Regulation

The Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) has ruled in favour of four complainants who separately claimed they were given unsuitable advice to transfer their personal pensions to new plans permitting investment in overseas property.

Three systems advisers could use

The adviser who records all client encounters

Reducing the risk of professional indemnity claims

Selling up doesn’t have to be the end of your advice career

Trail commission is still important to the income of almost all advisers, according to research by software provider Intelliflo, despite the looming deadline that will see the payment method switched off for many of their clients.

Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) chief executive Martin Wheatley has called on firms to do more to support vulnerable customers, saying their mistakes made difficult situations worse "too many times".

The government is being urged to ban defined benefit to (DB) to defined contribution (DC) pension transfers to minimise "complexity and confusion" once the 6 April retirement 'freedoms' are rolled out.

Wealth management firms are facing more serious consequences from a failure to meet suitability requirements as the regulator puts practices under fresh scrutiny.

Restricted advice network giant Sesame witnessed a near-30% fall in new complaints in the second half of last year, as customer gripes related to banking and credit cards rose.