NEWS & VIEWS
At FSL, we monitor market news to understand the issues faced by our customers and their clients and share any interesting links regularly via FSL Chain Mail.
In this edition, we can’t escape from all the articles prior to next week’s General Election. In particular, the impact of manifesto proposals on taxation. The Telegraph gives a good overview of the Conservative Party’s key policies; The Independent reported Labour’s pledges; and the key points from the Liberal Democrats manifesto are listed here by the BBC. The implications of these proposals on taxation have been a focus of many articles. Citywire reported Labour’s plans for a major overhaul of the tax system and Portfolio Adviser asked if they had ‘sounded the death knell’ for model portfolios. Wealth Adviser concentrated on the uncertainty facing HNWIs. We have also published a summary of the proposals on our blog.
If we turn away from the UK for a moment, the US-China trade war continues with its ‘one step forward – two steps back’ approach to negotiations. Each twist and turn of these discussions has resulted in a ‘panicked response from the investment markets’ which is cause for concern and is explained in this article in FT Adviser.
Lastly, the FCA’s Director of Life Insurance and Financial Advice attended the Personal Finance Society’s annual conference last week which generated a few interesting articles. Professional Adviser focused on the FCA’s concern for adviser fees whilst the FT Adviser also reported on the FCA’s need to share more details of industry ‘bad practice’. Though industry representatives felt that this would need to be counterbalanced by a sharing of good practice examples too.
Look out for our next edition with more FSL Chain Mail links.