This article was written for T-C News during the Covid pandemic in September 2020.

This article was written for T-C News during the Covid pandemic in April 2020. It is mainly discussing working remotely.

This article was written for T-C News during the Covid pandemic in March 2020 just before the lockdown was announced.

This article was written for T-C News in September 2019. It covers a wider range of investment types that advisers should consider offering to clients.

This article was written in April 2019. The FCA Mission confirmed its three-tier framework for performance reporting. Measuring performance across these three areas helps us to learn from the success and challenges of its interventions, using those lessons to focus future work where it adds most public value.

This article was writtenin March 2019. Culture in financial services is widely accepted as a key root cause of the major conduct failings that have occurred within the industry in recent history. Given its impact, firms’ culture is a priority for the FCA. The FCA expects firms to foster cultures which support the spirit of regulation in preventing harm to consumers and markets. These kinds of healthy cultures can also complement and support businesses’ financial performance.

This article was written in March 2019 and covers investing for income.

This article was written for in December 2018. The SM&CR rules will increase the importance of the application of the Fit and Proper Test for Employees and Senior Personal. More onus will be placed on firms to undertake the tests.

Written in October 2018 for IFA Magazine.
This is one of the main services offered by advisers to clients. One of the skills that advisers can offer to clients to maximise the potential returns on investments. One of the main mysteries for advisers is how to provide this service – to offer the clients a diverse investment portfolio that they could not organise for themselves in a cost-effective manner for the adviser.

This article was written for IFA Magazine in August 2018.
Over the years, platforms have become a major cornerstone of the advice service offered by advisers to their clients. On the face of it, they make perfect sense. A single place where an adviser can put all the assets of their clients in a single place, without restriction of fund management groups, for all wrappers and often with lower charging structures than by investing direct. What is not to like about that arrangement?

This was written in March 2018 discussing EIS investment

This article was written for Professional Adviser magazine in January 2018. The implementation of the GDPR has provoked concern around the data retention obligations of financial advice firms in relation to data subjects looking to exercise their rights that may require restriction of processing of their personal data or possible deletion. This has centred on the potential impact on a firm’s ability to meet regulatory requirements and/or defend a legal claim should they have to delete personal data.

This article was written for IFA Magazine in October 2017.
Covering the introduction of MiFID2 and how it could affect advisers in the UK.

This is from September 2017.
The Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR) replaces the current Approved Persons Regime, changing how people working in financial services are regulated.

This article was written in August 2017. Advisers live in a world where regulation is king and many are almost paranoid about doing the right thing for their clients and providing evidence in this respect.

This article was written for IFA Magazine in August 2017. CP 17/24 – information about current accounts. This refers to promoting effective competition by enabling customers to make effective comparisons between providers of personal current accounts (PCAs) and business current accounts (BCAs) based on service, and by incentivising providers to improve service and performance.

This was written in May 2017.
I have been fascinated by property funds since I first became an Independent Financial Adviser in 1997. For a long time, property funds seemed to offer the Goldilocks investment strategy – decent returns on a consistent basis with low volatility and seemingly minimal risk

This article was written for T-C News in March 2017. Discusses making CPD relevant and useful for advisers.

This is an article written for IFA Magazine in January 2017. It is discussing how pension freedoms have affected defined benefit pension scheme transfers.

This article was written in January 2017 about investment due diligence that advisers need to undertake.

This article was written in December 2016. DB schemes are still the most valuable retirement planning vessels. The guaranteed benefits are more valuable than any other type of pension currently available. It is unlikely that taking money out of those schemes offers best value to members.

This article was written December 2016. It looks back on the year relating to the FCA. On looking at the FCA website, there have been 24 policy statements in 2016.

The FCA Positive Compliance Live and Local Tour of December 2016 covering the advice process

This was written in Novmber 2016 to provide guidance on how to write suitablity reports.