Weekly Wrap: Advisory Group Pick 'n' Mix

Adviser groups continue to be the focus of much news at the moment. Readers of ASSET Magazine have recently seen our survey of the groups, and this week we have a number of stories on Good Returns relating to changes and the creation of new groups.

The most significant story is one we have already flagged, the creation of a group around advisers associated with Grosvenor. This group is due to launch next month and is billed as being one of the biggest independent adviser groups in the country.

The Blog last week on adviser regulation and the role "accredited institutions" may play has generated considerable comment from many in the industry. You can go straight to the responses here.

The other big story this week, was the announcement yesterday that the managers at Strategic Finance are buying the business back from Allco HIT with Bank of Scotland becoming a cornerstone shareholder. This, I venture, must be good news for the company and its investors.

Sticking with finance companies we also have a piece today where Dominion Finance disagrees with comments in one of the weekly business papers and in that process provides some more insight into the company.

In insurance news, besides the Apex yarn, we also we have Russell Hutchinson's latest column which raises a big question for life companies.

Knowing what proportion of risks are covered
If you walk into a shoe shop, pick up a shoe with a scratch on it, you wouldn't buy it. The problem with insurance is that this is harder to do – not usually life insurance, but more likely the murkier world of disability insurance. You can't always see the scratch until it's too late. More

One of the things I find interesting at the moment is that there are a bunch of new products hitting the market. The highest profile of these is undoubtedly the Cash PIEs.