Author: Aisha Mahmood

UK annuity providers have deployed £22.8bn into UK productive assets across 2024 and 2025, according to the Association of British Insurers (ABI), marking the first two-year milestone of their annuity providers £100bn pledge to channel capital into the domestic economy. Of that total, £14.8bn, representing 65% of the sum, has gone into private and unlisted assets. Where the capital has gone under the annuity providers £100bn pledge Real estate attracted the largest single allocation at £9bn, encompassing affordable and social housing, student accommodation and related property. Utilities, including energy and water supply, accounted for £5.3bn, while transport, storage and construction…

Fintel’s mortgage acquisition strategy moved into sharper focus on 15 September, when the fintech and support services group published its half-year results and chief executive Matt Timmins confirmed that the mortgage market is now its primary target for both acquisitions and technology investment. The group is also projecting organic growth of around 5% for the full year, despite reporting 2% organic revenue growth in the first half of 2026. Revenue growth holds steady, recurring income leads the way Continuing revenue for the half year rose 5.3% to £38.6m, while adjusted EBITDA increased 16.6% to £12.4m. The figures that will interest…

Women aged 55 to 59 hold around 54% of the pension wealth accumulated by men of the same age, according to new research published by the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI), with the gender pension gap women experience worsening measurably since the PPI’s previous analysis. For anyone managing a retirement portfolio, or advising someone approaching drawdown, those numbers deserve careful attention. How the gender pension gap women face has widened over time The PPI’s latest report, The Underpensioned: Updating the Gender Pension Gap, sponsored by Marsh, puts the savings shortfall at 48% between men and women in its 2025 publication. That…

National Friendly has entered the term assurance market with its Friendly Life Cover proposition, making National Friendly term assurance available on both single and joint life bases through the Iress Exchange sourcing platform. The Bristol-based mutual is positioning the product as a straightforward, adviser-led solution in a segment where, according to chief executive Graham Singleton, a number of high-profile providers have recently withdrawn.What Friendly Life Cover offers policyholdersThe product pays a fixed lump sum on death, with the choice of a level or decreasing benefit structure. Terminal illness benefit is included as standard, accelerating to the full sum assured on…

PXN Investments and P1 Platform have announced a PXN business relief integration that will make an asset-backed Inheritance Tax Planning Service available directly within an adviser’s existing platform workflow, with a launch expected in Q4 of this year. The timing is deliberate: from 6 April 2027, most unused pension funds and pension death benefits will be brought into an individual’s estate for inheritance tax purposes, and the two firms are positioning the partnership as a practical response to that structural shift. What the PXN Business Relief Integration Delivers The integration will allow advisers to apply for and view PXN’s Business…

The question of how long a financial adviser training programme should last has no single answer, but The Penny Group, an advice firm with offices in Hungerford, London, Sutton Coldfield and Woking, offers one of the more detailed frameworks available to aspiring entrants. Its structured academy, currently running with seven trainees at different stages, typically spans three years, though the firm is deliberate about treating that figure as a guideline rather than a deadline. Why the financial adviser training programme at The Penny Group spans three years Across the profession, The Penny Group’s approach sits in the middle of the…

Evelyn Partners MPS expansion has extended the reach of its Core and Index model portfolio ranges by making them accessible through onshore investment bond wrappers across five major adviser platforms: AJ Bell, Aviva, M&G, Quilter and Transact.Matthew Spencer, head of intermediaries at Evelyn Partners, said the move would give advisers greater choice in combining professionally managed portfolios with wrappers that support clients’ tax and financial planning needs. For advisers constructing income-efficient or intergenerational solutions, onshore bonds carry specific tax treatment that may suit certain client profiles, particularly where top-rate income tax deferral or assignment to a lower-rate beneficiary is part…

St James’s Place (SJP) has confirmed the SJP Technical Connection closure to external users, with access to the Techlink service ending on 6 March 2027. From the following day, the service will be available solely to advisers within the SJP group, cutting off a resource that financial planning firms, product providers and other retail financial services businesses have relied upon for the best part of a decade.What Technical Connection provides, and who it currently servesSJP acquired Technical Connection in 2016, and the business has continued to serve clients outside the group throughout that period. Its offering spans guidance on taxation,…

A Greenwich man has pleaded guilty to four fraud and forgery offences after constructing a fictitious Touchstone Exploration fake takeover bid in an attempt to drive up the company’s share price. The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) confirmed the guilty plea following a criminal investigation it opened in March 2025.Christopher Woolcott, born on 23 April 1982 and resident in Greenwich, London, admitted one count of fraud by false representation and three counts of making a false instrument. According to MondoVisione, the plea was entered at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday 10 September. Sentencing has been adjourned to a later date.How the…