Playing to strengths
Welcome to the September edition of IFA Magazine. Our more-observant readers may already have noticed a slightly different look to our front cover this month, which contains our shot of the LGIM MPS team. It’s all in celebration of the third anniversary of their MPS range and our lead feature which you’ll find on page 6. It was great to talk to LGIM’s Aimee Bowkett, James Giblin and Francis Chua, three of the fund managers behind LGIM’s successful MPS range, which continues to gain plenty of attention from advisers.
In our exclusive interview with the team, we were keen to find out why they launched the MPS range, what their underlying investment strategy is, how it stands out from the MPS crowd as well as future development plans. It was clear to us that the team are really playing to their existing strengths and using the considerable resources at their disposal in order to deliver this MPS range. It has, rather nicely, completed their suite of robust investment products too, thereby giving advisers the full spectrum of options from which to choose the most suitable investment approach for each individual client.
A ‘painful’ budget ahead
As the busy autumn period gets underway and summer becomes a distant memory, advisers too will be playing to their strengths and helping clients to navigate the ongoing uncertainty. Whilst there is greater political stability here in the UK following the Labour landslide election result in July, the economic challenges remain significant as we look ahead to Rachel Reeves’ first budget statement on October 30th. Indeed, with a £22bn ‘black hole’ in the public finances recently revealed, the warning from new PM, Keir Starmer, in his ‘rose garden’ speech that a ‘painful’ budget lies ahead, means advisers certainly have plenty to think about. IHT changes? CGT? Pensions? All seem to be on the table.
The business of advice
Investment decisions remain front and centre, so on page 16 we’ve been talking to M&G’s Parit Jakharia and Adrian Gaspar about how Prufund can help deliver for clients, offering the benefits of smoothing.
Retirement planning is another major focus for advisers. On page 12, Charles Stanley’s Mark Hannon highlights why moving sustainably from the accumulation to decumulation phase needs some attention. Also, talking decumulation (and rugby!), there’s a great chat between our own Jenny Hunter and Brooks Macdonald’s Andrew Lewis on page 32.
As you make your way through the magazine, there’s plenty more to get you thinking. Perhaps it’s the latest insights from Dynamic Planner’s Louis Williams, who asks whether financial apps can be useful for clients. It may be RSM UK’s Angela Toner and Hugh Fairclough, as they ask whether celebs can have a legitimate role in improving financial literacy.
Getting straight to the advice coal face on page 42, I reckon you’ll be interested to read the first of our mini-series of articles looking at how you can master suitability reports. We’re grateful for the help input of three experts on the subject (and all-round good eggs too!!), Paraplanner Caroline Stuart, CATs’ Mel Holman and The Timebank’s Damian Davies.
To round off this month, there’s our usual Mortgage & Property sample of content to whet your appetite to pay more frequent visits for great daily updates on our dedicated website section for Mortgage and Property professionals.
Whatever helps you to play to your strengths, we hope you’ll find it on the following pages.
Sue Whitbread
Editor, IFA Magazine
