An Update from our CEO, Nick Coghill
As 2024 draws to a close, I want to thank you all for your support this year. Once again, it has been a difficult time for many, with political and economic upheaval both at home and abroad. Most recently last month’s Autumn budget has led to a huge increase in the tax burden across firms and individuals alike, with both direct and knock on effects. Our job has been and will be to continue to work with you and your clients to navigate the market impact, analyse the fine print of the new rules and ensure that we continue to focus on enabling you to achieve your own life goals. This is where the strength and depth of our personal and family-based values approach truly comes to the fore. Combining the depth of professional knowledge that our highly experienced team bring to bear with our detailed understanding of your business and your clients will enable us to provide you with the very best support.
Regulation has continued to be a major theme throughout 2024. We welcome the positive moves on Investment Trusts’ cost disclosures to bring them into line with the rules for Funds. This development will simplify the charging information that we provide to you. However, this piece of good news has been offset by ongoing uncertainty and confusion in the fund management industry about the FCA’s proposals on sustainability. The new regime focuses on how Environmental Social and Governance (‘ESG’) characteristics are classified within the funds available to retail investors. Due to be implemented in April 2025, some managers are choosing to opt out of the highly onerous badging regime entirely, removing the ‘sustainable’ label on many long running and highly respected funds. We await clarity from the FCA on the implications of the new rules for our own sustainable services. On a more upbeat note, Consumer Duty regulation is now incorporated into all areas of the finance industry and has genuinely been a force for the good. We are particularly pleased to note that it is being used to weed out poor market practice in a number of areas to promote transparency and clarify of service propositions. We also welcome FCA initiatives to encourage firms to provide additional support to clients who are suffering from ill health or impacted by life events such as bereavement.
Continuing to highlight the positives in 2024, the roll out of our new portal has been a great success. As part of our push to a more paperless approach and to address the ongoing threat posed to your cyber security, the rollout has been met with wide approval by users (once initial teething issues had been addressed, of course). I would continue to urge you all to use the new portal and the App on your phone to access snapshots of your clients’ portfolios. YourCAM also usefully provides the ability to view important documents, such as your quarterly valuations and tax packs.
As we look forward to the new year ahead, we anticipate another 12 months of ‘expecting the unexpected’. Thank you again for your commitment to working with us to deal with the challenges that lie ahead; the trusting relationships that we have developed over years and, in a significant number of situations, decades of working with you give us a strong foundation to deal with the coming year. It would only be right for me to also thank our wonderful staff, who have worked tirelessly this year with you and behind the scenes to continue the client centric culture and people focused ethos that we are proud to have created within our business. I fundamentally believe that we have a great team. At a time of significant press negativity, I want to reassure you that we are confident in enabling you to achieve good outcomes for your clients whatever the markets, government or economy may have in store for us. I am delighted that you and your clients are on that journey with us.
I want to take this opportunity to thank you once again for your support and wish you and your families a happy and healthy Christmas and New Year.