“The Big Four accountancy firms plan for forced breakup”

May 22, 2018 | Financial Services

An independent (financial adviser’s) view

MPs on the Carillion investigation committee called them a “cosy club incapable of providing the degree of independent challenge needed”. They waved one another’s (now obviously) duff and, according to the fund managers trying to work out what they’d invested in, ‘impenetrable’ accounts through the auditing process.

You may remember that allowing the banks to become too big, do everything and sell the same stuff back and forth to one another didn’t end well. Not an awful lot has changed,, however; in fact, there are now fewer banks and those left are bigger than ever. So don’t hold your breath over KPMG, PWC and the gang.

Read more here

“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.