Belinda Thomas: Targeting reliable income in a low-yield world

Direct lending focus

clock • 4 min read

By better understanding how direct lending works and the role it can play for clients, writes Belinda Thomas, advisers can steal a march on their peers in the hunt for consistent and predictable levels of income

One of the more common tasks a financial adviser will face across the course of their career is to help clients achieve specific goals such as paying for their children's school fees or generating a steady stream of income in retirement. It has not always been an easy task to meet these liabilities but it became a good deal more difficult following the Bank of England's decision to cut rates in response to the global financial crisis in 2009. This forced the hands of policymakers at the central bank and resulted in a sharp decline in rates, off the 2008 highs of 5.75%. By March 2009, UK ...

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