What’s new from Unbiased.co.uk
Welcome to our new quarterly newsletter from Unbiased.co.uk keeping you up to date on our recent initiatives and plans for the months ahead.
Retail Distribution Review
The FSA’s Retail Distribution Review proposal was published in July and the industry has been voicing its views in the media ever since. The review suggested that the term ‘independent financial advice’ could be linked to an adviser’s remuneration strategy rather than solely by their ‘whole of market advice’ proposition. In response, Unbiased.co.uk argues that the FSA must retain the link between independence and whole of market advice.
To read our response to the Retail Distribution Review and the independent research commissioned by Unbiased.co.uk to support our stance click here.
Podcasts and interactive tools
We have added a new podcast section to our site, with relevant podcasts featuring a variety of topics discussed by key media IFAs. The first podcast in our new series – ‘How to Find an IFA’– is now live with the second one on pensions available very soon.
Click here to access the file.
Over coming months we’ll be adding to the series with further podcasts on savings, investments, mortgages and tax planning.
We also offer a range of interactive tools, helping consumers to make decisions on their financial advice needs. To have a look at the latest set of consumer tools click here.
If you are interested in adding one of our podcasts or tools to your website, please contact the IFAP Media Services team on mediaservices@ifap.org.uk or call 020 7294 3682.
IFAP TaxAction 2007
Unbiased’s TaxAction campaign continues to concentrate on the UK’s major tax concerns, providing a range of practical tips on how to ensure the general public can make tax work best for them.
More recently we’ve looked at tax waste relating to pensions and what consumers can do to ensure they make the most of the tax incentives offered to pensions savers. And to coincide with the holiday season we focused on ‘green meanie’ consumers – highlighting that only one in five air travellers are happy to pay ‘green tax’ on ‘carbon-miles’ air travel.
Other stories throughout 2007 will focus on key personal finance issues in relation to taxation such as share schemes and Child Trust Funds.
Please visit www.unbiased.co.uk/taketaxaction to find out more about our ongoing PR campaign.
Get Saving! 2007
This year’s Get Saving! campaign continued with a number of releases focused on encouraging the nation to save rather than spend! Bargain Bragger Briton, looked at how Britain has become a nation of bargain proud shoppers and we also looked at Britain’s budgeting behaviour: the barriers to savings and what we are doing to keep a check on our finances.
Every quarter we look at the latest Savings Brake trends, which calculates the ratio of how much we are borrowing, not including mortgage debt, contrasted with how much we are saving. Watch out for the Q2 2007’s results – which will be released very soon.
We also sent out our ‘Financial Management’ press release, which looked at the types of financial savings vehicles owned by different groups of society. Our research found ISA uptake over the last five years has increased by 15% with ‘baby-boomers’ topping the list of ISA holders – over 40% now own an ISA.
Our interactive website unbiased.co.uk/getsaving provides a series of savings and thrift tips (how much you could save a year by sacrificing your morning coffee etc), a budget calculator which shows realistically what you should have available each month for saving, and advice on the many ways in which people can start to save.
There’s plenty more Get Saving! news to watch out for - look out for our next releases on Celebrity Role Models and Student Debt.
Regional media centre
In addition, our online regional media centre can help you locate your local regional Press Club, source regional stats from our award-winning campaigns or enable you to download articles, press releases and snippet documents. Click here to access the relevant sections: www.unbiased.co.uk/media/regional-media-centre/
The new version of our ‘Blue Book’ will be launched soon. In the meantime, if you haven’t received a copy of the existing edition, don’t panic as you can always access the most up to date version of the directory by going to unbiased.co.uk and clicking on media. Alternatively to request a published directory please email mediaservices@ifap.org.uk or call 020 7294 3682.
