I went to public school, go drag hunting and work in financial services. Right now, all three are under attack! Here we are on the eve of the Russian Revolution -a time to dust off my Zhivago, and I am in the wrong part of the social Venn diagram. Many in the Labour Government would like to categorise me as “socially useless”, as the Chairman of the FCA once said.
There is a mad sense across the country that we should enjoy all the things that the fun police are about to stop, and spend the money before “they” get it. Some wealthy clients are looking at emigration already – like that Pimlico Plumber man.
But somehow Britian is not a country of extremes. The ocean keeps the temperature constant. All around are small business people – shopkeepers, if you like. IFAs, entrepreneurs, brokers, farmers and traditional conservative types getting and spending. One third of the working population get by this way. One third work for the giants, and the final third live off our taxes, with Government jobs. So where does all this socialism come from? The best explanation comes from Archie Orr-Ewing, who runs the Kings Head in Bledington.
“In this country we are naturally all shopkeepers and small entrepreneurial people. Then along comes that other lot who like to remind us that there is some socialism around, and inequalities are everywhere – that much is true. So, we get a dose of it, find out we don’t like it and then revert back to business as usual….”
Fingers crossed then for a bright future! We have already been told to baton down the hatches for some rough weather ahead, but we live in the present, not in the past or future, and muddle through. And one thing is sure – demand for advice will be greater than ever before, as the screws tighten.
The higher the tax, the greater the demand for tax advice. SSAS,SIPP, EIS, IHT, CGT – some acronyms to die for. The end of entrepreneur relief, business assets relief and CGT exemptions will all drive demand for advice. As for the supply of advisers, we are close to a rare breed endangered status now, and other advisers in periphery trades such as accountants, agents, bankers and fund managers have fallen away – no entry to advice without that FCA passport to trade.
Better tools, better systems, smoother processes and centralised investment propositions creating time savings. There has never been a better time to be an IFA.
And come to think of it, never been a better time to invest in a scaleable back office system to run your practice compliance. This month BAT launch their AI file checker. Advisers get their files checked even before the business is submitted, in realtime. Now there’s a thing – the end of the compliance business prevention unit, and just a consistent compliance criteria set upfront – the three C’s – to give you 100% file checking, at no extra cost.
We are on the eve of a revolution, but not the Russian one.
Charlie Palmer, CEO