If you follow these things, you may have noticed N Farage getting all the publicity at the Conservative Conference this week, dancing with Priti and still promoting himself as the People’s Champion, fighting those terrible institutions who could conspire to debank you and close your account at the drop of a cheque book. The regulator’s first look at this, however, shows that it’s not Brexity or other politics, but stroppy behaviour which might cause your bank to ‘disengage’ with you and close your account. I’d contend that banks, whatever you may think of them, are still businesses, and so have the right to pick and choose with whom they deal, as should we at the other end of the financial services food chain. Provided there are no cartels or monopolies, customer choice should be allowed surely work both ways.
“Record year for annuity sales driven by advisers”
I was asked this week whether annuities are now ‘a good investment’. They’ve been recommended very rarely in recent years, since ‘pension freedoms’ allowed pretty much unlimited drawdown on pension funds and anything left to be passed on to beneficiaries free of Inheritance Tax.
