Alternative assessments developed by the CII to test for QCF Level 4 could cost about £550 more than its written equivalent, due to the extra costs of one-to-one learning.

Advisers who bemoan the quality of new entrants to financial services could help fill the skills gaps by going into schools and talking up the industry, the Financial Services Skills Council (FSSC) says.

Child Trust Funds (CTFs) could solve Britain's debt problem if linked with inheritance tax (IHT) as a part of a wider, inter-generational asset strategy, experts say.

Almost a fifth (18%) of people retiring in 2010 expect to receive less than £10,000 a year from their pensions and investments, as expected incomes drop for the third year runnning, research suggests.

Part-nationalised banks led declines on the FTSE in late Tuesday trading amid concerns about what the Government plans to do with its stakes in them after the General Election.

A fifth of top UK IFAs are growing their business by 10% a year, a survey suggests, but at a cost for some of the near-total collapse of their profit margins.

Britain's emergence from an 18-month recession was stronger than first thought, according to revised ONS data.

Aviva is piloting a system which lets advisers sell customers 'top-up' protection after asking them just a single question.

Advisers must "wake up" and address changes being brought in by the RDR, as last week's paper represents the FSA's "point of no return", says the Personal Finance Society (PFS).

The FSA has given advisers who sell individual long-term pure protection contracts under ICOBS until the end of the year to apply its rules on 'total premium' disclosure.