Alistair Darling has launched a scathing attack on Mervyn King's governorship of the Bank of England during the financial crisis - and warned the coalition government's decision to hand more power to the institution is a mistake.

Legal & General (L&) is considering building a referral system with selected independent advisers who would take over the provider's direct customers when their needs become more complex.

An IFA who writes a weekly money advice column for a regional newspaper is contesting a complaint that he wrongfully invested more than half of a 97-year-old woman's assets in Keydata.

Professional Adviser and Fidelity FundsNetwork have joined forces to urge advisers to protest now against VAT charges on advice post-RDR.

The Chancellor has launched a £5bn tax raid on Britons keeping money in Swiss bank accounts, who he has labelled as bad as benefits cheats.

For most IFAs, meeting new people and laying down trusted relationships is the best part of the job, with many clients becoming life-long friends. But that doesn't stop them driving advisers crazy from time to time.

Consumers searching online for a fee-charging adviser may miss out as just 2.3% of IFAs advertise themselves as fee-based on their own websites, according to research.

Katherine Leaman, manager of the FSA's professional standards policy team, will leave the regulator and head to the private sector with a job at Royal Bank of Scotland.

Andrew Strange is to step down as policy director of the Association of Independent Financial Advisers (AIFA) after nearly five years at the organisation.

Britain has underperformed all the world's leading economies over the past year except tsunami-hit Japan, figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) show.