shhh turn the volume down

Pete

That long time bug bear of TV viewers, the volume of tv adverts, is finally to be addressed.

This summer new regulations come into force that set out that adverts must not be "excessively noisy or strident". I like the word strident - it sounds very official - def: making or having a harsh sound; grating; creaking.

Wow maybe now TV ads will need to deliver content that's of interest to the viewer rather than just shouting at them.

Bank holiday spending

Pete

Apparently prior to 1834 the Bank of England recognised 33 saints days and religious festivals - now that sounds like one of the best decisions they ever made.

Wii Fit

Pete

Yes it's absolutely nothing to do with financial services but if you, like me, have been searching high and low for a Wii Fit board (as a present honestly) then this site should be on your favourite's:

Wii Consoles

It will launch a pop up window to tell you when new stock has been detected. Now that's a very basic bit of functionality but how good would it be, given the current mortgage market, to offer the same service to announce new rates?

Yey a web site is born

Pete

It's always a nice morning when a clients web site launches as planned and today is a very lovely morning as we celebrate the launch of the Independent Women website.

Independent Women was Scotland's first IFA firm dedicated to offering friendly, professional financial advice for women and set up by Lesley Collins in 1997.

So here's to Lesley, Kate, Jennifer and the team and plenty of unique users, page views and return visits.

Wish me luck

Pete

While I wait to find someone who will sell me a Wii fit board I'm going to check out how well the Wii hooks up to the BBC iPlayer.

However the very first thing I am going to do is actually check out the speed of my broadband service - if it really is running at 8Mb you can call me Susan.

Virtual silence

Pete

Wow - the silence is deafening.

It's been at least four weeks now since I read anything about Second Life. Has the world come to its senses?

Nope - its now just focusing on Twitter, a form of micro blogging, using the 160 characters allowed within an SMS message to update your friends on 'What are you doing'.

It's been in the press and even on Radio 4 as Gordon Brown is now 'twittering' - which means one of his juniors is doing it.

It's hard to see the business model behind Twitter and unless they have discovered a way to run a business without a revenue stream I can't see how they survive beyond their first round of funding.

It's quirky, its new(ish), its oh so web 2.0 but is it a business?

When choice is no choice at all

Jo Parker

OK time to talk about something else other than the credit crunch.

Something that is a constant theme for our sector and that is the wrestle the industry has between offering simple products on one hand vs products that offer wide choice and flexibility.

The basic rule seems to be that the wealthier the audience you are targeting, and especially if you are distributing products via IFAs, the more choice and flexibility you should offer, so a you can tailor a solution to the consumer’s needs.

It makes a lot of sense on the face of it.

But given that there are more funds in the UK than quoted companies and a recent product spec I read had a mind boggling 23 choices/options, I wonder if this is just a bit lazy? That companies are trying to be all things to all people?

Put yourself in the shoes of the adviser or end client and this amount of choice can be very off-putting.

Reading Goldstein, Martin and Galdini’s book ‘Yes!’ they make this point well, citing the example of Procter & Gamble who offer a huge range of products. When P&G reduced the number of versions of Head and Shoulders from 26 to ‘only’ 15 they saw a 10% increase in sales.

So (and back of course) to the current market context, when we all want to be very clear about what we are purchasing and how our money is invested, reducing choices and simplifying products and ranges (as some asset managers are already doing this week), maybe a very wise course of action.

Ad overload

Pete

And congratulations go to IFAonline who manage to cram 13 banner ads into a single page.

Nice work guys - who needs content after all?

Income multiplier only 4.5x

Pete

The Yorkshire Building Society has cut its income multiplier from 5x to 4.5x as a reaction to the current credit crisis.

So that would take someone on £50k from being able to borrow £250k to £225k - is that really that significant a drop?

Happy birthday to us

Pete

Last week Teamspirit became a teenager and celebrated its 13th birthday aboard a boat on the Thames (all with a pirate theme).

If you've never tried one of the boat trips up and down the Thames then do - it's a great way to see London from a different angle.

It's a thought

Pete

Interesting post on thisislondon following the story that arrangement fee's have doubled over the last year:


'What if everybody simultaneously agreed not to make any more mortgage payments? Can we end this system once and for all?'

- Neil, London, UK

HSBC mortgage offer

Pete

I though I would go and try out the new remortgage calculator HSBC have on their homepage given their offer to match the fixed rates of customers whose mortgages were coming out of a fixed term.

It's a nice simple calculator but a few things do pop up:

1. The highest rate they will match is 5.83% (yet there is no mention of a higher level cap in the terms)
2. Max loan is £250,000
3. Max 80% LTV

So playing around I have been trying to secure the biggest arrangement fee possible and the 'worst' combination is 4.45% and loan of £250k which gets you an arrangement fee of £4099.

Ouch.