fees

Fees due to the FSCS will fall across just about every fee block category except that for IFAs, according to figures published by the FSA today.

Further debate about fees versus commission remuneration still rages on, as new comments from one intermediary suggest advisers should look to become wealth managers rather than IFAs.

Scottish Life, the pensions arm of Royal London Group will launch an extension of its Financial Adviser's Fee (FAF) to group pensions.

Pressure to meet the cost of FSA, FOS and FSCS levies has in recent months caused serious friction as some adviser operations feel they are being asked to pay costs which do not relate to their business.

As the implementation date of depolarisation edges closer, concerns about the credibility of this long-awaited ‘commission menu' are increasing, along with the damage it appears to do to commission-led adviser business.

The cost of moving into a first home is now approaching £15,000, suggests Alliance & Leicester, as one-fifth of FTBs spend a third kitting out their homes within the first month.

The FSA will place particular attention and investment on small firms, such as adviser and intermediary businesses, over the course of the next financial year.

The Liberal Democrats have unveiled a ‘pre-manifesto' to the next general election which proposes to fund free "personal care" and abolish university tuition fees through the introduction of a "very high" tax rate.

A growing number of discontented parents are sending their offspring to private rather than state schools, increasing the lifetime education costs of their child to around £150,000, suggests Skipton Building Society.

Research commissioned by the £556m Scottish Investment Trust into parent's savings habits suggests just 1% expect their children to contribute the full cost of tertiary education.