networks

To acquire Vision Group

Sesame Bankhall Group (SBG) has reconfigured its management team following a strategic review that led to the demise of its investment advice network earlier in the year.

Adviser network Personal Touch Financial Services has written to members informing them of a planned fee increase after suffering what it called "indiscriminate" increases to its regulatory costs.

Sesame Bankhall Group (SBG) has lost almost 60% of its network's member firms in the wake of a decision to kill-off its problem-laden investment advice business.

Wealth manager Sanlam UK has bought a 20% stake in the Caerus network alongside the firm's entire asset management business.

Questions are being raised over the contracts on offer to exiting Sesame network advisers considering buying-in the support of its sister company Bankhall, which include an apparent two-year tie-in and "ridiculous" annual fees for services.

Clive Balchin had been with Sesame for 18 years but an ever more stringent approach to compliance pushed him to hand in his notice - just days before the group announced it was shutting its investment network.

Sesame plans to shut its Financial Adviser School as part of its wider restructuring, it has said in its latest letter to advisers.

Networks face a murky future

Networks don't collect enough money from their advisers to maintain sufficient systems and controls, which means they can only go one way - down, according to the chief executive of IFA network 2plan.