have reached another inflection point. Most, if not all, major advised platforms have upgraded their technology now, as the calls from advisers grow louder for better integration and more easily attainable routes to data. This means platforms, theoretically, have the tools they need now to truly start innovating for advisers. 

Meanwhile, a number of customised platform providers have emerged - all offering slightly different services - but the onus being generally the same, which is to encourage advice firms to invest more money and time in technology, and take on more risk, by owning their own platform.

Hosted by Ruby Hinchliffe, Senior Reporter at FTAdviser, this podcast explores the benefits and drawbacks of both models. Guests include Andrew Back, chief commercial officer at Multrees, and David Tiller, commercial and propositions director at Quilter.

The FTAdviser Podcast is the weekly podcast for financial advisers, brought to you by FTAdviser. Each week, FTAdviser is joined by guests from the industry to discuss the week in news and pressing industry issues.

The FTAdviser Podcast is designed to inform regulated UK advisers on a range of topics, covering investments, pensions, regulation and other key issues.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of the FTAdviser In Focus podcast, in partnership with Wisdom Tree, we take a look at governance - the G in ESG. Whether it is diverse representation on boards, strategic considerations, political lobbying or cyber risk management, governance plays an important role in how businesses are being run. Done well, corporate governance could mean long-term better performance for a company, but done badly it could have dire consequences for the business and its investors. Discussing governance are Lidia Treiber from Wisdom Tree and Diana Rose from ESG consultancy Insig AI.

The FTAdviser Podcast is designed to inform regulated UK advisers on a range of topics, covering investments, pensions, regulation and other key issues.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A few weeks ago the Spring Statement was expected to be an uneventful macroeconomic update, but the war in Ukraine and spiralling cost of living meant chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak had to take action.

This he did by cutting the national insurance contribution threshold by £3,000, cutting fuel duty by 5p a litre and pledging to cut the base rate if income tax to 19p in 2024.

In this week's podcast, FTAdviser news editor Amy Austin talks to Claire Trott, divisional director of retirement and holistic planning at SJP, and Chris Etherington, private client partner at RSM, about what these announcements mean for advisers.

They discuss the importance of communicating these changes and their implications to clients and the need to now maximise salary sacrifice and allowances. They also examine the fact the income tax rise will not be applied to dividend income and how this might mean those living off investment income in retirement are hit harder than buy-to-let landlords.

The FTAdviser Podcast is the weekly podcast for financial advisers, brought to you by FTAdviser. Each week, FTAdviser is joined by guests from the industry to discuss the week in news and pressing industry issues.

The FTAdviser Podcast is designed to inform regulated UK advisers on a range of topics, covering investments, pensions, regulation and other key issues.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

UK investors put £37bn into environmental, social and governance funds during 2021, continuing the trend of these funds attracting huge amounts of money.

But at the start of 2022, rising inflation and interest rates meant the growth stocks which tend to populate ESG funds underperformed. Indeed the MSCI ACWI ESG Universal index has outperformed the MSCI World index in each of the past five years but so far in 2022 it is lagging behind.

This week FTAdviser reporter Sally Hickey is joined by Ben Yearsley of Fairview Investing and Ryan Hughes, head of investment research at AJ Bell, to discuss whether this is just a bump in the road for ESG or whether it's something more severe.

They also discuss what it tells us that ESG inflows have not slowed down despite the recent underperformance, whether ESG and growth are necessarily intertwined, and what advisers and clients can learn from this period.

The FTAdviser Podcast is the weekly podcast for financial advisers, brought to you by FTAdviser. Each week, FTAdviser is joined by guests from the industry to discuss the week in news and pressing industry issues.

The FTAdviser Podcast is designed to inform regulated UK advisers on a range of topics, covering investments, pensions, regulation and other key issues.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Impact investing is a term within the ESG eco-system which describes investing only in the instruments of companies that have a measurably positive impact on society. 

This distinguishes impact investing from other forms of ESG, which can be more focused on excluding companies on the basis of specific harm caused. 

But impact investing does have the same challenges as any other kind of ESG investing, in that clients face the risk of being left over exposed to a narrow range of sectors. 

In this FTAdviser Podcast, contributing editor David Thorpe speaks with Neil Goddin, impact investment fund manager at Artemis, and Steve Kenny, commercial director at Square Mile Consulting, on the the future of impact investing. 

This podcast is part of the Despatches series, sponsored by Artemis.

The FTAdviser Podcast is designed to inform regulated UK advisers on a range of topics, covering investments, pensions, regulation and other key issues.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This month, the government has finally succumbed to pressure from the industry and included paid-for adverts in the scope of the online safety bill.

Essentially, this means social media platforms and search engines will have a legal duty to prevent paid-for fraudulent adverts appearing on their services. This is in the hope that fewer people will be scammed via this method.

This week FTAdviser news editor Amy Austin talks to Tom Selby, head of retirement policy at AJ Bell, and Tim Fassam, director of government relations and policy at adviser trade body Pimfa, about whether these proposals will work.

The FTAdviser Podcast is the weekly podcast for financial advisers, brought to you by FTAdviser. Each week, FTAdviser is joined by guests from the industry to discuss the week in news and pressing industry issues.

The FTAdviser Podcast is designed to inform regulated UK advisers on a range of topics, covering investments, pensions, regulation and other key issues.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.