Regulation

Venture capital trusts (VCTs) and enterprise investment schemes (EISs) are to fall under the Financial Services Authority's (FSA's) upcoming guidance on unregulated collective investments schemes (UCIS).

Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada (UK) Limited (SLOC UK) has been fined £600,000 by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for failings in the governance of its with-profits business.

INVESTMENT TRUSTS

The number of financial advisers operating in the United States has fallen dramatically in the last few years and is likely to decline further as direct-to-consumer (D2C) propositions attract investors, a study suggests.

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) was aware of the mis-selling of payment protection insurance (PPI) as long ago as 2005 but was hampered from reacting adequately due to flaws in its regulatory approach, Martin Wheatley has admitted.

UCIS ADVICE

The Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB) has named Barry Horner as its board chairman of the FPSB council for 2014.

Concerns about advisers piling into commission-paying products ahead of the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) have proven unfounded, according to the experience of one provider.

Most clients go to an adviser primarily for practical reasons but many value the emotional reassurance the process brings them, research from Standard Life has found.

With the RDR coming into force at the end of this year, the distribution model of the long-term savings industry is undergoing a radical transformation. Newcomers are entering the market whilst the adviser market is shrinking. Product providers are...