If you have ever experienced real panic, brought on without warning, it is extremely unpleasant, to say the very least. A suddenly increased heart rate. A horrible hot flush. You may quickly feel cold and begin to shake. In all, it is disorienting and difficult to focus. How do you react in that moment, under […]

It is typical on the Dynamic Planner website to read testimonials from advice firms, about their experience of adopting and using the system. But how do the clients of those same advice firms – people with their pensions and investments at stake – find it? What is their experience? Increasingly late last year, the industry […]

Advising clients on income in retirement suddenly became even more challenging this year. The coronavirus has influenced not simply the way clients of financial advice firms think about their money, but also their short and long-term health too. It has been a time for advisers to closely support their clients and ensure they fully understand […]

It was one thing, of course, talking through the potential portfolio losses, in the comfort of an annual review – quite another to starkly report back actual losses to a client, running into several thousand or even tens of thousands of pounds. Below, four advice firms relay typical conversations they have had with clients, during […]

By Louis Williams, Head of Psychology and Behavioural Insights Why do previously risk tolerant people panic and sell when faced with a significant portfolio loss? Such paradoxical behaviour has damaged both the overarching financial planning and investment process and also the adviser-client relationship, which lies at the heart of the industry. How might we help […]

At the turn of the year, we were focused on the major political and economic events that we thought would shape the weather for investors in 2020: the next stage of the UK’s exit from the European Union; the upcoming US presidential election in November; and the planned stepping down of Angela Merkel as Chancellor […]

By Maria Municchi, Multi Asset Fund Manager, M&G Investments The last few weeks brought about enormous changes to our society, to our personal lives and to the economic environment as we know it. The spreading of a deadly virus across the world prompted many governments to put out unprecedented restrictions on businesses and the wider […]

By Abhi Chatterjee, Chief Investment Strategist In the last six weeks, I have seen more from my home office desk than all the time I have previously spent in my career on trading desks. To recap, what have we witnessed? The single largest day increase in VIX since 1990 Two of the largest daily falls […]

[vc_row type=”in_container” full_screen_row_position=”middle” column_margin=”default” column_direction=”default” column_direction_tablet=”default” column_direction_phone=”default” scene_position=”center” text_color=”dark” text_align=”left” row_border_radius=”none” row_border_radius_applies=”bg” overlay_strength=”0.3″ gradient_direction=”left_to_right” shape_divider_position=”bottom” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column column_padding=”no-extra-padding” column_padding_tablet=”inherit” column_padding_phone=”inherit” column_padding_position=”all” background_color_opacity=”1″ background_hover_color_opacity=”1″ column_shadow=”none” column_border_radius=”none” column_link_target=”_self” gradient_direction=”left_to_right” overlay_strength=”0.3″ width=”1/1″ tablet_width_inherit=”default” tablet_text_alignment=”default” phone_text_alignment=”default” column_border_width=”none” column_border_style=”solid” bg_image_animation=”none”][vc_column_text] By Amanda Tovey, Investment Director at Whitechurch Securities Life pre the COVID-19 outbreak now seems a distant memory. Over the past […]

By Abhi Chatterjee, Chief Investment Strategist The ‘Corona Crash’ The Covid-19 outbreak triggered a geo-economic panic, resulting in an unprecedented spike in global equity market volatility, with severe declines exceeding 20% and extreme daily swings on a scale comparable to the financial crash of 2008. Thus, we dramatically marked the end of a remarkably resilient […]

It is estimated that roughly one in three of us globally are currently living in lockdown, to varying degrees, against the backdrop of the ongoing coronavirus crisis. Here in the UK, we are now entering week seven or week eight for many of us, since the first announcement from government on 16 March to, if […]

Accurately risk profiling your clients and subsequently matching them with suitable investments has arguably never been in sharper focus than it is today. Financial markets dropped more dramatically, by broadly 25%, than ever before from 16-19 March this year. Of course, as a result, it is vital, amid such volatility, for a client’s portfolio to […]

By Chris Jones, Proposition Director In a capitalist free-market society, I have a choice to use the fruits of my labour to buy things from a company or buy parts of a company. But, because I am human I rarely think about it and invariably spend more on buying things because I get immediate gratification. […]

This year and particularly since mid-March, the whole financial services industry and indeed world has changed in ways few of us could have imagined. The provision of financial advice has always been a very sociable and personal service. Many times in discussions with Dynamic Planner users over the years, I have been told that firms’ […]

By Sam Liddle, Sales Director, Church House Investment Management When it comes to retirement, the needs of Britain’s savers are defined by factors such as goals, wealth and personal circumstances. However, for the most part, these investors require financial solutions that can support their income, grow in line with inflation and leave a pot of […]

The coronavirus crisis has turned lives and habits upside down, almost overnight, in 2020. All of us, across the UK and globally are coping and managing the best we can. From 17 March in the UK, huge numbers of us, following government advice, began working from home indefinitely, against the broader backdrop of being increasingly […]

When we think of investing, we think about building up and growing a lump sum. A technical term used for this is accumulation. However, an increasing number of clients are now at a time when they need to spend that money – and a technical term for this is decumulation. Many clients in decumulation are, […]

Between 16-19 March, financial markets, as we had known them, were a thing of the past. If one took data from the S&P 500 since 1927 and the FTSE 100 from 1984, and calculated the largest single day losses, two days in March 2020 make the top 10 largest ever single day losses – only […]