Investment manager Schroders has begun the search for a new CEO following news that current CEO Peter Harrison will be retiring after a decade on the board. Mr Harrison plans to retire as group CEO next year. Schroders is a major investment manager and also has a joint venture Financial Planning arm called Schroders Personal Wealth. The firm's board says it expects an “orderly transition” during 2025 and Mr Harrison will remain as a director of the company throughout this period. Schroders’ chair Elizabeth Corley said: “The board recognises that in Peter, Schroders has had an outstanding C ..read more

The Consumer Duty Alliance is to support the launch of a new Retirement Income Taskforce to be chaired by leading pensions campaigner Margaret Snowdon. The new cross-sector Retirement Income Taskforce (RIT) is aimed at “collectively tackling” the challenges facing the sector alike. Keith Richards, CEO of the Consumer Duty Alliance which has signed up 15,000 members in just over a year, said the CDA would throw its weight behind the Retirement Income Taskforce. In an exclusive column for Financial Planning Today, he writes today that following the Treasury and FCA joint consultation on ..read more

A new cross-sector Retirement Income Taskforce (RIT), supported by the Consumer Duty Alliance (CDA), is being launched to collectively tackle the mounting and multiple challenges facing the public and sector alike, writes Keith Richards, CEO of the Consumer Duty Alliance. Following the Treasury and FCA joint consultation on the advice / guidance boundary with the aim of addressing an ever widening ‘advice gap’ the reality is that too many consumers are unaware and unengaged with life event savings goals and retirement planning. The Taskforce believes that millions are at risk of unnecessar ..read more

Some 77% of investment professionals expect to allocate more money to real estate over the next 12 months, leading to expectations of an increase in demand for property. The prediction comes from Time Investments after it researched 200 UK wealth managers, financial advisers and investment professionals who have clients with more than £200,000 invested. More than half (58%) of respondents said that for the average client, the target allocation to real estate is 11-15%, and 26% said 6%-10%.  When asked what is driving allocation to real assets such as real estate, the key factor cited ..read more

The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) has appointed Hannah Daniel, Chartered MCSI, as the new President of the Yorkshire committee. She takes over from Rebecca Keating, Chartered MCSI. The CISI is the professional body which awards the Certified Financial Planner designation in the UK and has 50,000 members, nearly half of them students. Ms Daniel is an investment manager at LGT Wealth Management based in Leeds. She has more than eight years of experience in wealth management and joined LGT following the acquisition of Abrdn's discretionary investment management bu ..read more

The Personal Finance Society has launched a new course designed to help Financial Planners and advisers adapt to social and regulatory expectations on sustainable investment. The course is aligned with the FCA’s recently issued Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR) and investment labels rule. The new rule, which recognises the increased demand from clients wanting to invest sustainably, will be applied from 31 May. On Tuesday the FCA announced that it was planning to extend the rule to portfolio managers as well as asset managers.  The proposed labelling and Sustainability Disc ..read more

The CISI has appointed Financial Planner Jonathan Gibson CFP Chartered FCSI and Shaid Moughal ACSI as co-Presidents for the CISI Scotland committee. The pair will take over from outgoing President Dorothy Hamilton MCSI who said: "Representing the CISI in Scotland has been a truly amazing experience." {loadposition hidden2} Mr Gibson is the Institute’s first President from the Financial Planning community in Scotland. He is the managing director of Wells Gibson Limited, an independent and boutique, family-owned business in Dundee. He said: “The decision for Shaid and I to assume the roles o ..read more

The FCA has instigated criminal proceedings against Lee Steven Maggs, 38, of Sittingbourne, Kent, for two counts of fraud and one count of breaching the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (FSMA).  Mr Maggs is alleged to have operated an unauthorised investment scheme called “Kube Trading” which received around £2.67m from investors between 1 March 2019 and 22 January 2021.   The regulator says the scheme involved trading contracts for differences (CFDs) in foreign exchange (FX), which is a regulated activity. Mr Maggs is accused of concealing significant losses from inv ..read more

Former Labour minister and lifelong pensions and anti-poverty campaigner Frank Field, Lord Field of Birkenhead, has died at 81 after a long battle against prostate cancer. Mr Field was known for his fierce but intelligent and radical comments and proposals on pensions and welfare. In the pensions sector he was best known as chair of the Work and Pensions Select Committee from 2015 and 2019. In 1999 he helped set up the Pension Reform Group which called for a universal protected pension. He was known to favour substantial welfare reform but often found himself at odds with hi ..read more

The news that the FCA is extending its sustainability rules to portfolio managers has been welcomed by the industry. The FCA said on Tuesday that it plans to extend its anti-greenwashing labelling rule for sustainable investments. The move comes in ahead of the anti-greenwashing rule coming into force on 31 May. George Latham, managing partner of WHEB Asset Management, said: "Given the importance of model portfolio services (MPS), it is critical that the FCA extend the sustainability disclosure requirements (SDR) to this part of the market. “We are pleased to see the consultation paper and ..read more