Good morning and welcome to your Morning Briefing for Thursday 28 November 2024. To get this in your inbox every morning click here.
Little time on client meetings
Advice firms are only spending 35% of their time on client meetings, new research has revealed.
The other 65% is spent focusing on business, compliance and staff development needs instead.
These findings and more are revealed in the latest advice industry benchmark report by Model Office in association with Fidelity Adviser Solutions, now in its sixth year.
Retirement planning peak age
The peak age for retirement planning becoming an advice priority is 55, a new study by St James’s Place (SJP) has revealed.
The study, which surveyed just under 12,000 individuals, found that the top three advice priorities across the country were retirement planning advice, general investment and savings advice and better budgeting.
Holding on to talent
One of the most frustrating things in advice is our consistent failure to bring in and retain decent new talent, says Greg Moss.
When I first became an adviser, around the time the dust was still swirling from the Chicxulub impact, the prevailing culture was Glengarry Glen Ross meets Wernham Hogg.
Quote Of The Day
The Help to Buy Isa zombie is slowly stumbling to the bitter end
– Sarah Coles, head of personal finance at Hargreaves Lansdown, comments on the news that the Help to Buy Isa will be gradually phased out up to 2029
Stat Attack
Research from international asset management company Managing Partners Group (MPG) reveals that professional investors expect their organisation’s allocation to fixed income to surge over the next 18 months, after a period of being underweight.
It found that:
57%
Over half say their organisation’s current allocation to fixed income is underweight.
26%
say it’s about right.
17%
Under a fifth believe it overweight.
99%
Almost all see their organisation’s allocation to fixed income increasing over the next 18 months.
10%
One in 10 say this will increase by up to 10%.
66%
say this will rise by between 10% and 15%.
23%
say it will rise by more than this.
Source: Managing Partners Group
In Other News
Third Financial has signed up London-based investment manager Bowmore Asset Management.
Bowmore, which has over £350m in assets under management, will partner with Third for an initial five-year term.
In total, Third – part of Nucleus group – has won the custody mandate for ten new clients in the past year, including Capital Financial Markets, Lowes and Mountstone.
Third Financial managing director, Chris Williams, said: “We’re delighted that Bowmore has appointed us as their platform partner.
“Our continued and sustained growth reflects our position as the first choice for investment managers and advisers seeking industry leading technology-led solutions, and a focus on great customer service.”
Bowmore Asset Management chief investment officer, Jonathan Webster-Smith, added: “We were looking for a tech-forward platform who could help us to deliver the best service for our customers. This is what attracted us to Third and set them apart from other firms in this space.
“The team at Third really understood our needs, and we’ve been extremely impressed with their focus on delivery and commitment to getting it right for the client. We really look forward to working with them for years to come.”
Abrdn has further expanded its Living business within its real-estate team with the acquisition of a student/co-living asset in Cergy, in the suburbs of Paris.
This latest acquisition takes abrdn’s total residential investments to more than €10bn.
The asset was purchased on behalf of investors in the €1.7bn abrdn Pan-European Residential Fund (aPER), one of the largest residential real-estate portfolios in the market in Europe.
The fund is highly diversified, with 49 assets across 30 cities and ten countries, and a strategy backed up by abrdn’s expert global research team.
Over the past 12 months, abrdn has won £1bn in new third-party real estate mandates – of which a significant proportion was for investment into the residential sector.
From Elsewhere
Buy American to avoid Trump trade war, says Christine Lagarde (Financial Times)
UK pension scheme called ‘deeply irresponsible’ for investing in Bitcoin (Sky News)
French sovereign borrowing costs rise to highest premium in 12 years (The Guardian)
Did You See?
Upon watching the launch [of Space X’s Starship], I felt an immediate sense of comradery with the rocket, says Tom Redmayne, chartered financial planner at Rockwealth. A kinship, if you will. I couldn’t help but be in awe. As it began its slow, treacherous trudge upwards, I felt like it was holding up a mirror to my life.
You see, becoming a chartered financial planner and building a client base is much like the building and launching of a rocket, Redmayne writes for Money Marketing.
In the beginning, a large amount of energy has to be spent, with no guarantee of success and only achieving modest, if any, results. It can feel like you aren’t getting anywhere.
However, if you continue to burn the fuel, you’ll slowly start making headway and there will come a point where the momentum built up over time compounds and begins to pay off.
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