Interesting development, Standard Life have bought their way into a minority shareholding of RSM Bentley Jennison FM Group to aid their distribution of their Life, Financial Planning & Wealth Management. Tony Stockdale, Managing Partner of RSM BJ, said it was a wonderful tie-up and allows them to accelerate their growth plan.

In my opinion, this type of tie-up will become more and more common, especially in these uncertain times. I think Life Offices, and Banks have to “spider” their distribution chains, as these Wealth Management Firms have the reputation for quality advice that can add credibility to them.

The FSA are taking action to improve the quality of advice given to Pension clients, switching into SIPP and Personal Pensions, as they discovered around 80 cases of miss-selling, whilst reviewing 30 Firms. Furthermore, the FSA will be writing to around 4,500 firms to set down minimum standards of advice for Pension transfers, followed up with assessments in Q3 of 09 & further action against non-compliant firms.

I think this is important, and that clients should be looked after re-the quality of advice given, but it would be refreshing to read an article about the FSA that shows them trying to help their members grow their IFA businesses and secure IFA jobs for the future, through maybe working with members in order to develop professional connections such as Accountants & Solicitors etc…., here’s hoping aye!

More FSA News (I suppose they are the regulators), apparently several members have expressed concerns over the merger between the Cheshire & Nationwide Building Societies, in terms of their combined deposits exceeding the max compensation amount through the FSCS.

The FSA will be looking into this, but I think these mergers are simply “par for the course”, and dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s, are secondary to the main protagonists, as their main priority is survival.

A bit of a sad story, the Capital Adequacy Standards of the RDR, are already impacting into small IFAs across the country, i.e.-doubling the minimum cash reserves of IFAs from £10,000 to £20,000, and pushing some out of the industry. One x-sole trader mentioned, Tony Catt suggested that these reserve requirements have already made him transfer to a network as an Appointed Rep, and that these requirement, although being fair, wasn’t sure whether they were actually necessary, and that this would lead to the FSA chasing round 20 huge IFAs, rather than 5,000 small firms.

What does all this mean for IFA Jobs going forward? Maybe some members won’t join networks & simply drift out of the industry due to RDR. I fear, that every “cowboy” IFA, RDR pushes out of F/S, there will be several honest, decent, IFAs that will leave the industry as well.

On Thursday, the Monetary Policy Committee reduced base rate again down to a new low since 1951, and with LIBOR plummeting also, there is very strong pressure on the Banks/Building Societies to pass this onto their members through reduced Mortgage rates, to kick start the overall Economy.

To me, there’s a trade-off here, and some feel that prudent savers are paying the tab for excessive borrowers, but what is the alternative? The fact that if the mortgage market gets going again, other industries will follow such as construction, etc…., its vital that this process has to work, but I do sympathise with IFAs who have to explain to their clients that long-term Investments are what the term suggests-Long-term, and their will be a bit of turbulence along the way, but that the clients monies will still reach their destination!