Bristol-based Aspira Corporate Solutions has a team of 50 financial and corporate advisers to over 15,000 clients.

Chief executive of Aspira Derek Miles will become chief executive of the financial planning division of Titan with the remit to oversee the financial planning business with the Titan Group.

The purchase will increase Titan’s assets under management by £4bn to £16.6bn (€19bn,$20.3bn).

Titan is already in a strategic partnership with Aspira to manage its Model Portfolio Service investments.

To read more on this topic, visit: Titan Wealth sets up internship programme

Andrew Fearon, joint group chief executive and head of M&A at Titan, said: “Aspira is an outstanding firm, which has been evident since our first meeting. This acquisition aligns with Titan’s growth ambitions, expands our financial advice offering and further develops the ‘Client to Custody’ offering, which is central to our overall corporate strategy.

“We are excited to work closely with Derek and the team at Aspira, to support them on their journey and to grow and develop Titan Financial Planning.”

Miles, added: “It is clear from the many discussions we have had to date that Aspira and Titan are very much aligned in our shared vision of an innovative and integrated approach to financial advice. Today’s announcement marks a key step in our journey to enhance and improve our client proposition and brings with it lots of exciting opportunities which we will be working closely together to develop.

“I am personally excited to take the Aspira team to such a forward thinking business and to join Andrew, James and the rest of the senior team at Titan to deliver on the fantastic potential of the expanding group”

This news comes after Titan Wealth acquired Gateshead-based IFA Prism Financial Advice in October this year.

The App Hub removes the need for advisers to re-key data, improve efficiency and streamline processes, said the firm.

See also: Quilter increases withdrawal amount on platform as part of upgrades

Jenny Davidson, commercial proposition director at Quilter, commented: “Following the successful launch of co-branding for advisers, we are pleased to announce the addition of our new App Hub, developed in partnership with FNZ, which we will build out over time. This makes use of open APIs to enable a selection of tools and microservices directly via the platform for advisers.”

Quilter is also seeking feedback from users to expand the services available through the app hub.

“When considering the pipeline of upgrades and additions to our platform, we work collaboratively with advisers to ensure we are prioritising their needs and taking on board their requests. In addition, we are continuously improving the overall user experience, and the implementation of the App Hub will result in a more streamlined and efficient way of working for advisers. These updates are part of our ongoing roadmap of platform improvements, and we are committed to further enhancing the user experience for both advisers and their clients.”

The firm added it is also planning to launch a new cash hub to its platform giving clients the option to hold cash and fixed term deposits alongside their other platform assets.

In Partnership will roll out Comentis’ financial-vulnerability assessment tool across its network of 500 financial and mortgage advisers, as part of the ‘know your customer’ process.

The Comentis system is an assessment that enables advisers to successfully identify vulnerable client characteristics.

In Partnership’s advisers will be able to have a clear and defined audit trail as well as consistency across the vulnerability assessment process when identifying and supporting vulnerable clients.

Jonathan Barrett, Comentis chief executive and co-founder, said: “Vulnerability is high on the regulatory agenda right now, and rightly so. With consumer duty upon us, it’s more important than ever for advisers to be equipped to identify signs of vulnerability.

“Our software will ensure that all In Partnership advisers are able to better identify and support their financially vulnerable clients.”

Gordon McNeill, group compliance director at In Partnership, said: “We know that Consumer Duty emphasises the importance of identifying and supporting vulnerable customers, but we also know that many advisers are still understandably struggling with this incredibly complex process. They will need all the support they can get, which is why we are deploying this tool.

“Comentis’ combination of cutting-edge technology, developed with clinical knowledge, will be invaluable to ensuring all at-risk customers are identified and supported correctly.”

Around a third (31%) expect to retire in the next two-to-five years and 30% plan to stop work in the next five-to-10 years, the research found.

More than half (58%) of advisers have not yet made their clients aware of their plans to retire in the next 10 years.

When retiring, two fifths (40%) plan to sell their stake of the company and 16% are planning to merge their business with a similar firm.

Not enough advisers to cope with demand

Some three-quarters (76%) believe there are not enough advisers entering the industry to cope with future demand, while 60% believe there are not enough IFAs joining the industry to manage workloads; and over a quarter (27%) said that there is a lack of specialists in areas that need more of them.

When asked about the consequences of a lack of IFAs, 70% said fewer consumers would be able to access financial advice, nearly half (46%) thought consumers would suffer financially and 36% said certain areas of advice would have less resource.

In the event of the industry having insufficient IFAs to handle workload, over a quarter (26%) of those surveyed said more advisers would leave the industry, 20% thought that the quality of advice would decline and 18% expressed the view that robo-advice would become more popular.

Incentives

The advisers surveyed said that the best incentives for attracting more young people to the financial advice profession include better marketing (47%), better training and development (44%), financial incentives to join the industry (19%) and financial incentives throughout their career (19%).

Alexa Nightingale, head of financial services research at Opinium, said: “Given the number of IFAs planning to retire in the next decade and the lack of IFAs joining the industry, there is no doubt that there is a growing concern about the future of the financial advice industry.

“To ensure that financial advice does not become less accessible, it is important that incentives are put in place to attract the younger generation to join the financial-advice industry.”

Available from June, the four strategies within the VT Downing Fox Funds range will be designed and run by former Premier Miton portfolio manager Simon Evan-Cook.

He said: “I’ve been stewing over the multi-asset industry’s shortcomings for a long time now. Downing offered me a clean sheet of paper to design and run a new multi-asset suite that’s simple, reliable and easy to use. I believe we’ve achieved that with the Downing Fox range.”

The range will be made up of strategies comprising either 100%, 80%, 60%, or 40% equities. This exposure will consist of long-only actively managed equity funds. The rest of each offering will entail a mixture of government bonds and developed-market cash.

Evan-Cook added: “A key differentiator is that, in our non-equity holdings, our funds can have significant exposure to cash if we believe it’s the best defensive option. This was a huge advantage last year. But most multi-asset portfolios won’t do this, largely because clients don’t like paying management fees on cash.

“We’re solving this problem by not charging management fees on the non-equity parts of our funds. We call this the ‘Whisky & Water’ model. And like any good bartender, we don’t expect you to pay for the water.”

Downing currently uses the same investment approach on its VT Johnston Cautious Portfolio and the VT Johnston Growth Portfolio offerings.

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