Archive

I had a pleasure of being a guest on BBC Radio 4 Money Box with Paul Lewis at lunchtime today. Finishing off my duties as Run Director at Cranleigh parkrun, I hopped in the car for the short drive to Guildford where the BBC have a contribution studio at the University of Surrey. After connecting […]

Do you use an investment platform to manage and administer your portfolio? These online platforms have become incredibly popular for investors, both for those with and without a financial adviser. A new market study, carried out by the Financial Conduct Authority, suggests that competition is working well for most consumers using investment platforms. The FCA […]

Three years on from the introduction of pension freedoms, how is the retirement income sector serving consumers? The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has launched a new consultation designed to protect consumers, improve engagement and promote competition in the retirement income market. This consultation has been published alongside their final report, part of the FCA’s Retirement […]

How do our financial lives vary in different parts of the country? That’s the big question considered in new analysis from the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as part of their Financial Lives survey. Their new report has placed a spotlight on the personal finance situations of people from across the UK, looking at where in […]

Keeping an office running smoothly is not an easy task. It takes patience, attention to detail and the ability to motivate the rest of the team. Andy Bamford keeps Informed Choice running like a well-oiled machine. She founded Informed Choice with Nick in 1994 and has worked in financial services for over 20 years. We […]

First they tackled high-cost payday loans, and now the financial services regulator is taking steps to crackdown on other forms of high-cost credit too. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is bearing its teeth with new proposals aimed at protecting the millions of people who use overdrafts and other types of high-cost credit. It follows a […]

Navigating a narrowboat through a canal lock requires a great deal of team work. Heading downstream, you first need to prepare the lock for your boat to enter. If a boat has been through the lock heading in the same direction before you, this means closing the downstream gates, opening the upstream paddles and refilling […]

Are you getting good value for money from your asset manager? The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published the latest step in its response to concerns identified through its asset management market study. The response is part of a package of remedies designed to ensure fund managers compete on the value they deliver. It also […]

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published new pension transfer advice rules. The regulator is also seeking views on additional changes, including possible changes to adviser charging structures which could influence the outcome of advice. The new rules and areas for discussion aim to improve the quality of pension transfer advice to help consumers make […]

There are several steps you should always take when choosing a legitimate financial adviser. One of these is checking that they and the firm for which they work appears on the Financial Services Register. This is a public register maintained by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA). It lists the firms […]