For the time being, she opted not to make any adjustments to pensions tax relief, and she left individual savings accounts untouched.
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Whatever your views on the Chancellor's claims that this will lead to long-term growth for the country, there can be little doubt that it has increased the need for professional advice and augments the benefits of active planning for millions.
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What’s the FCA’s view? - in our previous newsletter, we highlighted the FCA’s positive acknowledgement of the role that professional advice plays in helping consumers with complex financial planning needs, with over 4.4 million clients being served. We also know from various research that there are a further 5-6 million consumers who need advice, have the ability to pay for it but are currently unengaged – the budget could well impact increased demand!
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Event season in full swing – as also mentioned in our September newsletter, I regularly receive invitations to speak at, or participate in, various events and roundtable discussions which has further picked up since our own first in-person event, the Evolution of Financial Planning on 11 October.
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Over 500 members converged on the National Motorcycle Museum - it was great to see so many people at our first conference, some familiar faces, lots of new ones and some great networking from across the sector.
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Press coverage- the conference received some great press coverage which we’ve pulled together on our news webpage. I was especially pleased to see this FT Adviser article by Amy Austin which highlighted the audience’s size, diversity and collaborative atmosphere…hopefully it will also make you smileJ!
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The feedback has been excellent and reinforces the value and relevance of the FCA’s attendance – a copy of Nick Hulme’s speech is available here. If you were at the event, we’d love to get your feedback if you haven’t already completed this short survey.
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If you weren’t able to join us at the National Motorcycle Museum, we’ll soon be publishing links to all the presentations on a new online community for Alliance members. Please also let us know your thoughts and CPD needs for future event content: enquiry form.
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FCA’s Call for Input – today's the day!Â
Lastly, a reminder about the FCA's Call for Input, have you fed in your thoughts yet? It’s a great opportunity for all retail financial services firms to share their thoughts on whether, where and how the FCA can refine their retail conduct rules. They particularly want to address potential areas of complexity, duplication, confusion, or over-prescription, which create regulatory costs with limited or no consumer benefit. The deadline is today, 31 October, and I encourage all members to feed in to this review, either via the online response form, or email.
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To be recognised as a true profession - united we evolve!
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Very best wishes,
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Keith Richards, CEO, Consumer Duty Alliance and Chairman, Financial Vulnerability Taskforce