IFA

Advisers are preparing immediate mail-outs to clients to warn them of the impact of today's ECJ ban on gender-based insurance pricing.

State pension forecasts sent out to people approaching retirement are so complicated even financial advisers do not understand them, pensions minister Steve Webb says.

Tim Sargisson, the managing director of James Hay Partnership, has defended the provider's decision to tell clients the FSCS levy may be passed to them.

Assets in iShares ETFs held on wrap platforms have more than doubled in 2010 to reach £557.9m.

Friends Provident is facing calls to review hundreds of pension transfers after an IFA formally complained details about bonus guarantees had been left off a client's statement.

The Association of Medical Insurance Intermediaries (AMII) has branded the proposed 57% increase in 2011's Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) levy as "unfair, excessive and totally inappropriate."

Merchant Securities has acquired wealth management firm GT Independent Financial Advisers Limited for £2m.

The British Bankers Association (BBA) has written to FSA CEO Hector Sants proposing a "simplified advice" model for the mass market, which it says would fill an advice gap left by the RDR.

Intelligent Pensions is offering IFAs the chance to transfer their income drawdown clients to its drawdown partnership service with no initial charges.

Some Barclays' advisers are delaying applications for clients as they attempt to poach business from the bank and set up their own IFA firms, an adviser claims.