Author: Aisha Mahmood

The settlement of the trail commission breach of contract case against Jupiter Unit Trust Managers, which Money Marketing reports concluded with a payment of £2,265 on 26 June 2026, is a reminder that contractual rights do not enforce themselves. The question worth asking, for advisers and for the clients whose income arrangements underpin these disputes, is why so few similar cases have ever reached a courtroom.The background is well established. The Retail Distribution Review prohibited commission on new investments and pensions from 1 January 2013. Existing trail commission arrangements were explicitly permitted to continue. A number of institutions subsequently decided…

The extreme heat financial risk that once seemed a distant concern for environmental specialists is now, according to Dr Alejandro Martí, CEO and co-founder of Mitiga Solutions, landing directly on company balance sheets, affecting earnings, credit quality and, ultimately, the returns that UK investors depend upon in retirement.Martí’s firm is a science-first climate-risk intelligence company and a spin-off of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center, giving it deep computational roots that inform how it models physical hazards. The question for a portfolio manager or SIPP holder is straightforward: if heat stress is already affecting profit and loss, does your current asset allocation…

Shackleton Advisers has agreed to acquire Aberdein Considine Wealth in a deal that brings the Shackleton AC Wealth acquisition to the centre of Scotland’s consolidating advice market, adding around £800m in assets under management and advice to the firm’s existing book. What the Shackleton AC Wealth acquisition means for Scottish savers The transaction takes Shackleton’s total assets under management and advice in Scotland to more than £1.3bn, a scale that matters for clients assessing the long-term stability of their adviser relationship. AC Wealth, formerly part of Scottish law firm Aberdein Considine, brings 40 employees to the combined business, including 14…

St. James’s Place has confirmed Justin Onuekwusi as investments CEO on a permanent basis, formalising an arrangement that had been in place on an interim footing since January. Onuekwusi now joins the group executive committee and takes full, permanent charge of the Investment Directorate, a division responsible for investment strategy, fund governance, platform innovation and the group’s discretionary fund management activities through SJP Investment Management. Justin Onuekwusi investments CEO: what the role covers The Investment Directorate sits at the heart of SJP’s proposition to clients, and the appointment carries considerable operational weight. Onuekwusi will lead the continued development of the…

Amati Global Investors has strengthened its Amati Global Investors distribution capability with the appointment of Gavin White, formerly head of wholesale and key partnerships at Octopus Investments, to its sales team. The hire follows the earlier arrival of Mark Ingram, who joined from Jupiter Asset Management, and points to a deliberate effort by the Edinburgh-based boutique to build out its intermediary reach. Building a team with complementary networks The two new additions are not strangers. White and Ingram previously worked together at Credit Suisse, and Amati sales director Jon Woolley has his own prior working relationship with White, having been…

UK equity fund outflows have now reached £15.16bn since June 2025, according to the latest Fund Flow Index from Calastone, as August marked the fourteenth month of net redemptions in the last fifteen. For investors managing drawdown portfolios or self-invested personal pensions, the persistence of this trend raises genuine questions about asset allocation and the risk of sitting too long in cash. The Pattern Behind UK Equity Fund Outflows August’s net outflow from equity funds came to £315m, a considerably smaller figure than the £1.61bn withdrawn across all equity funds in July. Calastone’s data also shows that UK equity funds…

Retirement psychology and financial planning are converging into a single discipline, and advisers who treat them separately may be leaving clients poorly prepared for one of life’s most demanding transitions. Lee Quinn, a chartered financial planner at Titan Wealth, argues that financial security is a necessary but insufficient condition for a successful retirement, and that the industry must widen its lens accordingly. The case Quinn makes is straightforward: after decades of accumulation, clients must switch into decumulation and begin spending the wealth they have spent a working lifetime building. That reversal is not merely mechanical. It requires a different relationship…

Beagle Street, the protection provider that is part of OneFamily, has appointed Amanda Moore and Zoe Mears to its distribution team as it looks to build scale in the intermediary market following its June 2026 launch of an entry-level critical illness and life proposition. The two hires sit at the heart of what the firm describes as a broader commitment to deepening adviser relationships and evolving its Beagle Street intermediary distribution capability. What the appointments bring to the distribution team Moore joins as strategic account manager, where her remit covers Beagle Street’s strategic intermediary partnerships and identifying new distribution channels.…

Over-75s pension withdrawals driven by inheritance tax concerns rose sharply in the latest year for which data is available, with people aged 75 and over withdrawing £1.4bn in lump sums from private pensions, according to Lubbock Fine Wealth Management. That figure represents a 35% increase from £1bn in the prior year, and the number of individuals making such withdrawals rose 27%, from 65,900 to 83,800.Lubbock Fine said the increase may partly reflect changes to the inheritance tax treatment of pensions announced by the Government in the October 2024 Autumn Budget. For portfolio holders managing retirement income, the behavioural shift is…