As rehearsed many times on these pages, the average age of the financial adviser population is around retirement age and for many the (on paper, anyway) easy route to that retirement is to sell out to another IFA looking to expand, or, more likely, to a ‘consolidator’. These are the, in many cases now huge firms, often powered by private equity, which swallow up the client banks of smaller fry for often (on paper, anyway) eye-watering payouts. Some might argue that for the client, a big, national company has the resources to provide better service, negotiate better deals with investment managers and other providers, and stay on top of all the regulation and compliance. What’s lost, of course, is the ‘personal touch’. Money is, perversely some might say, an emotional subject. Do you trust your bank more now that it’s ten times the size it once was, than when you had a local manager you could talk to (kids etc.)? I don’t think so. Small can be and still is great, often better, and the full circle of business life will prove it to be so. I’d say.
“Pensions minister: ‘we have created saving pots, but not a pension system’”
The OBR (Office of Budget Responsibility, as opposed to the OBI, often said to be housed in No.11) said this week that pensions were one of the biggest problems to be faced by this and future governments.
