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CWC Research provides research data, advice and consultancy to insurance and life and pensions companies, wrap platforms and fund supermarkets, fund managers, re-insurers as well as other consultants operating in intermediary markets. We are a specialised research based consultancy set up in 1999 by Clive and Monica Waller, operating exclusively in the intermediary sectors of the financial services industry, covering all forms of investment, pensions and protection.
Our knowledge of IFAs and other adviser firms and their personnel is second to none. It enables us to provide customers with qualitative data of unrivalled excellence on current and likely future behaviours. Our reports and advice help providers, re-insurers and distributors formulate strategy on product, distribution and administration.
In addition, we are able to provide consultancy on a broad range of issues such as IFA segmentation, commission structures, investment propositions and underwriting strategy.
Our reports help providers, re-insurers and distributors formulate strategy on product, distribution and administration.
We are commonly regarded as the leading research consultancy on issues around wrap and other intermediary platforms and are currently advising a number of platform providers in this new and exciting arena. We have written and published the only adviser guide to intermediary platforms currently available.
We are also joint founders of the Income Protection Task Force, a forum combining insurers, re-insurers and IFAs, to further the cause of this most important of protection products.
What is the future for intermediated financial advice?
Despite a few hiccups, the RDR is still set to go live at the start of 2013 – just 2 years away. We will witness the biggest upheaval of intermediary distribution since the Financial Services Act of 1986. For many advisers, QCA level 4 will represent a level too far.
Commission will be outlawed and fees will be the basis of adviser remuneration for investment business. Both of these measures have been significantly softened, yet the impact could be enormous.
Will customers actually pay for financial advice? Will they pay enough? Will adviser businesses restructure and create propositions that meet customers’ needs – as they see them?
Can we expect to see more aggregators creating big firms with a single investment proposition and employing a single platform? If so, we will see fewer, but much larger opportunities.
Platforms and investment advice propositions are key to this, as indeed is the issue of increased longevity and its impact on financial planning. These are the key ingredients of the next round of our intermediary research.
For more information click here.
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It won’t happen to me – an analysis of the UK disability market
Sales of income protection and critical illness insurance have dropped over recent years and show little sign of recovery. Will this change? There are, at last, reasons why we might see a turnaround. At the upper end of the market, more and more financial planners are adopting lifetime cashflow analysis software, to build relevant financial plans for clients.
By its very nature, this methodology drives out the contingencies that create the need for protection covers.
In the mass market, it is probable that most advisers will struggle to replace current levels of commission with fees for managing client portfolios. They may add mortgage advice and protection covers to create viable businesses. We will see.
In addition, we have a government that is committed to radical re-engineering of the Welfare State, specifically the reduction of the numbers of those claiming Incapacity Benefit. This could signal the dawn of a golden age for income protection insurance - perhaps!
For more information click here |
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