The Advice Show: Recent Episodes

Citywire

Exclusive interviews and lively chat with a diverse mix of figures from the financial planning profession, personal finance and financial services.

An investigation by Citywire New Model Adviser found that former pension scheme members were threatened with legal action earlier this month. Pension scheme administrators including Capita and Mercer demanded the return of tens of thousands of pounds, after errors were discovered in transfer value calculations. Carla Langley, founder of The Langley Consultancy, dives into the issue with David Brooks, head of policy at pensions administrator Broadstone Corporate Benefits.

The investigation can be found here: https://citywire.com/new-model-adviser/news/revealed-capita-demands-1m-db-transfer-money-back-from-members/a2423312

In another big month for New Model Adviser, consumer duty’s time finally came, the once-might Gars was merged away. The NMA reporters also discussed claims management firms targeting SJP clients, as well as industry gossip.

New FCA data shows that the lack of trust in financial advice is as bad as ever. With failed firms still phoenixing, questions over independent advice, and the promotion of unregulated advice, the challenges for the industry are clear. How can we turn this around? We’re joined by co-founder of Celtic Financial Planning Rob Lewis to discuss.

In an uncertain macroeconomic climate, the passive versus active debate rages on. Evidence Based Investing CEO Craig Burgess told NMA reporters why his firm favours passive investing in this climate, and just how low EBI’s prices will go. NMA Reporter Zach Sharif is joined by NMA’s Senior Investment Reporter Nicola Blackburn.

Parmenion’s Mike Morrow discusses Intelliflo’s partnership with SS&C, the FCA’s cash margin concerns, and the impact of consumer duty. He is joined by NMA reporters Zachariah Sharif and Alicja Hagopian.

In the US, numerous issues are plaguing the IFA (‘RIA’) marketplace. How can the UK market avoid those mistakes? In this episode, Citywire RIA editor Ian Wenik discusses the fallout from too much private equity money in financial advice, from a lack of IPOs to cultural issues.

In our first monthly roundup, the NMA reporters explore industry gossip, the biggest stories of the last month, and what’s yet to come. Last month, Odey Asset Management founder Crispin Odey was ousted from his firm, following allegations of sexual misconduct from 13 women. NMA revealed that advice consolidator Perspective was up for sale, with private equity buyers looking like a safe bet. We also discuss private equity’s impact in the platform space, and how the market is changing.

Dimensional co-CEO Dave Butler joined the Advice Show during his first visit to the UK since the pandemic to discuss financial planning, AI in investing, and how Dimensional navigated markets in 2022.

Dimensional co-CEO David Brooks joined the Advice Show during his first visit to the UK since the pandemic to discuss financial planning, AI in investing, and how Dimensional navigated markets in 2022.

We also hear about his brief stint as a professional basketball player in Birmingham.

Fundment CEO Ola Abdul chats custom indexing, the new service his platform launched last month, which allows advisers to tailor index funds to their clients need.

Custom indexing has made a big splash in the US market, in this episode we ask Abdul if it will take off in the UK and what its challenges and benefits are for advisers.

Nowadays, deals are completed all the time in the advice market, with more money flowing in than ever before. But not all deals get over the line. Dominic Rose, CEO at MKC Wealth, has completed over 100 acquisitions. He joins NMA Reporter Zach Sharif to talk about his biggest frustrations, different acquisition models, and the advice market.

Most ESG portfolio managers have a policy to engage with their investee companies to influence positive change. But what does the engagement process actually look like?

In this episode, CEO of impact-focused technology company Tumelo, Georgia Stewart, discusses why advisers should pay closer attention to the murky world of investor engagement.

To mark the 10-year anniversary of the retail distribution review (RDR), we look back on how the reforms came about, what impact they had on the advice market and ask if they were a success. In this 3-part series we speak to the key players involved, at advice firms, the FCA and in the industry to dig deep into the biggest ever change for the UK advice market. In episode one we spoke to Phil Melville, one of the first advisers to move away from commission, as well as David Ferguson, co-founder of Nucleus, Frank Dobson, audience development director Citywire and David Geale, director retail banking FCA.

NMA speaks to investment consultant Henry Cobbe about positioning equities for a higher-inflation environment with sector and factor investment strategies.

NMA reporters Nicola Blackburn, Chloe Meley, and Zach Sharif get together to chat about their favourite stories of the year, and reflect on a unique year in financial services and beyond.

NMA editors Jack Gilbert and Charles Walmsley sat down with FCA directors David Geale and Therese Chambers to talk about the 10 years since RDR, and how the reforms have changed the industry.

Recorded live from NextGen Planners’ Liverpool conference in October, NMA hears from podcast host and adviser Chanelle Pattinson on how to improve representation in advice, from SJP academy head Andy Payne on bringing through the newest batch of advisers at the UK’s largest advice firm, and CISI director for global business development Kevin Moore on why his organisation is doing more to bring in young people.

Reporter Nicola Blackburn speaks to Romain Mouquet, portfolio manager on the £214m CCLA Better World Global Equity fund, about the financial and sustainability risks that influence a strict investment policy: to avoid companies that generate more than 10% of revenues from oil and gas extraction.

Will Hunt’s autumn budget fix our economy? Robert Lewis, director at Celtic Financial Planning, reacts to the budget. He discusses client concerns, market reaction and economic growth with reporter Zach Sharif.

10 years on from RDR and in the midst of consumer duty, reporter Chloé Meley speaks to Ed Dymott from Benchmark Capital and Anthony Villis from First Wealth about how professional standards have evolved, and how chartered status could help boost the industry’s reputation.

Reporter Chloé Meley speaks to Aaron Cain, cybersecurity consultant at financial services consultancy Altus, about the cybersecurity risks firms face and the tangible steps they can follow to protect themselves.

In this episode of The Advice Show, Just Group director Stephen Lowe speaks to Citywire New Model Adviser reporter Zachariah Sharif about the state of pensions, the future of the 60:40 portfolio and the rise in ‘living inheritances’. He also discusses government policy, and what this will mean for those saving for retirement.

Reporter Chloé Meley speaks to Chanelle Pattinson, co-founder of subscription-based flexible advice service Money Means, about how subscription-based financial planning could make advice more accessible, while remaining profitable for advisers.

After September’s market volatility, are multi-asset managers ditching or keeping government bonds? In this episode, Schroders’ Alex Funk discusses why he remains cautious on gilts and the renewed appeal of bonds for equity income funds.

Reporter Chloé Meley speaks to Heather Hopkins, managing director of NextWealth, about NextWealth’s latest report on the health of the advice industry and how a cautious attitude has defined 2022 for advisers.

Reporter Chloé Meley speaks to Adam Rackley, fund manager at Cape Wrath Capital, about the biggest problems facing the fund industry, and why advisers should consider smaller players despite the push for ever-bigger funds.

Reporter Zach Sharif speaks to Tom Selby, head of retirement policy at AJ Bell, about what the mini-Budget policies mean for the economy.

Following on from this year’s Alpha Female report, reporter Chloe Meley speak to two women in financial services about their experiences in the industry and the initiatives that companies could implement to change the male-dominated culture of finance.

In our NMA retreat at the Grove, Hertfordshire, we spoke to event speaker International Chess Grandmaster, Judit Polgár about the importance of strategy, critical thinking and the key to having a strong mindset.

ESG funds experienced a bull run in 2021, but more recently, the tide seems to have turned. We ask the question 'what happened to ESG?' with consultant Jon Dean in this episode of The Advice Show.

Panorama explored the failure of Blackmore Bond in ‘The Billion Pound Savings Scandal’ last week. It featured NMA’s Deputy Editor Jack Gilbert. We speak to Jack about the making of the film.

The likes of Facebook, Google and TikTok are cracking down on fraudulent financial services advertising, but are they doing enough to stop scams? In this episode of The Advice Show, ‘finfluencer’ Alex Stedman shares how pertinent fraudulent financial promotions are on social media and evaluates the measures in place to stop them.

Microservices is a type of software architecture used in building investment platforms. Instead of having a big lump of software, you have smaller components that can be swiftly updated. With two microservices experts, we discuss what benefits this new development could bring to advisers.

In our final episode, we reflect on the long term effects the scandal could have on steelworkers, why firms will fail and the timescale the FCA is expecting steel workers to be redressed by.

This week we look into how the British steel advisor group has been trying to protect those affected, and whether IFAs had the workers’ best interest.

In episode two of Citywire New Model Adviser's special podcast series about the British Steel Pension Scheme scandal, senior reporter James Fitzgerald speaks with an affected steelworker and the FCA about the sort of unsuitable advice that was given by some IFAs who rushed down to advise steelworkers before and during the time to choose period in 2017. The FCA's director of consumer investments, Therese Chambers, discusses what the regulator did to stop that unsuitable advice during the early days of the scandal and a lawyer representing a group of 100 IFAs who gave advice to steelworkers hits back at claims that a majority of advisers did the wrong thing.

For the next four weeks, The Advice Show will be off air.

Instead, Citywire New Model Adviser’s chief reporter James Fitzgerald has produced a special podcast series called The Phoenix Files, which includes testimony from steelworkers, pensions experts, the FCA and IFAs on how the British Steel Pension Scheme unfolded and if and when the misselling saga will ever end.

In episode one, Fitzgerald speaks with British steelworker Rich Caddy about the early days of the scandal in 2017, including how British Steel and the scheme’s trustees let workers down during the ‘time to choose’ period for switching their pensions, and what happened when IFAs flocked to Scunthorpe, Port Talbot and Teeside to advise those steelworkers.

Pensions expert and former IFA Al Rush also tells frightening tales of adviser misconduct in the early days of the scandal, and Hargreaves Lansdown’s pensions and retirement spokesperson, Helen Morrisey, gives her thoughts on why so much of the advice that was given was unsuitable.

Open finance expert Raphael Bianchi explains what open finance is, what it means for advisers, and how it will reshape the financial services world.

Are we jumping back 50 years, with inflation and political upheaval taking centre stage again? Attendees at the Citywire Midlands Retreat weigh in on what makes this current situation different.

This week, 70 UK companies began a six month trial of a four-day working week. But a shorter working week is nothing new for Beaufort Financial Planning.

In this episode of The Advice Show, director Gwilym Lloyd Jones discusses why a four-day week has been a success at his firm.

In this episode, Progeny's head of research, Robert Harrison, said China is looking 'more interesting' as a region to invest in, despite the continued lockdowns and ongoing economic uncertainties. And Harrison and Jamie Ward, head of investment solutions at AJ Bell, discuss why the UK has become an increasingly attractive market for their portfolios.

Advice firms should not divest their climate-unfriendly assets and could do more to direct clients’ investments in to sustainable funds, according to a senior policy fellow at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.

At Citywire's inaugural Impact Retreat, Danae Kyriakopoulou spoke to reporter Nicola about the link between climate and financial risks.

How do you analyse a universe of 8,000 stocks being picked by the world's best performing fund managers?

That is a question Dan Grote and Algy Hall have been answering with their new Fix the Future project for Citywire. Here they explain to us the thinking behind their analysis and what they will be looking for in the best managers.

They also explain why this is not about ESG, and how the world has changed since Dan was writing NMA's 'green pages' back in 2007.

In this episode of the Advice Show for Mental Health Awareness week, mental wellbeing advocates Kate Erman and Anastasia Vinnikova share with reporter Chloé Meley some practical tips to help advice firms support their employees’ mental health.

ESG or impact fund managers often hold healthcare stocks because they align with the United Nations’ third Sustainable Development Goal: to ‘ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages’.

However, many larger healthcare companies have controversies to their name, ranging from charges of bribery to poor care. There is also a question about their role in the privatisation of healthcare in countries such as the UK which have a public health service.

Chris Welsford, managing director of Ayres Punchard Investment Management, discusses a well-known example: Centene, a £67.2bn US health insurer. We discuss the company’s controversies, our engagement with sustainable funds holding Centene, and investing for positive impact.

In this episode of the Advice Show, reporter Chloé Meley speaks to two decentralised finance experts, Caroline Hughes and Lavinia Osbourne, about where DeFi opportunities lie for the UK in general and for the financial services sector in particular.

In this episode of The Advice Show, Kevin Doran, managing director of AJ Bell Investments, discusses 'Dodl', AJ Bell's consumer investment app aimed at first-time investors.

In this episode of the Advice Show, Citywire New Model Adviser reporter Chloe Meley speaks to founder of Contact State Alain Desmier and director of Vision Business Advisers Peter Trotman about why lead generation in the advice industry should be better regulated, and why due diligence on the part of advisers is crucial.

Desiree Fixler was formerly the group sustainability officer at German asset manager DWS. But after accusing DWS of publishing misleading information about its ESG integration and assets, she was fired.

In this interview, Fixler shares her story, unpicks common issues within the ESG investment universe, and calls for a reform of how sustainability is regulated.

In this week's edition of The Advice Show, NMA's James Fitzgerald speaks with PIMFA's Tim Fassam about how the FCA's British Streel redress scheme could affect the pensions transfer market.

This episode of New Model Adviser is a 'cost of living' special. Reporter Nicola speaks with Jessica Geere, financial planner at Magenta Financial Planning, Steven Cameron, public affairs director at Aegon, and Jon Dean, head of retirement strategy at Altus.

Crypto and NFTs are rising in popularity, despite the high volatility of digital assets. In this episode of the Advice Show, Jonathan Warren discusses the risks and opportunities of crypto investments, and how advisers should approach the crypto conversation with their clients.

In this episode of the Advice Show podcast, news editor Laura Purkess speaks to tax experts Tim Stovold from Moore Kingston Smith, Andrew Aldridge from Deepbridge Capital, and Jessica List from Curtis Banks, about how advisers can make the most of tax-year end for both clients and their own businesses and staff.

After his speech at the NMA Conference & Awards historian David Olusoga sat down with NMA deputy editor Jack Gilbert to discuss how the UK is confronting the evils of slavery and colonialism and what financial services firms are doing about their own past role in the system.

Clients’ expectations of their advisers have changed. In this episode of The Advice Show, a managing director of wealth management firm Charles Stanley joins New Model Adviser to discuss how advisers can make the most of technology, from client portals to social media, to manage client demand and increase efficiency.

St. James's Place director Alex Loydon speaks to NMA's James Fitzgerald about how the advice giant's advisers are helping their clients through the cost of living crises.

In this episode of The Advice Show, Citywire AA-rated fund manager Samantha Gleave chats to reporter Nicola about how macro market events have affected her stock selection decisions - from the indirect impact of a Russian invasion in Ukraine to incoming sustainable disclosure regulations.

In its first new digizine edition, NMA meets planners Colin Low and Jonathon Crisp to hear all about their joint DFM venture RXi Wealth

The FCA is set to implement its wide-ranging Consumer Duty later this year, which will see regulations that cover all forms of advice and client outcomes strengthened for all advice firms. SimplyBiz head of consultancy, Karl Dines, runs NMA senior reporter through the FCA's new regulations, and talks about why they will be good for advisers and consumers in the long run.

In this edition of The Advice Show, The Lang Cat’s principal, Mark Polson, reveals to Citywire New Model Adviser senior reporter James Fitzgerald what advisers are thinking, and why consolidation and regulation are the biggest topics in this year’s State of The Adviser Nation report.

In this episode of The Advice Show, reporter Nicola Blackburn speaks with Gillian Hepburn, head of UK intermediary solutions at Schroders.

In December, Gillian published the 2021 edition of the Schroders UK Financial Adviser Survey, which gained responses from 203 advisers across the UK. The survey captured how advice businesses were facing up to trends affecting the profession in 2021, such as increased M&A activity, and rising client interest in sustainable investing and cryptocurrencies.

Gillian and Nicola discuss some of the key findings in this episode, and Gillian uses her 'crystal ball' to predict what advisers should look out for in 2022.

In the first episode of The Advice Show for 2022, Citywire NMA senior reporter James Fitzgerald speaks with 7iM’s head of investment and ESG, Terence Moll.

Moll tells Fitzgerald that the FCA’s proposed climate disclosure regulations will help wealthy financial firms provide clarity on their net-zero goals and investments, and explains why world governments need to implement a carbon tax to tackle climate change.

In this week's episode of The Advice Show podcast, ShareAction CEO Catherine Howarth discusses whether the world's largest asset managers are stepping up to their proxy voting responsibilities.

She reveals to New Model Adviser reporter Nicola Blackburn that the world's largest asset managers do not support two thirds of ESG resolutions in their proxy voting.

In this episode of the Advice Show podcast, news editor Laura Purkess speaks to Tom Skinner and Emma Walker, co-founders of advice firm Barnaby Cecil, about whether changes to the tapered annual allowance have resolved problems with doctors being hit with high tax charges and whether more could be done to ease pressure on the NHS.

In this episode of The Advice Show, New Model Adviser reporter Nicola Blackburn talks to Daniel Martin, creator of TikTok, Instagram and Twitter platforms @dantalksmoney.

The NMA top 35 NextGen adviser shares his insights into the financial values of Gen Z and discusses how to bridge the financial literacy gap among young people.

In this episode of The Advice Show podcast, reporter Nicola Blackburn speaks with Ashley Claxton, head of responsible investment at Royal London Asset Management.

Claxton discusses the health of the green bond market, pinpoints investment opportunities in this developing space, and shares her thoughts on what makes a green bond credible.

In this episode of the Advice Show podcast, Citywire New Model Adviser journalist Laura Purkess speaks to Taylor Beavis, director of Universe Financial Advice, about how imposter syndrome affects him. He talks about some of his biggest successes to date, and how he keeps his imposter syndrome under control so it does not stop him achieving his goals.

In this edition of The Advice Show, Citywire New Model Adviser senior reporter James Fitzgerald speaks with Quilter Financial Planning’s investment director Rick Eling about his new scam avoidance framework and why the regulator shouldn’t have to push advisers to embrace ESG investing.

In this episode of The Advice Show podcast, reporter Nicola Blackburn speaks to Gavin Francis, CEO of Worthstone, a hub of impact investment resources for financial planners and advisers.

Nicola and Gavin discuss how to navigate the convoluted world of ESG data, the place of 'transitioning' companies in ethical investors' portfolios and what could really be happening beneath a fund's surface.

They also discuss incoming UK regulation that will mandate sustainability disclosures for asset managers, and Gavin has a think about why some advice firms are faster at integrating 'impact' considerations in to their practise than others.

'When a firm is committed to developing a solution for their clients in the area of sustainable investing, obviously there's a big question around the risk to the business in introducing a solution to their clients,' he says. 'That question of risk becomes greater, the greater the size of the organisation, because they're looking for consistency across their advisers.'

Gavin also introduces Worthstone's portfolio impact reporting. Available to Worthstone subscribers, the tool provides advisers with 'impact metrics' for their chosen selection of funds and generates bespoke impact reports for clients.

In this episode of the Advice Show podcast, deputy online editor Laura Purkess outlines some of the biggest announcements in this week’s Budget and speaks to four industry experts to hear their views on what was – or what was not – revealed.

In this edition of The Advice Show, Citywire New Model Adviser senior reporter James Fitzgerald talks to Openmoney’s product manager, Alex Bodek, about why he started his career in financial planning, and how the expansion of digital advice offerings in the UK is helping to narrow the advice gap.

In this edition of The Advice Show podcast, Citywire New Model Adviser senior reporter James Fitzgerald speaks with the CEO of advice network Tenet, Mark Scanlon, about how consolidation is a necessary evil, and how the government and regulator need to do more to educate kids about finance.

Citywire Selector's Margaryta Kirakosian joins us to discuss what is happening in Europe when it comes to ESG regulation, and why this matters for UK investors.

We also discuss social impact investing and the recent German election.

In this episode of the Advice Show podcast, reporter Laura Purkess speaks to Tom Selby, senior analyst at AJ Bell, about recent tax and policy changes including the increase to the national insurance rate, the suspension of the triple-lock and the new social care cost cap, and look at what the Autumn Budget could have in store.

In this edition of The Advice Show podcast, Citywire New Model Adviser reporter James Fitzgerald speaks with Pimfa’s director of government relations and policy, Tim Fassam, about the FCA’s latest row back on its Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) levy reduction target and why the regulator needs to come up with a more ambitious solution.

In this episode of the Advice Show podcast, reporter Laura Purkess speaks to Charlotte Wood, director of Rosewood Financial Planning, about her work to help make the financial planning profession more inclusive for women.

From launching a Facebook Group and growing it to over 800 members, to planning an all-female conference, Wood is on a mission to make her mark on the profession's relative lack of diversity.

Earlier this year, she wrote a series of articles that re-ignited the discussion around sexism in financial advice, and in the wider working world.

She talks about what drove her to write about her concerns, and how she felt about the response to them, as well as what she learned from the experience.

In this edition of The Advice Show, reporter James Fitzgerald speaks with Neil Moles, the CEO of national IFA Progeny, about why advisers need to come together and create a code of ethics and how that can stop the ‘claims culture’ currently being seen in financial services.

PFS members have been up in arms ever since NMA revealed in April that the CII was planning to deregister the professional body for the third time. If subsumed by its parent body, the PFS would lose control over its own finances, operations and, most importantly, members.

Former PFS presidents and senior society members have recently formed pressure groups in an effort to force the CII to change its approach, but although the PFS board voted down registration the other week, later events at its annual general meeting (AGM) highlighted just how much of a fight PFS members have on their hands.

Walker tells Fitzgerald that the CII has not been transparent in its dealings with PFS members - especially in regard to deregistration - and claims that the CII’s CEO's behavior at its AGM last week showed that she was not listening to the concerns of members.

He adds that if the CII won’t take heed of IFA members' concerns, or at least answer their questions truthfully, then it is time to break the PFS away from its parent body and start afresh. That way, he says, PFS members will be the masters of their own destiny and not have to deal with, what members claim, is a society that has treated the PFS like a cash cow for far too long.

We were lucky enough to receive some pearls of wisdom from experienced planners recently.

‘Understand marketing. Most people forget about it,’ said Craig Palfrey, managing partner of Cardiff IFA Penguin Wealth Planners.

‘If you can’t get people to sit in front of you, there is no point being in the game.’

In this episode of the Advice Show podcast, reporter Laura Purkess tries to do just that.

In conversation with Dan Graham, head of community experience and marketing at NextGen Planners, Laura asks Dan what kinds of content you should make to grow your audience, and, crucially, how often you should post it.

Dan also reveals the very first things you should do to start marketing your business, three key things every financial planning firm needs on its website (yes, you need a website!) and what you can do to appear at the top of Google’s search results without paying for adverts.

Finding a solution for clients is not just about picking an investment strategy based on the assets they have.

More and more advisers are looking to segment client bases differently to ensure they have the best solution for each client.

Gillian Hepburn, UK intermediary solutions director at Schroders, joins us to discuss how advisers can serve divorced and widowed women.

In this edition of The Advice Show, NMA reporter James Fitzgerald speaks with Foster Denovo’s head of investment research, Declan McAndrew, about why advisers need to broach ESG considerations with clients first before being pushed into action.

In recent weeks, some IFAs have taken to social media to say that as their clients have never asked them about sustainable investing or ESG considerations, then there is no need for them to bring it up.

Indeed, there is no regulatory framework forcing IFAs to ask clients about their sustainable goals, but McAndrew tells Fitzgerald that if advisers just ask the right questions, then they can open up a whole new stream of investment options, and indeed revenue, for themselves and their clients.

He adds that older clients often aren’t fussed about ESG investing, but as their grandchildren and children become more concerned about the environment, then the older demographic will be keener to speak with their IFA about sustainable investing options.

Citywire Americas editor Atholl Simpson dialed in from the other side of the pond to talk through the region’s success stories with New Model Adviser editor Will Robins. Latin America’s financial sector might be a well-trodden area for global investors, but a tech start-up scene is making waves in a region so reliant on exports. Whether fintech or e-commerce, from Brazil to Colombia, investors looking for the next Amazon (not the forest) could do worse than look at Latin America.

When Olympic rower Alex Partridge left the sport he had spent nearly a decade and a half devoted to, he soon became unstuck.

A breakdown beckoned, and he realised he needed to change something to get his life back on track.

That change turned out to be people. Partridge realised he missed being part of a team, missed helping others, and missed the thrill of achieving something as a unit.

A couple of roles in consulting and fund management later, and he has now found a niche in a technology company backed by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Big Society Capital: Wagestream.

Wagestream’s mission is simple: give staff power over their pay by giving them access to what they earn, as they earn it. No more loan sharks. No more credit card debt. No more living paypacket to paypacket.

In this first episode of Nice City, a new Citywire New Model Adviser podcast series hosted by Ollie Smith and Amelia Garland, they ask Partridge about his mental health journey, his new team, and why it is that people struggle with money.

In this edition of The Advice Show podcast, NMA reporter James Fitzgerald speaks with director of content at NextGen planners and former Personal Finance Society (PFS) president Adam Owen about exam problems and student success stories during the pandemic.

Owen tells Fitzgerald the CII was ‘brave’ to bring in remote exams so quickly after lockdown, but after continual issues over the last 14 months, the body needs to listen to student feedback instead of pretending the technical problems they have faced are just a flash in the pan.

He adds that members should expect their professional body to run exams properly, and that if the CII doesn’t fix its issues, students may be dissuaded from sitting them in the future.

Octopus Group bought financial coaching business Hatch last month, rebranding it to Octopus Moneycoach with a pledge to invest £10m to help it achieve scale.

The coaching service partners with employers to offer financial coaching to staff for £250 per year, but newly-appointed CEO Adam Price - formerly chair and founder of advice directory Vouchedfor - says this can be paid through salary sacrifice, taking the real cost to roughly £144.

Staff can also choose to upgrade to a full financial planning service, which Hatch provides through partnerships with established advice firms.

Octopus’s investment in the business will, he says, help scale the business and increase the number of financial coaches from 30 to 200 over the next two years.

He also explains to Laura Purkess Price that the business aspires to ‘transform a million lives’, amid FCA estimates that 18 million people in the UK would benefit from affordable financial advice.

When Beth Yates was 13, she was taken to hospital with extreme tiredness and a ‘paralysing’ pain in her arms and legs.

She was diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis, which is also known as chronic fatigue syndrome.

In this episode of The Balance, reporter Laura Purkess speaks to Yates, who now works in the personal wealth support team at Schroders Personal Wealth, about how she manages to work in financial planning with a debilitating condition.

Yates has a had a successful career in financial services, working at Lloyds Banking Group before joining SPW, but her life has involved constant comrpomise.

She had always wanted to study at Oxford University, but with her diagnosis came the knowledge that there neither a cure or treatment for her condition. Her future looked very uncertain.

After spending several years bed- and wheelchair-bound with limited independence, Yates says she eventually got ‘fed up’ and, through a lot of determination and ‘fighting constantly’, started to learn how to get on with life while managing the illness.

She is now studying for her diploma in financial planning alongside her work, an endeavour SPW is supporting.

If you have a story to tell for The Balance contact lpurkess@citywire.co.uk

In this edition of The Advice Podcast, NMA reporter James Fitzgerald speaks with the managing director of Manchester-based advice firm Wetherall’s Financial Planning, James Wetherall.

Wetherall talks about his new guide which provides tips to help advice firm principles fine, hire and train graduate financial planners.

The guide, which contains articles and contributions from Zero Support’s Phil Young, and Sandringham CEO Tim Sargisson, among others, details why hiring young people is key to helping narrow the advice gap, and how principals can benefit from injecting young blood into their firms.

For this edition of Advice Around the World, we discuss the importance of financial literacy in India, and how planners can use their online presence to make a difference to a mass audience.

Preeti Zende is one of India’s leading financial planners. For starters, she offers a fee-based and client centric advice service in a market that is largely propped up by advisers earning commission through investment sales. Besides this, she has developed an impressive following on the popular question and answer website Quora, amassing over 5.5 million page views in the process. This is a staggering achievement, so we ask the founder of Apana Dhan Financial Services how she has built this online presence, and why she was inspired to do it. Zende explains that with no social security or safety net for individuals in India, the need for proper financial assistance is paramount. Bad decisions within such an environment can be catastrophic. Zende gives us insights into how she is breaking this barrier down and communicating financial themes and information in terms that people can actually understand.

In this episode of The Advice Podcast, NMA reporter James Fitzgerald speaks to the chief executive of consolidator Truinvest, Mark Smith, about how his business not only survived but thrived during last year’s multiple lockdowns.

Smith makes clear that consolidators who only buy firms to increase their AUM, and who do not take into account their new clients’ needs, are at risk of failing in the long term.

This, he says, is because if AUM is all a consolidator is after, and if client service levels drop post-acqusition, then acquired advisers and clients will, more often than not, walk out the door with their assets in tow.

Welcome to the Anthropocene: the epoch of the Earth's geological history defined by the impact of humanity. The UK government is is talking up its eco credentials now, but this week's guest from fund management, Bryn Jones, recounts meetings in Westminster where the very idea of a green bond was roundly dismissed. The Rathbone Ethical Bond Fund manager meets futurist Mark Stevenson and New Model Adviser editor Will Robins to discuss how fixed-income investors can be an effective force for change.

IWP's chief executive David Inglesfield speaks to NMA reporter Laura Purkess about IWP and its future plans. They discuss how the businesses chooses firms to acquire and its due diligence process, its relationship with the FCA, the acquisition of Bartholomew Hawkins Asset Management and the launch of the IWP adviser academy later this year.

The last few years have seen a growing number of wildfires around the world.

As well as major fires in Australia and California we have started to see more fires across Europe. A recent University of Reading report found that there was an increased risk of wildfires in the UK. There have even been fires in the Arctic.

We are joined by Guillermo Rein, professor of fire science at the department of mechanical engineering of Imperial College London, to discuss how companies can counter fire risk, and how investors can help.

Noel Butwell is CEO, adviser platforms at Standard Life Aberdeen. He looks after Wrap, Elevate and the adviser business 1825 and has big ambitions to number one platform of choice for advice firms. That, Butwell tells New Model Adviser editor Will Robins, would involve deep integration with back offices and to only pay for what is used. But could an ESG 'look through' be needed too? A similar 'pick and mix' approach will reshape its advice offer as well.

In this edition of the NMA podcast, reporter James Fitzgerald speaks with Quilter Financial Planning investment director, Rick Eling, about the firm's new mandatory ESG assessment rules.

Eling also claims that advisers who aren't taking ESG investing seriously will fall behind the pack as client demand for this area of investment advice will only become more popular.

In this episode, reporter Laura Purkess speaks to Dave Chaplin, CEO of ContractorCalculator, about the reforms to IR35 off-payroll working rules, which came into effect on 5 April 2021. They discuss why the reforms went ahead, what contractors and businesses should do to prepare and what the future holds for the contractor market.

Online investment scams are on the rise, and there is an ongoing debate about who is responsible for taking them down.

In this edition of the New Model Adviser podcast, reporter James Fitzgerald speaks with Tim Fassam, who is director of government relations at the Personal Investment Management & Financial Advice Association (Pimfa)

Fassam tells Fitzgerald that the government needs to seriously consider including online financial harms into its bill, otherwise Google and Facebook will continue to turn a blind eye to scams, and savers will be the ones who continue to lose out.

In this episode, reporter Laura Purkess talks to Chanelle Pattinson, a financial adviser at P&P Invest, about Chanelle's new support group for women under 30 within the NextGen Planners community and why she set it up. They also discuss what it's like attending industry events as a young woman and what event organisers can do to make attendees feel more comfortable.

In this edition of the NMA podcast, reporter James Fitzgerald speaks with Anthony Morrow, founder of Manchester-based digital advice firm Openmoney.

Morrow tells Fitzgerald that the FCA is right that digital advice is the way forward, and has proven its value after every financial adviser in the country was forced to work remotely - and therefore provide digital advice - after the Covid-19 pandemic hit the UK last March.

In addition, Morrow said that Openmoney has had an excellent year despite the pandemic, and that the business’s new initiatives and offerings which he launched this year will make it a ‘one-stop advice shop’ in the near future.

He also says the FCA has a ‘tough job’ in regard to tackling scams, especially with would-be investment ‘gurus’ using social media to spruik untruths.

Changing weather around the world is affecting companies. From storms knocking out communication networks in the US, to flooding hitting supply chains in parts of the UK, businesses are having to adapt to the future.

Alex Monk, co-manager of the Schroder Global Energy Transition fund, explains what this means for investment portfolios.

We discuss the companies adapting to the new world, the economics of going green, and the businesses that are doing something to change the course of climate change.

In this episode, NMA reporter Laura Purkess speaks to Tom Selby, senior analyst at AJ Bell, about some of the biggest announcements in the 2021 Budget, including freezing the lifetime allowance and income tax thresholds, hiking corporation tax for bigger businesses to 25%, extending the stamp duty holiday and re-introducing 95% mortgages.

In this latest episode of the New Model Adviser podcast, reporter James Fitzgerald speaks with Ben Hammond, platforms director at Altus Consulting.

They speak about the inner workings of recent private equity deals for platforms, and what recent takeovers mean for platforms’ staff, advisers and clients.

Hammond tells Fitzgerald that Platforms have become attractive options for private equity firms in recent years, and that the recent acquisitions we have seen may just be the beginning of mass consolidation in the platform space.

In this episode, reporter Laura Purkess talks to 7IM’s Verona Kenny about the biggest changes she’s seen in the advice profession over the course of her career. They talk about pension freedoms and the rise of responsible investing, as well as the growth and consolidation of advice firms.

The Covid-19 pandemic put a stop to most consolidation and IFA buyouts last year. But although the vaccine means we may return to normality sooner rather than later, there are some who think the acquisition market may stay stagnant for a while yet.

In this episode of the New Model Adviser podcast, reporter James Fitzgerald speaks to the managing director of Vision Business Advisers, Peter Trotman, who gives tips to IFAs wanting to sell their business, how the market struggled last year and why it may take some large national firms a while to start buying IFA firms again. Trotman also reflects on how stricter FCA regulations has led to delays for firms seeking new owners, and why greater oversight on consolidation may make for a better market.

Episode One. Welcome to a new ongoing series The Balance looking at real stories of personal difficulty within the advice profession and financial services. In this episode James Thorneley, former global head of media relations at Standard Life, recounts how he smashed his skull during an epileptic fit. He required serious surgery and over a month off work. Laura Purkess asks what support he received from his employer and colleagues, and how important it was to take the time needed to recover. The pair talk about what employers can do to support staff going through difficulties in their personal lives.

A breakdown of communication; failure to learn the lessons of the past; policy problems; improper planning; regulatory stalemate; and, of course, denial.

A perfect storm involving all these factors and more led to what Personal Finance Society CEO Keith Richards now candidly calls a 'DB debacle'.

In this episode, James Fitzgerald sits down with Richards to hear his side of the story.

It is an honest look at how the defined benefit (DB) pension transfer scandal unfolded, from the perspective of a key industry stakeholder trying to unite an overlooked and occasionally divided profession in the face of huge regulatory and business pressures.

Notably, Richards also reflects on the FCA and Treasury's 'failed' Financial Advice Market Review, and describes how Brexit arrived at precisely the wrong moment for a multi-pronged taskforce consisting of industry representatives, lobbyists, consumer protection experts, ministers and civil servants to make any meaningful progress.

Will lobbyists like Richard make any ground? It is entirely possible, Richards argues, but the government must come back to the table first. Consider that gauntlet thoroughly thrown down.

UPDATE: This is now the correct version of this podcast.

Paul Jourdan, the Citywire AAA-rated manager of the Amati Small Companies fund, is unhappy that ESG is seen as a ‘special sauce’. Indeed, what does it say about fund managers if we are only now applying ethical criteria?

Fellow guest and futurist Mark Stevenson said the notion of adding ESG criteria to a fund is as ‘absolutely ridiculous’ as your doctor telling you: good news, I have a medical degree.

‘You think ethics is bonus extra for your profession? Get stuffed!’

Advisers are used to getting frustrated about the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS), but few will be familiar with helping clients claim on it.

The process is actually mercifully simple, but as Felix Milton discovered, there is more to the FSCS than just claims.

When it comes to helping clients who have been wronged, there are a whole host of other things to consider: how to invest the compensation, if there is any, how to establish and maintain trust, and, crucially, how to spot who needs more help and who needs less.

In this episode, Felix joins Ollie Smith for a special four-part mini-series looking at financial planners' best work, kicking off with a discussion about how he is helping a number of clients either claim on the FSCS, or face down claims management companies.

The discussion lasts for around 20 minutes. If you are interested in sharing your best work on the show, get in touch with Ollie at osmith@citywire.co.uk.

Clients these days want to do good things with their money, and now that performance concerns have largely died off, ESG is enjoying its time in the sun.

But that doesn't mean the due diligence is easy. Indeed, one area you might be less familiar with in the ESG world is property.

Is it possible to insert property into clients' investments without compromising their values? Can IFAs be confident that such decisions won't be hindered by a supply chain scandal later down the line? And how should fund managers looking at this area respond to the moral imperative surrounding social housing posed by the Grenfell Tower disaster, and its long-running fallout?

In this episode, NMA special features editor Charles Walmsley quizzes Schroders fund manager Tom Walker on exactly these topics, and more.

As you'll hear, it turns out that the 'S' of 'ESG' is sometimes the hardest bit of all to get right with property. Fear not though. There is now a whole range of resources to help professional investors measure social impact, and the appropriateness of an investment.

With several Covid-19 vaccines now approved for use in the UK, it seemed like a good idea to discuss healthcare on the podcast again.

NMA editor Will Robins is joined by Citywire AAA-rated manager Paul Jourdan and ‘reluctant futurist’ Mark Stevenson to talk about the wider impact of coronavirus vaccines.

2020 was the year in which many investors wanted to make an impact with their funds.

No one was better placed to explain why this happened than Sophie Kennedy, head of investments at EQ Investors.

Kennedy takes us through the top picks in the firm's impact portfolios, and explains what the business has been up to during lockdown.

'We're in a great place right now,' declares an ebullient John Morton.

A former climate change adviser to president Barack Obama, Morton could not be more pleased to see Joe Biden prepare for the White House. Morton worked with Obama on his Paris Agreement legacy during his final months in the Oval Office, and is now very pleased indeed to see the former vice president come president-elect put climate action back on the table.

Why does this matter to advisers? Well, institutional investors and pension funds are about to swept along in an irrepressible tide of climate change disclosure regulation and corporate governance re-assessment, Morton says.

It might sound like more red tape. Not at all, Morton says. It is the greatest business opportunity of our lifetimes.

Financial advice clients will be encouraged to give more money to charity via The Together Charitable Foundation (TCF) launched by Jarrovian Wealth CEO Graeme Price and Cass Business School professor Paul Palmer.

TCF grants clients and their advisers control over where their money is given. Will it catch on? NMA editor Will Robins finds out how a 'DAF' could unleash the latent giving potential of so-called mass-affluent clients, who Palmer argues give proportionately less than both those more and less wealthy than they are.

Praemium chief operating officer Mark Sanderson joins us to explain why he thinks NMA got it wrong in this year's Platform Premier League.

We discuss using data to help clients, Praemium's global users, and Darren Fletcher.

You can see the full Platform Premier League here: https://tinyurl.com/y27lg8mc

Former Labour shadow secretary of state for business rings Ollie Smith from the back of a taxi to discuss his new role in ESG at comms giant Edelman.

Ollie Smith is joined by the contributors to a major report by Octopus Investments into the advice gap to discuss market failure, retiring advisers, and why culture is the key to making advice more accessible.

The participants were:

Ruth Handcock, chief executive, Octopus Investments

Claire Limon, director of learning and acquisition, Openwork

Rohan Sivajoti, director, Postcard Planning, and director and head of innovation, NextGen Planners

James Priday, managing director, Prydis, and P1 Investment Management

Alan Marks, managing director, Harrison Spence

Despite being one of the biggest (and oldest platforms) in the market, FundsNetwork CEO Jackie Boylan says she doesn’t want the Fidelity platform to be seen as a behemoth.

In this episode, she talks NMA news editor Jack Gilbert through her efforts to make the company more innovative and nimble with technology, improve its partnerships and do more integration with its biggest adviser users.

‘While we are deemed to be a bigger player and one of the long-standing ones, I don’t want to be pigeon-holed as the big old platform. We want to reinvent ourselves,' she says.

This episode was supposed to be about financial planning for business clients in the pandemic.

But the most striking admission you will hear in it is of a male manager showing vulnerability to his staff, and, we might add, to us too.

‘I’m not too proud to admit I struggled the most in lockdown,’ our guest this week says.

Lubbock Fine director Andrew Tricker sadly has prior experience of losing a former colleague to poor mental health, and it prompted him to be more open, and more self-aware, about his own role in other people’s lives.

‘I couldn’t appreciate why this young girl had done what she did, and I don’t suppose I do now really, but you can begin and try and understand,’ he said.

‘Being a manager of people, you have to develop skills to get [your staff] to talk to you, and I’ve tried with these video calls with my team, even if it’s not me they talk to, to get them to talk to someone about it.’

If you have been affected by any of the content in this episode, there are plenty of people who are able to help. Call Samaritans on 116 123, or visit Mind to access a range of mental health and self-help resources.

Innovative companies, fighting corruption and removing friction in the global economy, fintechs, particularity digital payments businesses look like a great proposition for investors and society alike. That said, despite coming in with a 'clean deck' the collapse of companies like Wirecard recently proves that governance (that not-to-be-overlooked aspect of ESG) is as important for investors to keep an eye on as before the 2008 crisis. But, as Jupiter manager Guy de Blonay argues, low interest rates over the last 10 years has proved a great environment for innovation and challenging the status quo. In this second 'Futurist meets fund manager' episode, Mark Stevenson joins de Blonay and Citywire editor Will Robins, to understand how society benefits from this investment

You're doing it wrong. Stop doing it like that. Put some more effort in. Advisers have heard many statements of this kind from the FCA in 2020, mainly regarding defined benefit (DB) pension transfers. But on this occasion, the person calling for an improvement is an adviser themselves. In this episode of the NMA podcast, Financial Relationships' managing partner Alex Morris joins magazine editor Ollie Smith to describe how he does his professional indemnity (PI) insurance renewals, and how conversations with brokers and insurers themselves have shaped his view of what advisers need to do better. There is no doubting that it is harder than ever to get cover at a reasonable price, but if Morris is to be believed there are a fair few things IFAs are still getting wrong when they renew. For starters, they are not devoting enough time to a process that he compares to a mortgage application in its length and complexity. For that, IFAs must give up a working week of their time, he says. Secondly, even if they are of a high quality, advisers' renewal applications are typically filed too late to attract the attention of over-worked underwriters, who put bad paperwork immediately to the bottom of the pile. Finally, IFAs are apparently not demonstrating thoughtful enough business planning to the people reading their forms. Get all this right, Morris says, and there is no reason why good firms should see the sorts of premium increases they have.

Google and Youtube have brought incredible utility to billions of people for free, and critics seeking to break up tech giants like their parent Alphabet should think twice whether that would solve any of the problems all companies face with data-led models. So argues Polar Capital's Ben Rogoff, co-manager of Polar Capital’s Global Technology and AI funds.

Rogoff also resists notions that advertising boycotts by major brands would make a meaningful difference to Facebook. Among other insights Rogoff explains why virtual reality could revolutionise university education. Why we should not hold our breath for driverless cars. And why Ocado is one of the UK's only 'genuinely world class' tech companies.

His funds have participated in the success of the tech sector precipitated by lockdown. But, he argues, a rising tide does not lift all boats, this has not been a free pass for all tech companies. And another insight: fund managers play video games too.

Former footballer-turned financial adviser Sam Sloma explains the financial challenges facing footballers during the coronavirus pandemic, as many face uncertain futures about when they can return to the pitch.

Does the return of top-flight English football today matter? Of course it does.

But events of the fast few months have shown there are bigger things that matter more – something illustrated by Marcus Rashford’s dramatic intervention on the need for hungry schoolchildren to be fed over the summer holidays.

Less than an hour after the government’s U-turn on school meals, Citywire’s Richard Lander (Manchester United) Angus Foote (West Ham) and Charles Walmsley (Liverpool) discussed events off and on the pitch with Telegraph football columnist Jim White.

Take a break from all things advice and investment, sit back and enjoy!

Green Party leader Jon Bartley made a name for himself when David Cameron's top team naively asked him to participate in a meet and greet with the leader outside a hospital in 2010.

Unbeknownst to Cameron, the man he meeting was not a starstruck voter who would just roll over. Rather, he was an angry dad with an economics degree and a disabled son, who had read the Conservative Party election manifesto in full, and knew it inside out.

Unluckier still for Cameron, the television cameras were there to capture the whole disastrous moment unfold.

10 years later and Jon Bartley is a frontline politician. He is co-leader of the Green Party, and is as passionate a campaigner on the environment, inclusivity and green finance as ever.

In this episode, he gave up his lunch break to speak to magazine editor Ollie Smith about why he agrees with Mark Carney, why green investing should be democratised, and why, in his own words, green finance is 'symbiotic' with the Black Lives Matter movement.

‘Anyone who says technology has solved everything is completely bonkers,’ says Ross Sleight, chief strategy officer at Somo, our guest in this episode.

For those not in the know, Somo is a digital agency with experience of working with high street banks, wealth managers, and investment research companies.

In this episode, Sleight discusses the fintech revolution and what it might mean for financial advisers in terms of the client experience, robo-advice, tech integration and more.

In particular, he makes a strong case for how advisers can benefit from technology, while also highlighting the strength of interpersonal relationships, and reflecting on how people continue to misunderstand the relationship between people and tech.

‘Technology assists us, and allows us to do things in completely different ways and solve completely different problems,’ he says. Technology is never taking away face-to-face chat or the trust factor that exists between two people.’

‘Financial advisers need to utilise tech where it makes sense to serve their audience needs. You have to work out where the benefit and real pain point is for your customer, and what is it that you need to change.’

Nobody can really travel anywhere right now, but if you are in need of a trip somewhere, fear naught, we can help you out.

Over the past month, we have been speaking to certified financial planners all over the world, and the results are here for you listen to now.

In the episode above, you can hear some of the best bits from our conversations with planners and representatives of the Financial Planning Standards Board in five countries.

In America, hear about shifting fee models. In Brazil, hear about one planner's hopes that progress won't just be a 'bodge job'.

And in South Africa, a country still riven with historical racial tension, hear the story of a black female entrepreneur taking advice to people who never previously would have had the chance to receive it.

Replatforming is a huge challenge at the best of times, let alone in the middle of a lockdown and global pandemic. But, in the midst of the Coronavirus crisis, Embark switched Zurich customers onto a new platform systems at the end of April.

In this podcast, Phil Smith, Embark’s chief executive, discusses this platform migration, as well his plans for the Alliance Trust Savings platform, which he decided against migrating during the lockdown. ‘If you put consumers first, use common sense and you are not frightened to change your mind, then these things tend to go okay,’ he said.

Smith, a life-long Rotherham United fan, also chats about some potential good news regarding the league position of his team, which is sponsored by Embark.

Active fund management has encountered crisis after crisis in the last year, but one shining light amid all the chaos has been environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing.

Managers in the sector have shown themselves to be among the most nimble and forward-thinking, handing sustainable investing as a whole a clear boon.

But does ethical investing really have to be active?

In this episode, Oli Jones from Portfoliometrix explains to Charles Walmsley how he builds ethical portfolios for advisers’ clients, and explores some of the issues he encounters along the way. Get ready to have your existing views on how fund management really goes the extra mile for values-driven investors challenged and changed.

AES International chief executive Sam Instone is kicking himself.

Having shared a room with James Blunt while the two were both officers in the Household Cavalry, it is safe to say doubting Blunt's talents was not one of his best decisions.

In episode one of Citywire’s new Advice Around the World podcast, Instone tells Ian Horne and Amelia Garland about some of his better ones too, though.

As you will find out in the podcast, Instone is more than just the leader of one of the Middle East’s leading financial planning firms. He is also a magnificent storyteller.

Where to begin? For a kick off, Sam is a former member of the Household Cavalry, the Queen’s official bodyguard. Staggeringly, he tells us in detail about the time he leapt into action to block a dangerous projectile, that had been hurtling towards the monarch. It a cracking story, quite literally.

We also hear about his time spent serving alongside Blunt. Instone gives a privileged insight into the early years of the star's early musical career, as well as some of his reflections on getting to know the man himself.

And yes, this podcast is about financial planning too. We ask Instone about financial advice in Dubai. Is it really the Wild West that many perceive it to be? And if so, is there any hope that unscrupulous advisers might be turfed out anytime soon? Tune in to get Instone’s take.

All in all, an exciting start to the new series. Next stop, Australia.

A merger and accompanying leadership shakeup is hard enough at the best of times, let alone during a global pandemic.

But Covid-19 did not dissuade Quilter Financial Advisers (QFA) managing director, Darren Sharkey, who has pushed ahead with the long-awaited integration of Charles Derby and Lighthouse into Quilter’s national advice business.

New Model Adviser® revealed in April that QFA will now include the acquired Charles Derby and the Lighthouse advice, mortgage and protection businesses, but the integration has been a long time coming.

In this episode of our podcast, reporter James Fitzgerald speaks to Sharkey to find out just how smooth the integration has been for QFA’s advisers, how the national’s new telephone advice system is helping clients in lockdown, and how a business with so many moving parts is managing to improve its advice proposition during the pandemic.

Citywire has brought together two incredibly knowledgeable experts to approach the healthcare sector from radically different angles. One is Citywire AAA fund manager Paul Jourdan, manager of the TB Amati UK Smaller Companies fund. The other is Mark Stevenson, an author, consultant and futurologist who has been a popular speaker at Citywire events. With New Model Adviser editor Will Robins leading the discussion, the pair talk about cost of keeping people healthy and treating the sick, the breakthroughs certain companies have achieved and the inefficiencies others have allowed to build up. The three discuss the need for sweeping systems change and the dilemma facing politicians in the pandemic. ‘We should not assume we will have a vaccine for this’, says Jourdan. Given there are no guarantees of a vaccine for Covid-19, politicians will have to take tough decisions and start a much more honest conversation with the public. Meanwhile, says Stevenson, if we tried to deal with every disease deadly to humans in the word right now it would take us 400 years, at the current rate at which we develop drugs. But the eyes of the world are on the healthcare sector like never before. Government health systems and the businesses that deliver medicine, machinery and vaccines are under incredible pressure to deliver a solution to the Covid-19 pandemic. Will it succeed? Is it even fit for purpose? And how might this crisis change it, and healthcare investing, forever?

It's no secret that the UK has poor financial education. According to the Money Advice Service, more than 250 organisations across the UK are currently engaged in the task of trying to improve financial capability in the UK. But it is a mammoth task, and in some places a losing battle. Rallying the troops to discuss how to make mums, dads and kids up and down the country better with money is editor Will Robins, who was joined on Zoom by a plethora of enthusiastic participants, all keen to help crack the problem. From tailoring content to different age groups, to engaging with local schools, there is something here for anyone who wants to do more.

When Noel Butwell took over as Standard Life Savings chief executive last July, he certainly did not expect to be running an organisation under lockdown just nine months into the job. But tasked with running Standard Life’s platforms and advice arms smoothly, that is exactly what he has had to.

In this podcast he reveals the changes the business has made to 1825 have been received positively by its customers, and may herald a permanent move to advice over Zoom and videoconferencing. He also opens up about Standard Life’s new mass-market hybrid advice launch, and future plans for 1825, and the Wrap and Elevate platforms.

He's the ubiquitous face of pension policy beloved of national newspapers and trade magazines alike, us included. But now he's moving on. In just a few weeks, Hargreaves Lansdown head of policy Tom McPhail will be moving to a lobbying role at e-bike distributor Pure Electric. After such an illustrious career, we wanted to ask McPhail what his biggest highs and lows have been, and, of course, wish him all the very best for the future.

Even in the midst of a pandemic that has closed shops, sent oil prices into a nosedive and left large swathes of the global population confined to their homes, there are still funds out there that are performing well. In this episode, Citywire Funds Insider editor Dan Grote tells us what his readers are doing in the crisis, which managers they are keeping an eye on and why he’s glad he didn’t make any changes to his own portfolio.

In this episode of the New Model Adviser podcast, reporter Laura Purkess is joined by Verona Kenny, managing director of intermediary at 7IM, to discuss the value of 10% drop notifications, how pension freedoms clients have been affected by the recent market crash and how 7IM has coped with Covid-19.

Editor Will Robins interviews the recently-minted CEO of Royal London, Barry O’Dwyer. Will asks how the mutual managed to impress advisers in lockdown with slick customer service, and discovers how the pandemic could change its approach to long-term investments. Also on the agenda is how Royal London will adapt to the ‘100-year life’ and why O’Dwyer is relieved to be free from shareholders during this crisis.

Sometimes it’s worth taking the middle ground. That’s why Tatton Investment Management chief executive Lothar Mentel spoke to us about blending active and passive funds. We discussed getting the balance right, some common misconceptions about trackers, and why it (sometimes) pays to be exposed to more ‘esoteric’ holdings. And of course we considered what kind of impact Covid-19 will have on active management in the long run.

New Model Adviser editor Will Robins caught up with Tessa Lee, managing director of Moneyinfo, to discuss cost cutting, how to reduce reliance on postage, how to maintain cyber security and protect client data amid the remote working boom and wet signatures. Tessa also expand upon her call on advisers to abandon email as their means of sending client communications. Phishing attacks are on the rise! This discussion also touches on how to ensure your Zoom conversations are protected. [around18:00 in].

Firms have to pay hundreds or even thousands of pounds to have postage diverted, depending on how many offices they run, whether they are shared and so on. With lockdown arrangements in place there has been some discussion whether advisers should be making trips to pick up post. But with providers still sending documents by mail and failing to offer digital signatures some firms feel they have no choice. Tessa talks about what firms can and can’t’ be done using shared documents, portals and e-signatures. [about 8:00 minutes in]

Of course we all know there is more to a business than just hard work, there are teams and a social side too. Tessa explains the brilliant ways her team have been getting together to let off steam via video conferencing, and how to run a pub quiz!

Special features editor Charles Walmsley speaks to Chris Jones, proposition director at Dynamic Planner. The pair talk about the speed of the coronavirus market crash and how investors have reacted.

The crash prompted a deluge of 10% drop notifications to be sent to clients, in accordance with Mifid II rules. While this has been derided by many Jones notes that communications explaining what has happened to an person's particular portfolio could actually prove reassuring given the general market headlines that person will be hearing.

Another topic of conversation is how the riskiness of certain stocks may need to be reassessed as the crisis unfolds. And how funds invested in drawdown under the pension freedoms will face a big test, not just now but in years to come.

And there is discussion of active and passive investing in light of the new market conditions, and why recent ESG outperformance may have been more by luck than design.

In the latest edition of the New Model Adviser podcast, NMA reporter James Fitzgerald speaks with Frenkel Topping chief executive Richard Fraser on how the national firm is dealing with lockdown, whether its ESG portfolios really did any better others, and what silver linings there may be for the advice profession following the pandemic.

Reporter Laura Purkess is joined by David Miles, chief executive of digital marketing company The PPC Machine, to discuss the impact of google ads on IFA advertising, and what can go wrong with third-party lead generators.

Today NMA launches its fourth monthly special 'takeover' issue, looking at the next thirty years of the profession. How will Covid-19 and climate change impact the world, and the advice that planners provide? How will planners' own fee models adapt to a rising demand for financial assistance? And will we ever crack the issue of health and social care? Check out this whistle-stop tour through the new copy of the magazine, featuring editor Will Robins in conversation with magazine editor Ollie Smith.

To commemorate the opening of our new Citywire studio in America, Lawrence Lever was joined by a host of US asset management bosses.

Mark Stevenson is a writer, businessman, public speaker and 'reluctant' futurologist and has spoken at several Citywire events in the past. He came into our Vauxhall studios ahead of New Model Adviser's April special edition Advice: 2050. Mark and NMA editor Will Robins discuss what is coming next, for health, climate change, democracy, technology and more. Although he is under 'crushing non disclosure agreements' Mark's recent discussions have been with government departments, the Ministry of Defence and medecins sans frontieres. 'Think of coronavirus as an easy training day for whats coming,' Stevenson says. Or to put it another way 'climate change is going to destroy everything unless we do something.' It's a strong message, but, it turns out, a hopeful one for those who are willing to embrace the challenge.

Ian Horne and Will Robins are joined by Praemium chief executive Michael Ohanessian to look at comparisons between the UK and Australian platform markets.

Special features editor Charles Walmsley and news editor Jack Gilbert don their football kit to give you the lowdown on their Platform Premier League.

Ollie Smith is joined by Dunstan Thomas policy strategy director Adrian Boulding to discuss the results of a new survey of Gen X savers.

NMA reporter James Fitzgerald hosts a special podcast continuing his work on our new column The Nationals Enquirer, which looks at the plight of national advice businesses in a world of increased scrutiny.

This was one of our favourite podcasts to record. Alfie Mullan and Jo Little provided a brilliantly frank and honest account of their struggles and successes in running a business, as well as the strain this can put on mental health. On this theme, we talk about attitudes towards mental wellbeing, therapy, and how stigma and misconceptions could prevent us from achieving our best results.

NMA editor Will Robins is joined by PlanPlus Global director Paul Resnik for a special episode as part of our asset allocation special.

Laura Purkess makes her podcast debut in a bumper podcast on the IR35 rules.

AJ Bell's Tom Selby joined New Model Adviser's Ollie Smith, Laura Purkess and James Fitzgerald for a big fat review of the year. They kick off with a bumper edition of Ollie's famous pub quiz. Play along at home!

Then the team get stuck in, debating their pick of the most important stories of the year: state pension policy, DB transfers, the NHS annual allowance taper crisis and, er, Cricket.

There was also time talk about some non financial services developments too. Pour yourself a mulled wine, grab a mince pie, sit back and enjoy. Have a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Financial coach Simonne Gnessen asks clients to imagine what money would be like if it was a person you had invited around for tea. ‘For most people it’s the Devil, it’s a woman in a Tweed suit who’s pointing a finger.’

In this episode of Planning People New Model Adviser editor Will Robins sat down with three people involved in the Initiative for Financial Wellbeing, an exciting new, planner-led project that looks set to shake up the financial planning profession. Gathered in Citywire’s Vauxhall studio were Chris Budd, chairman of South West planning firm, Ovation Finance and founder of the Initiative for Financial Wellbeing, Simonne Gnessen, founder of Wise Monkey Financial Coaching, and Tom Morris, director and chartered financial planner also at Ovation.

We discuss the ideas behind financial wellbeing and find out what convinced Budd the time was right to launch an organisation to bring together training, debate and events under a single banner.

Academic Savva Shanaev joins Ian Horne and Ollie Smith to discuss how Lego is an asset class in its own right.

Ian Horne and Ollie Smith are joined by Kingsfleet Wealth managing director Colin Low to discuss Christian faith in financial advice.

In this episode New Model Adviser editor Will Robins speaks to IFA firm Barnaby Cecil, which has a specialist service targeted at medical practitioners. You can read the full transcript here: http://citywire.co.uk/Publications/WEB_Resources/Creative/content/Barnaby-Cecil-Podcast.pdf Managing director Thomas Skinner and paraplanner Emma Walker explain how annual allowance taper rules have generated substantial tax bills for consultants, and what the effect of that has been on the number of hours they work and their retirement planning. Our conversation also takes other interesting turns as we explore how the crisis has prompted doctors to rethink their work life balance, what the logjam in Westminster means for finding solutions to the taper, and how holistic financial planning can put an entirely different perspective on the whole issue once medical clients have been through the process.

Jack Gilbert does the rounds at the NextGen Planners Conference in Manchester, speaking to a host of familiar faces from the profession.

Connaught whistle-blower George Patellis returns to the Citywire studio to tell Jack Gilbert and Ollie Smith about the impact of the case on his life.

New Model Adviser editor Will Robins speaks to political insider Iain Anderson, co-founder and executive chairman of public policy and corporate communications group Cicero to discuss what Brexit, a new government and a new chair of the Bank of England will mean for the UK economy and financial services.

Last week New Model Adviser’s Ollie Smith travelled Manchester to talk to MPs at the Conservative Party Conference. Editor Will Robins dragged Ollie into the studio to find out what he got up to and what policymakers told him about pensions, regulation, Brexit and even Neil Woodford.

Many non-advised services offered by platforms and providers are ‘lazy solutions’, says Anthony Morrow, chief executive of digital advice firm OpenMoney.

Ollie Smith is joined by MoneyInfo managing director Tessa Lee to discuss what advisers are getting right and wrong on their office tech.

In this podcast New Model Adviser editor Will Robins gets stuck into the fee debate, interviewing two financial planning CEOs: Alan Smith of Capital Asset Management and Barry Horner of Paradigm Norton. Smith is a renowned advocate of flat-fees and not afraid to ruffle feathers with his criticism of percentage charging. Horner meanwhile is keeping his options open, offering clients the choice of how they want to pay.

More important than how firms charge, says Horner, is that advice businesses succeed in articulating the value added to client’s lives. Listen on to hear their forthright views, and the unexpected result when a client told Horner he had been undercharged.

Ollie Smith is joined by Foco Global managing director Michael Taggart and Citywire UK head of audience development Ian Horne to discuss the powerful impact of narrative in financial planning.

Jack Gilbert is joined by Altus principal consultant Ben Hammond to discuss the future of the platform tech firms driving change in the marketplace.

NMA news editor Charles Walmsley is joined by Nutmeg head of financial advice Lisa Caplan to discuss the might - and plight - of the digital wealth managers

Ollie Smith is joined by Standard Life head of global retirement policy Jamie Jenkins to discuss the topic of retirement around the world

NMA Editor Will Robins bags exclusive chats with all the speakers at Chris Budd's Financial Wellbeing Conference

Paygaps.com chief commercial officer Innes Miller joins Ollie Smith to discuss one of the jobs not yet done in financial advice: equal pay.

Ollie Smith is joined by LEBC director of public policy Kay Ingram to discuss the impact of the Retail Distribution Review on the cost of giving advice.

Phil Young joins Ollie Smith to discuss advice fees in the precarious age of FSCS levies, FCA action and DB danger.

NMA chief reporter Jack Gilbert is joined by NextWealth managing director Heather Hopkins for the first in a special series of Summer podcasts as part of our Great Advice Great Profession initiative.

Ollie Smith is joined by Tisa strategy director Charles McReady to discuss the increasing popularity of equity release.

Lauren Janus joins Ollie Smith to discuss whether charitable giving would be so attractive were it not for its tax efficiency.

Paul Resnik joins Ollie Smith to discuss suits, suitability, and to swear a bit.

Ollie Smith is joined by veteran Citywire journalist Dan Grote to discuss the plight of fund manager Neil Woodford.

Interim host Jack Gilbert is joined by Pensionbee chief executive Romina Savova to discuss pension transfer times.

In a podcast feast, NMA editor Will Robins reveals to George Kinder that he is undergoing life planning with a financial adviser.

Ollie Smith is joined by NMA chief reporter Jack Gilbert to unpack the Financial Conduct Authority's annual business plan.

In the second part of our special podcast on selling advice businesses, broker Peter Trotman returns to update Ollie Smith on the threats to the advice consolidation market.

Ollie Smith and Jack Gilbert are joined by 7IM head of intermediary Verona Kenny to discuss the implications of the platform market study.

The ethics element to advisers' training is not yet strong enough, according to this week's podcast guest, Jackie Lockie, head of financial planning at the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment.

This week AAB Wealth chief executive Fraser Porter joins features editor Natasha Turner and UK head of audience development Ian Horne to discuss company culture.

Ollie Smith is joined by Lang Cat director of consulting Steve Nelson to discuss what more we can do to break down the taboo of poor mental health in the financial services.

In anticipation of further regulatory scrutiny regarding how financial services firms help vulnerable clients, Ollie Smith sits down with Canada Life technical director Andrew Tully and AJ Bell senior analyst Tom Selby to talk about the practicalities of protecting people who are vulnerable.

On the most romantic day of the year, Ollie Smith is joined by former BlackRock head of UK retail Tony Stenning to examine the great British love affair with retirement. But is the relationship on the rocks?

NMA features editor Natasha Turner is joined by paygaps.com chief commercial officer Innes Miller to discuss the gender pay gap in financial advice.

Smart Pension director of policy Darren Philp sits down with Talya Misiri and Ollie Smith to discuss the implications of the government’s consultation on the pensions dashboard.

Ollie Smith is joined by the Lang Cat's Mike Barrett for this podcast examining one year of Mifid II. Expect a bizarre quiz, incisive analysis, and the revelation that Barrett has never seen The Lord of the Rings films.

Regular NMA contributors Jeannie Boyle and Darren Lloyd Thomas sit down with Ollie Smith to put financial advice through a health check. Expect some home truths, ethical insight and - of course - the usual quiz.

Ollie Smith, Natasha Turner, Charles Walmsley and special guest Tom Selby take in the year that was.

In a special podcast, Ollie Smith is joined by Ovation Finance chairman Chris Budd and broker Peter Trotman to navigate the pitfalls of business sales and succession. Expect rampant quizzing, difficult detail, and some outrageous anecdotes.

Aviva head of retirement Alistair McQueen sits down with Ollie Smith to explain how life companies are trying to stay ahead of the digital curve.

Jack Gilbert and Frank Talbot sit down with Ollie Smith to digest this week's Budget, which left many unimpressed.

In a lively episode of Planning People, Foco Global's Amy Rowe and Michael Taggart join Ollie Smith to discuss fintech marketing, the future of tech, and why advisers should care a lot more about technology.

Dr Eliza Filby of Kings College London sits down with Ollie Smith to talk inter-generational differences, mansplaining, and the plague of extended adolescence.

Steeleye CEO Matt Smith is on a mission: to make people love regulation. In this episode, he tells us all about how his firm and what the fintech market may look like in five years' time.

Birmingham, Boris and Brexit. Those were the big three Bs this week. NMA online producer Ollie Smith was on the ground, and brings you this podcast from the floor of the Conservative Conference 2018.

In this episode 2plan Wealth Management IFA Cleona Lira sits down with Ian Horne and Ollie Smith to explain how discovering non-violent communication enhanced her relationship with clients.

Online producer Ollie Smith and news editor Charles Walsmley sit down to discuss Citywire's public response to the Financial Conduct Authority's recent platform report.

Jamie Bartlett and Carl Miller from the Centre for the Analysis of Social Media at think tank Demos tell Ollie Smith all about the dangers of the dark web underworld when it comes to financial crime, keeping clients' money safe and avoiding scams.

In this podcast interview, George Kinder tells New Model Adviser® why - even with successful robo-advice propositions - there will never be a proper substitute for human financial mentoring.

In this podcast, New Model Adviser® senior reporter Jack Gilbert is joined by news editor Charles Walmsley and Lang Cat consulting director Mike Barrett to discuss the Financial Conduct Authority's recent platform market study release.

The chiefs of the three main adviser directors sit down with New Model Adviser® online producer and guest co-host Phil Bray to put the world to rights.

New Model Adviser® online producer and senior reporter Ollie Smith and Jack Gilbert are joined by a guest who reveals all about his swim against the tide in the overseas advice market.

On Independence Day 2018, New Model Adviser® editor Will Robins speaks to Citywire USA editor Alex Steger about the American investment advice market.

On the thirtieth anniversary of the Barlow Clowes affair, Citywire executive chairman Lawrence Lever talks to New Model Adviser® editor Will Robins about a scandal that exposed fraud and failure in the highest corridors of power.

The Wealth Matters director shares his incredible recovery from throat cancer, the thoughts running through his head on hearing his diagnosis and how the business adapted as a result.

Nucleus product technical manager Rachel Vahey sits down with New Model Adviser® online producer Ollie Smith to talk auto-enrolment, the self-employed and savings reform.

New Model Adviser® online producer Ollie Smith is joined by Nutmeg chief investment officer Shaun Port and regulatory reporter Elliot Smith to discuss the rise of the robos, and how - one day - you might get financial advice from your fridge...

NMA reporter Elliot Smith travels to Port Talbot to meet Chris and Stuart, two British Steel workers affected by the pension transfer saga. Here they share their story.

What's the worst thing you've ever done that was the right thing to do?

In the wake of the regulator slapping a £640,000 fine on the chief executive of Barclays over a whistle-blowing scandal, New Model Adviser® senior reporter Jack Gilbert interviews George Patellis, who blew the whistle on the Connaught controversy.

Even financial advisers need financial advice sometimes, as our special podcast case study proves.

They're the young industry leaders who pushed back against the boring seminars and bossy keynote speakers to give young planners a voice. Now, in this exclusive podcast, Adam Carolan and Rohan Sivajoti crack open the beers and get honest with Ollie Smith in the New Model Adviser® studio.

This week features a news roundup. Ollie Smith is joined by Charles Walmsley to FCA safe spaces, Jack Gilbert to talk about why advice fees are on the up, and Ian Horne to share stories from Citywire's South West Retreat.

In the wake of more football financial news, New Model Adviser® regulatory reporter Elliot Smith sits down with former Sheffield United winger-turned St James's Place adviser Ryan France to discuss footballers' finances, and the transition from pitch to planning.

Reporter Christine Dawson and features editor Natasha Turner are joined by Futerra co-founder Ed Gillespie and In2 Planning investment specialist Tanya Pein to bust myths on sustainable investing. Hear which funds could kick-start your move to a more sustainable future.

Following a bumper couple of weeks for regulatory news, New Model Adviser® features editor Natasha Turner sits down with online producer Ollie Smith, editor Will Robins and special guest Henry Tapper to put the world to rights from pension transfers to innovations in collective pensions.

In a special episode, New Model Adviser® online producer Ollie Smith goes on a mission to interview Paul Johnson, director of respected think tank Institute for Fiscal Studies, in his office.

New Model Adviser® online producer Ollie Smith sits down with senior reporter Jack Gilbert and Standard Life head of pensions strategy Jamie Jenkins to discuss the pension freedoms, auto-enrolment, and baby Arlo, who will have more control over his pension choices than any of us could possibly imagine.

New Model Adviser® online producer Ollie Smith sits down with NMA regulatory reporter Elliot Smith and editor Will Robins to discuss phoenix firms and regulation.

Investment Quorum director private clients, Petronella West; EQ Investors technical director, Jeannie Boyle; and Equanimity IFA managing director, Helen Howcroft come together to discuss diversity in advice, educating and inspiring women and why the imposter syndrome still prevails.

Westminster legend Iain Anderson sits down with New Model Adviser® online producer Ollie Smith to talk pension politics, elections and Brexit.

Niche IFA director Ray Adams sits down with New Model Adviser® senior reporter and online producer Ollie Smith to give them his first-hand account of the British Steel pensions saga in Wales.

Meanwhile, New Model Adviser® editor Will Robins also has an announcement to make...

Are multi-assets for everyone, and how should we factor in investment risk? Citywire's Ian Horne is joined by Paul Flood (pictured), multi-asset portfolio manager at Newton, a BNY Mellon Company, as well as financial planning experts Nick McBreen and Martin Fahy to get the lowdown.

Claim 45 minutes of structured CPD now. Just listen to the module then take the test.

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For professional clients only. This is a financial promotion and is not investment advice. Any views and opinions are those of the interviewees, unless otherwise noted. For further information visit the BNY Mellon Investment Management website. PC00392 Exp 6 May 2018.

Seven Investment Management’s Justin Urquhart Stewart joins Jack Gilbert and Will Robins in the New Model Adviser® studio to talk about managing clients’ money and what to do in turbulent times.

Camarco partner Louise Dolan and Citywire head of investment research Frank Talbot sit down with New Model Adviser online producer and senior reporter Ollie Smith and Jack Gilbert to discuss market corrections, bad PR days and who is hot and who is not this week.

Yardstick director Phil Bray sits down with New Model Adviser® online producer Ollie Smith to talk the good, the bad and the very worst of IFA marketing.

Hargreaves Lansdown's head of retirement policy Tom McPhail joins New Model Adviser® staffers Jack Gilbert and Ollie Smith to talk Carillion, blame and Philip Greens.

Find out the highlights of the New Model Adviser 2018 conference as recounted to online producer Ollie Smith, and hear what Verve Investment Planning's Steve Buttercase and Addidi's Anna Sofat have to tell senior reporter Jack Gilbert about DB transfers.

Zero managing partner Phil Young talks DB transfers, replatforming and the asset management study with New Model Adviser editor Will Robins over a Christmas cracker or two. Listen out for cringe-worthy Christmas finance jokes as well.

This episode tackles the Autumn Budget. Jack Gilbert talks to Aberdeen Standard's Gregg McClymont about Philip Hammond's stamp duty cuts, and Prudential's Vince Smith-Hughes tells us what we may have missed in yesterday's announcement. Natasha Turner also takes us through the best of the reactions to the Budget on Twitter.

In the second episode of the New Model Adviser® podcast we speak to Malcolm Kerr about the platform market study and our reporters sum up their party conference experiences.

Senior reporter Jack Gilbert talks the pensions cold calling ban with AJ Bell's Tom Selby and St James's Place fund charges with New Model Adviser reporter Elliot Smith.