Four things your clients will call you about this week

Nationals round-up: Warning on closet trackers, university savings and the importance of cover...

Active fund management

If you notice your clients asking a little bit more about just how active their fund managers are, it may be because they read the Sunday Telegraph over the weekend. The paper explored the so-called "closet trackers" - actively managed fund which in reality do little more than mirror the FTSE index. It reported UK equity funds from Scottish Widows, Halifax, Prudential, Santander and Henderson have been found to have at least 90% correlation between their top 10 holdings and the FTSE 100's biggest companies, while still charging investors up to 2% a year on their investments.

Get covered

As much as IFAs might try and convince clients about the importance of income protection, critical illness protection and life cover, it can sometimes take a nudge from the national media to get them really thinking. The Mail on Sunday ran an extensive piece on cover, showing how it is not an "unnecessary expense" and presenting case studies where it proved to be invaluable.

Saving for university

Despite what the government may have initially said, it is clear a significant number of universities are going to start charging the maximum tuition fees from next year, meaning up to £9,000 a year. Of course, this means parents are having to think about saving for their children's higher education, and the Independent of Sunday reported on financial options they could choose. It ran through the various junior ISA, pension and higher risk investment opportunities they could take advantage of.

Pensions mistakes

Key mistakes with pensions include not making the most of tax relief, ignoring ISA allowances and wrongly buying a single life annuity. That's according to the Sunday Express, which ran a feature on the ten big mistakes people make on the way to retirement. It also looks into the failure to look at the open market option when buying an annuity.