Hi guys, me again, so what’s been happening as we trudge through this down-turn from within Financial Services.

Well according to Money Marketing, Leadbay, an organisation that aids IFAs and Mortgage Brokers through the purchase of client leads, stated that Advisers, IFAs and Brokers are buying up “first-time buyer” leads cheap, then sitting on them until the good times come back when those clients are going to be convertible as the Mortgage Market comes back again! Nice plan, lets hope it does actually come back, but signs are getting better after the Base Rate Record cut, last week. Furthermore, the logic is that as these Adviser simply keep in contact with these clients, even though business is being transacted, the client is more likely to feel loyal and grateful back and when the good times come back, they will turn to the adviser for more than just a mortgage and use them for other issues, again, nice plan.

Fairly interesting story here, according to Canada Life, their research has shown that 3 in 4 consumers believe they wouldn’t be able to maintain their current lifestyles for 12 months in the event of being unable to work, or not able to claim benefits ( now after the Welfare Reform), and their pushing their brokers and Appointed Reps to encourage their clients to take out Protection policies, its certainly one of my short-comings, amongst other things!

I wish I was involved in this placement, Standard Life have appointed Sarah Mann as a Senior Portfolio Manager on their Wealth team in London, to run Management of Client Portfolios and Relationships! Life Offices are still expanding their Wealth Management Arms, which is more important in a down turn as they want to make sure they can insulate themselves through maintaining funds under management. But, lets not forget the Prvate Client Managers who go out their and pro-actively germinate that Business in the first place, Life Offices still need to recruit those “go-getters” that make sure the coal is still driving the train forward!

Friends Provident is thought to be slashing jobs, through redundancies as it merges 2 offices, this will mainly affect IT and customer services, and will vacate its Manchester office by Dec 31st ,09! This is becoming a common occurence , but I think that Financial Services and Recruitment have pre-ceeded this “recession”, and that the good times will also pre-ceed the up-turn, just hang in their guys, and ring a good Recruiter to secure some top IFAs, Mortgage Brokers, Financial Advisers becaue the good times will come rushing back!

One worrying stat that I noticed this weekend, was that £779m is currently owed on CCJ’s in the third quarter of 2008, and increase of £100m from the same period last yr! This is according to Callcredit, and this figure is expected to rise as we go further  into the “recession”, no wonder people aren’t worried about their Protection and Financial Planning needs with IFAs and Life Offices, as they have other priorities.       

More bad news came on Friday morning as RBS announced, despite the £20 bn bail-out for the Govt, they maybe planning to cut 3,000 jobs across its Global Workforce, in order to better survive the down-turn.

Finally, Axa has signed a tie-in with Clydesdale and the Yorkshire Bank to offer Investment/Protection Products. Apparently, Axa will gain from having access to the Banks’ 2.3 Million Clients, and Clydesdale/Yorkshire will retain their team of Senior Financial Planners, who move to a Whole of Market approach, whereas, the 129 Financial Planners will transfer to Axa and sell their “elevate platform”. This has been happening across the board with Life Offices, Banks (Lloyds-HBOS) & IFA Acquisitions also, I think when the sea is stormy, it makes sense to tie several rafts together. I just hope they can attract the right calibre of Senior Financial Planners in 2009, who can sell on a Whole of Market basis! Once again, they need a good Recruiter.

In summary, to get through the down-turn, Life Offices are continuing to either cut jobs in their ancilliary functions, or merge sales forces or distibution channels, or expand their Wealth Management teams.Good strategies, if backed-up with good, solid recruitment of those pro-active, business winners that can drive the engine in the first place.