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News & Views
5th July 2008
Financial Times, "Follow Buffett to the bookies" By David Stevenson
"I've never been one for gambling, but even I was tempted to back a very recent bet made by the Sage of Omaha, Warren Buffett.He has staked a staggering $1m on the following wager: "Over a 10-year period commencing on January 1 2008, and ending on December 31 2017, the S&P 500 will outperform a portfolio of funds of Hedge funds, when performance is measured on a basis net of fees, costs and expenses." To read please: Click here
23rd June 2008 :
Financial Times, "Asset Allocation is gaining ground" By Pauline Skypala
"It is unusual to find Conservative MPs preaching revolution, but John Redwood is definitely a subversive from the point of view of the traditional asset management industry. The former Secretary of State for Wales and now plain MP for Wokingham claims the industry is failing to deliver decent performance because it wastes too much time and money trying to pick shares when it should be focusing on asset allocation.
He has set up shop with Robert Brown, former chief executive of Sarasin Chiswell, to offer a portfolio management service that uses low cost exchange traded funds to implement an asset allocation view." To read please: Click here
12th May 2008 Financial Times, "Active managers are they worth it?" By Pauline Skypala
"Cost is a bit of a dirty word in the asset management industry. The impact of costs on investment returns rarely gets a mention at industry conferences. But the debate about the charging structure for the planned national pension scheme is pushing the issue up the agenda in the UK. Due to be introduced in 2012, the personal accounts scheme will be an occupational pension scheme aimed at the lower paid. Making the scheme low cost has been a driving principle from the outset. Paul Myners, chairman of the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority, underlined that determination when he spoke at the National Association of Pension Funds’ investment conference in March. He told delegates that, having worked in the pensions industry for 25 years, he believed “keeping costs down can have a very powerful impact on the ultimate pension people receive”.
To read please: Click here
8th May 2008
The Times, "Do not follow Investment Fads How chasing short-term returns can prove a costly mistake for fund investors"
"Private investors are followers of fashion. Just as “It” girls would not be seen dead without the latest Chloé handbag, so fund fashionistas feel that they must have the latest flavour-of-the-month product. But this can cost them dearly.
In the late 1990s technology funds were the must-have item and investors poured billions into them, only to see their value collapse by about 90 per cent after the bursting of the tech bubble in 2000". To read please: Click here
1st March 2008
Simon Ainley is asked to comment for an article in the Institute of Financial Planning's magazine, 'Financial Planner'. In the article entitled ' SIPPS move Centre Stage' Simon said :
“We will transfer if the benefits are good. If you can put together a more holistic investment process at a suitable cost, then we might consider it. We are putting together portfolios at just over 1.5 per cent, including our management fee, so we would say: ‘Let’s look at the costs of what you have, let’s look at the flexibility,’ and if you can improve the overall service that’s where we would step in.”
19th February 2008
Holland Hahn & Wills become corporate sponsors of The Rose Theatre, Kingston.
Chris Hirsch, Managing Partner of Holland Hahn & Wills said: “We are delighted to be corporate sponsors of the Rose and are proud to play our part in making the theatre the cultural heart of Kingston. We look forward to seeing our many friends at the theatre over the coming year.”
To read please: Click here
Financial Times, On the right trackers to reap dividends byu David Stevenson,"Investors who subscribe to the efficient markets theory - that prices reflect all available information and any fluctuations around this are essentially random - will also believe that 'active' fund management is a waste of time."To read please: Click here
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Top fee-based planners in FSA category lobby
Published: 10:54 Monday 08 October 2007 By: Tim Sharp , NMA Assistant Editor (news) This article has been reproduced with the kind Permission of Citywire |
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The main drivers of the lobby are John Lang, director of Surrey-based Tower Hill Associates and Barry Horner, chief executive of Paradigm Norton in Bristol.
But a total of 16 planners including City-based Antony Williams, managing director of Evolve Financial Planning, David Crozier of Navigator Financial Planning in Northern Ireland to Chris Wicks, associate director of Cheshire-based Alexander Beard Group have formed an Independent Fee Only Adviser / Planner Peer Group to push their case to the regulator.
In their submission to the Financial Services Authority the advisers point out that there is no means for consumers to find ‘genuine’ fee for service IFAs. They also argue there is a sizeable minority of consumers who want to source a fee-only advisers ‘and they are not all high net worth’.
The advisers want all planners who agree a fee formula in advance for advice and services which is not dependent on a product sale. Then if commission is generated the money is used to reduce the fee or product charges, increase the investment amount or refunded to the consumer.
Details on the category could be held on a dedicated ‘find an adviser’ website run by the FSA website and/or fed through to groups such as IFA Promotion that link consumers to advisers.