Father and son advice duo’s insights over industry reform

A short read and 37 min watch.

Philip and Felix Milton work at Philip’s eponymous firm in Barnstaple in Devon.

Philip shares his journey from the early days of being a “mere securities clerk” at Lloyds Bank through what sounded all very ‘Wild West’ to Felix, fully appreciative of how far the sector has moved on.

A team set-up and robust recordkeeping has built a scalable business with minimal key person risk.

Value investors at heart, Philip said they helped many clients profit by investing last March.

He shudders at the vast assets pulled out of the market during the sell-off because “they didn’t have anyone to talk to… How expensive was it for them to miss out on the recovery, because they didn’t want to pay an initial advice fee?”

Felix finds it “disheartening” that the FCA fails to clamp down on advisers guilty of phoenixing, and said he sees a real disconnect among consumers regarding DB transfers:

“Those who genuinely need DB transfer advice probably aren’t going for it because they’ve seen all the bad press and those who shouldn’t be doing it are making the most enquiries…”

Philip goes further, warning of potential future claims against advisers for advising their clients don’t take their transfer values and calls on much tougher regulation not just on advice but on transfer schemes themselves:

“The actuaries are their own gods to decide on the transfer values…where’s the regulation?

“It wouldn’t cost them very much to build in some form of life insurance or protection against early death … things like that.  Nobody seems to talk about that..”