A life or death fight confronts many traditional active asset managers. They face intense pressure to find more effective ways to combat the inexorable rise of low-cost index-tracking funds. This challenge is most acute in the US, where the share...
Read moreStock market loses patience with St Ives
What a beastly start to the year for St Ives, “the City printer” that was founded in the 1960s by Bob Gavron, one of the earliest advocates of constraints on executive pay. Last week it lost a contract to print books for HarperCollins, the...
Read moreTwitter as a co-op? It is a dream that is worthy of consideration
Twitter is a broad church. Its congregation includes autocratically inclined presidents sounding off to millions, and friends indulging in online banter. It should not come as a shock, then, that one pew is occupied by evangelists for a radically...
Read moreUnigestion: ‘London will remain a financial hub’
Unigestion, the Swiss investment house that oversees $23bn of assets, was one of the first international fund companies to make a public commitment to the UK after Britain’s vote to leave the EU last June. Just weeks after the Brexit referendum...
Read moreBAE Systems gains as broad market ends week higher
BAE Systems was a gainer on Friday as the FTSE 100 recorded a fourth straight daily rise. An coming inflection in US and Europe defence budgets should move BAE’s revenue back into growth after many years of decline, Société Générale predicted...
Read morePrudential to withdraw from annuity market
Prudential, the UK’s largest insurer by market value, has decided to pull out of the annuity market. The move marks a new stage in the decline of what was once the mainstay of retirement income. Annuities used to be popular, providing millions of...
Read moreLandmark legal ruling on survivors’ pensions
Unmarried people who were denied survivors’ pensions after the death of a partner were urged to appeal against the decision, following a landmark legal ruling this week. The call comes from experts following a legal case won by a woman who was...
Read moreUK self-employed plumber wins court battle for workers’ rights
A London plumber has won a legal battle for workers’ rights in the latest court ruling affecting freelance employees in the UK. The Court of Appeal in London agreed that Gary Smith, a self-employed worker with Pimlico Plumbers, was entitled to...
Read moreHow to break up with your wealth manager
Divorce can be painful, but when it could potentially save you tens of thousands of pounds a year, saying goodbye to your wealth manager might be in your best interests. The fees that wealth managers charge their clients have come under renewed...
Read moreTrump leaves emerging markets in wait-and-see mode
Emerging markets-focused asset managers could be forgiven for wanting a quiet life. What looked like a recovery in 2016, reversing years of heavy outflows, sharp share price falls and declining investor interest in the asset class, was cut short...
Read moreFifteen ways to reduce your tax bill
Do you feel you pay too much tax? Would you like to find ways to cut your bills? You are not alone. While taxes remain one of life’s certainties, the drive to pay less of them is another. But tax avoidance is no longer considered socially...
Read moreWhat Jim Rohn and The Richest Man in Babylon Teach About Retirement Planning
In a recent article entitled Business Owners and Retirement Planning, on the Generational Equity web site, a startling statistic was revealed – over 40% of business owners have no retirement plans in place. In fact, according to anecdotal...
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