Standard Life

Insurers have condemned government plans to regulate their claims departments under new rules designed to curb "ambulance chasers" who encourage spurious personal injury claims, reports the Times .

The Financial Services Authority's proposal to free-up capital across the life insurance industry has led some providers to suggest there could be reduced premiums and greater innovation across the protection industry.

The bad news is it still looks likely any number of additional wrap propositions could come to market, while the good news is existing platforms are beginning to differentiate themselves on a feedback basis.

HBOS has announced a drive on further costcutting which is expected to make annual costsavings of £300m by the end of 2009, reports the Scotsman .

The ASP hoo-ha that developed following Ed Balls' comments in July at last seems to be dying down. Attention has now turned to the much more important topic of personal accounts.

The idea of personal accounts are ‘ridiculous' when pension credit means 60% of people would not be safe in going into personal accounts, says Standard Life.

Well if you have just returned from two weeks in the sun, the answer is likely to be "Not much. I had more than 200 emails waiting for me".

Five of the UK's financial services fund platforms have joined together to create a committee aimed at building industry-wide standards.

Listed life insurance firms Resolution Group and Standard Life are set to become members of the FTSE 100 index, but one of its investment house rivals will leave.

Less than a half of financial advisers have recommended pension term assurance (PTA) since A-Day, according to research from Standard Life.