Its Christmas and you, at the age of 45 are thinking of using your annual tax free gift allowance for the first time ever. What’s the maximum you can give within the allowance?

a. £1000

b. £4000

c. £3000

d. £6000

answer is d.

£6000. Your allowance is £3000 per annum, but you can carry forward the previous year’s allowance. You can only carry forward one year’s allowance.

MIFID II Charges and Changes

 

Following a number of enquiries as to exactly what is required for Mifid II in terms of charging details, we have put together a guide (attached) that hopefully explains some of the complexities advisers have faced in ascertaining what the regulator expects advisers to produce. 

Brief guide to understanding whats needed for Mifid II where charges are concerned along with use-able templates for ex-ante and ex post fees. see here

 

Old Mutual Plans for MIFID II

OM have announced plans to issue PROD guidance in line with MIFID.

This is the much feared costs disclosure outlined in our news item above.

Old Mutual have written:

"WE WILL START BY PROVIDING COSTS AND CHARGES FOR ISA AND CIA ONLY 

 The ISA and CIA are the only Old Mutual Wealth products covered by the MiFID II regulations. We will extend the disclosure to the Collective Investment Bond from October 2019 in line with the requirements for the Insurance Distribution Directive (IDD). 

 

For now, however, we are maintaining a cautious approach by restricting our disclosures to the regulatory requirement – in line with much of the market."

IFAC comment that OM claim that insurance/investment bonds are “insurance” and thus Mifid II exempt– which is how it is interpreted in the EEA, but rarely applied here in UK  (After all, you wouldn’t expect a GI broker to sell investment bonds).  IFAC recommend that Insurance bonds are also put through the costs disclosure template outlined above. 

 

Welcome to first 2019 investment monthly in Word Format

See link here

Full year results not fully in yet but it looks as if the average UK All Company Unit Trust underperformed passive (iShare,Vanguard,L&G etc) by  2% to3 % over the full year (source:Morningstar,Trustnet,total return),the former delivering a total return of -11.2% over 2018,before expenses.Active fund managers certainly had their 2018 work cut out!

Turning to 2019,it seems as if the whole cocktail of inernational geo-political,economic concerns coupled with a specific UK Brexit issue,all against a background of gradual QE easing and slower GDP growth, will lead to continued above average volatility amongst many asset classes (traditional safe havens may not work) .

However value has been thrown up,especially amongst selected equities.

My summary forward looking comments are much the same as last quarter,with one exception.  I have moved the UK equity asset class from underweight to slighly overweight.

This class has significantly underperformed world equities (£adjusted) over last year and indeed since the Brexit vote.

Much seems to be priced in although I expect a sustained high level of corporate profit warnings, especially from UK domestic plays, and great selectivity will be needed.

Ken.baksh@ifac.eu