Opinion

One thing I've noticed about our industry is that we do like to confuse ourselves. I'm sure it's the same whichever industry you work in, but the amount of jargon and abbreviations thrown around by the insurance industry is enough to create a new dictionary....

The last few weeks have seen announcements on best practice for paying protection claims from the ABI (good), hundreds of final responses going into the FSA over the RDR (not sure), more protection providers removing more of their medical limits or improving...

It's back to work with a bang after a pleasant festive break. I hear the postal service is all bunged up at the moment and has been for the last couple of weeks so I expect that will slow everything down as we all get back in to full swing.

A revered Spanish novelist once wrote: "Take care, your worship, those things over there are not giants but windmills."

The technological revolution for IFAs, if we can call it such, has been running much longer in the back office than the front, indeed a good rule of thumb in our market is the further you go from the client experience, the more you will find technology....

The financial trade press is full of articles from industry commentators telling advisers that they must expand their range of products to their clients if they are to survive the current market downturn which is set to continue well into 2008.

Now the credit crunch is here, everyone has hindsight and is lamenting, "How on earth could lenders be so risky in extending credit more and more to those who present a poor risk?"

It may sometimes be a little chaotic, but spending time with family and friends over Christmas is always wonderful. Over and above the generosity, thoughtfulness and good cheer that we associate with Christmas, spending time with family and friends also...

There seem to be a few giant problems on the horizon! Real estate difficulties, stagflation, current account imbalances and sub prime problems to name but a few.

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