Quilters has one of the biggest networks of advisers, having bought, amongst others, my former home Positive Solutions (which had already been bought and sold several times). An exec somewhere has decided to have a look under the bonnet, found a very big barrel of apples, some better looking, some more rotten than others and decided on a cull. Forgetting, as they all do, the age-old ’80/20’ rule. You get rid of your least productive 20% and what happens? 20% of the remaining 80% become less productive and leave, as they realise they’re now the bottom of the barrel. Plus ça change.
“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.