Letter to New Model Adviser publication

Unplugged Banks Applauds Japan's Positive Spirit

I was interested to read your piece reporting comments from Caroline Banks in your 9 June issue.

 

In particular I echo her comments that "staff at the FSA needed more experience in the field" and that she would "send most people at the FSA on secondment".

 

No doubt she will be delighted to hear the FSA are actively searching for IFA firms willing to receive their employees on secondment visits.

 

I agreed to such a visit which took place over a number of days in April and was very rewarding from all perspectives. In this instance my secondee did not spend time hunting for regulatory breaches etc, but rather made a sustained and genuine effort to understand the way we work and how we run our business. We also benefited from some very helpful feedback on ideas for ways of potentially improving our systems and processes. 

 

I would encourage your readers to agree to receive FSA staff on secondment. After all, if we as an industry maintain existing levels of distrust, how on earth are the FSA ever going to get this valuable experience and learn how to regulate more appropriately. The relevant FSA webpage for those interested is:

 

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/Pages/Doing/small_firms/secondments.shtml

 

I would be interested to hear of others who have received FSA secondments and their experiences.

 

Kind regards

 

Robin Keyte

 

Dr R W Keyte  -  Director, Chartered Financial Planner & CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER CM      
Towers of Taunton (Financial Services) Ltd

 

Response from Richard Lander at New Model Adviser:

 

Robin

Many thanks for this indeed and I will make sure we use this. Had never heard of this scheme and the FSA never responded to Caroline's piece!

Richard
Citywire Financial Publishers Ltd

National Ethical Investment Week

 

 

Robin Keyte and his team at Towers of Taunton (Financial Services) Ltd, Chartered Financial Planners are delighted to be supporting the launch of the first ever National Ethical Investment Week.

 

To celebrate this occasion Robin will be launching a new online ethical funds screening service which will allow you to identify which investment funds represent a reasonable match to your personal views on social, ethical and environmental issues. It also allows you to see whether any of your existing investment funds take account of these issues.

 

To access the service, which will initially be available free during the launch period, go to:

 

www.towersoftaunton3.co.uk

 

There are now very nearly 100 ethical investment funds in the UK according to the Ethical Investment Research Service (EIRiS), many of which are available through pension plans as well as unit trusts. Interest in this area is growing and not just for ethical reasons; the best performing UK fund in 2006 was an ethical fund (CIS Sustainable Leaders). 

 

Generally these funds adopt a positive and negative screening approach. Negative screens mean the fund will not invest in companies that, for example, seriously pollute the environment, or are involved with pornography, tobacco, armaments or other areas of concern. Positive screens mean the fund actively seeks to invest in companies with a good record on, for instance, environmental reporting and management, workers' rights, sustainable forestry and other areas.

 

There is little or no impact on financial returns as 2006 proved, and the charges for ethical funds are the same as for other funds, so there is no tangible extra cost associated with investing this way.

 

Happily this is not limited just to shares. There are also ethical funds investing in corporate bonds (a form of fixed interest security that is lower risk than shares and good for income). This means by using a combination of ethical share and corporate bond funds, the needs of both cautious and speculative investors can be met, be it for income or growth.

 

Popular funds investing in shares include F&C Stewardship Income, Jupiter Ecology and for corporate bonds the Aegon Ethical Bond fund.

 

More sophisticated investors can buy an ethical screen of UK shares and instruct a stockbroker to work within it. The two providers of such screening at present are EIRiS and Ethical Screening.

 

For those who just want an ethical interest bearing deposit facility, Triodos Bank and Co-Operative Bank (& their internet arm Smile Bank) are good options, and the Ecology and Norwich & Peterborough Building Societies offer reasonable Cash ISAs.