Five things your clients will call you about this week

The RDR finally gets some column inches in the mainstream media, while fund managers are becoming increasingly cautious in a particularly volatile bull market. It's IFAonline's round-up of the weekend's national newspapers...

RDR

Considering its huge impact on the delivery of financial advice, the Retail Distribution Review has had surprisingly little coverage in the mainstream media. But the Telegraph bucked that trend at the weekend.

A comment piece questioned whether consumers will pay for advice and if the whole process will help to restore consumer confidence.

Intriguingly, the journalist said the FSA is splitting the industry into independent and 'sales' advice. Given the regulator did not opt to use the word 'sales', the Telegraph may have unwittingly just done IFAs a favour.

Pensions

Convincing clients to set aside a little more of their salary for their pension is no easy task. However, in an interview with the Mail on Sunday, National Association of Pension Funds chairman Lindsay Tomlinson said putting 5% of a salary aside each year is not enough. Retirement, he said, is much more expensive than many people realise".

Unsurprisingly, he was also a fan of pension schemes through the workplace as "employees tend to trust their employers".

What is my fund manager up to?

Fund managers are becoming increasingly cautious, turning their backs on equities and looking for safer havens in cash and gold. That's the impression readers might get from the Telegraph after it ran a piece on how managers are "battening down the hatches" in the face of a bear market.

The euro crisis appears to be driving the pessimism and Sebastian Lyon of Troy Asset Management, for example, has cut his equity exposure from 75% to 40% over the past few months.

Well-known managers such as Jupiter Asset Management's John Chatfeild-Roberts and Investec's Alastair Mundy are among those also cited as evidence of the shifting focus.

Tax-free lump sums at retirement

The question of whether or not to take a tax-free lump sum at retirement rumbles on.

The Independent on Sunday reported on research by Prudential which suggested one in ten savers who took a lump sum at retirement later regretted they had done so.

Meanwhile, 43% were worried their savings pot will not see them through to the end of their lives.

Tracker funds and ethics

With their low costs and noted strong performfance against (some) actively-managed vehicles, tracker funds have received plenty of coverage in recent years.

The Mail on Sunday took a slightly different angle by focusing on the muscle some of the tracker providers flex through their investments.

As the paper pointed out, the need to buy shares in all the constituents of an index can mean people are investing in companies they may not necessarily be comfortable about. However, the UK's biggest manager of tracker funds, Legal & General, insisted it votes at every AGM and said it is in constant dialogue with companies' management teams.