Today sparked a renewed debate on the prudence of taking financial advice from your bank. Barclay’s have been fined £7.7 million from the FSA and face a £60 million compensation bill. The fine related to advice on policies they sold to customers with Aviva. 1 in 7 customers complained – a huge percentage unhappy with [...]

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The Fidelity China Special Situations Fund run by Anthony Bolton has today launched the new share offer. There was huge demand for this fund when it launched and all the available shares were quickly snapped up by investors including many of our own clients. Given the demand, the Directors have decided to increase the number [...]

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As many of you are aware I have predicted no change / little change in interest rates for 2011. I expect to see any possible increases towards the end of the year if they happen and even then I only expect 1 or 2 rate rises of 0.25%. The situation remains to fragile in my [...]

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Following the recent budget the government announced further changes to pensions legislation following pension simplification, which as many of you are well aware did anything but simply pensions. Here is a brief summary of the changes: The Government published the Finance Bill 2011 on 9th December 2010. It gives a lot more detail of the [...]

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2010 has not let us down from the perspective of continued news and volatility. My predictions for the year proved bang on in the sense of continued low interest rates, volatility and a continued steady recovery. Despite many experts recommending we move client ‘s monies out of bonds into cash, with higher interest rates predicted [...]

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