““Sir Howard Davies should be ashamed” – brokers react to NatWest chair’s property ladder comments”

An independent (financial adviser’s) view

‘Just when bankers’ reputations have started to recover’ might be something of an exaggeration. The image of fat cats and their traders earning big bonuses while crashing the economy still endures and has been given further life and legs by the NatWest chairman’s ultimate out-of-touch-with-the-real-world comments. ‘You’ve always had to save to get a mortgage’ he says, and it’s no different now. Afraid it is, as house prices have risen 160% while in the same period incomes are up only 23%, meaning the multiples and deposits required are comparatively huge. I’d also contend that a big proportion of those first-time buyer deposits come from parents’ rather than their childrens’ savings. Retirement looms, I suspect, for Sir Howard, but I think we can be confident that both he and his family will struggle by.

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“Record year for annuity sales driven by advisers”

“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.