Introduction
Dear Adviser,
A very happy New Year to you all as we enter a new quarter century.
To start, we’d like to reflect on a busy end to last year. In December we announced our latest price cut with a reduction in personal pension and SIPP wrapper fees from April 2025. Families in linked family groups will be able to nominate or share a single wrapper fee within the group (for personal pensions and SIPP wrappers separately). This is designed to support the financial plans you put in place for families, potentially removing the wrapper fee for those on lower incomes. This reduction is set to benefit new clients and ~45,000 existing clients currently in linked family groups. More detail is provided in the article below.
In the second week of December the FCA once again highlighted that it has concerns about how interest on cash deposits held on investment platforms and within SIPPs is treated. In an update on its priorities for Consumer Duty, the regulator singled out platform cash as one of the areas it will focus on most notably as to whether platforms are passing on enough of the interest earned on cash to savers and, therefore, whether consumers are getting value for money. Last year it told platforms to stop ‘double-dipping’ on cash holdings. Unfortunately, some platforms still don’t disclose their cash charge clearly in their illustrations. As a reminder, we do not retain cash interest and pay it fully through to clients.
The recent Budget changes have heightened the need for depth of knowledge and expertise around IHT planning and are another great opportunity to demonstrate the real value of the advice you provide to clients. In addition to the breadth of wrappers available to you, with Transact you can access a wealth of technical support. Examples of the additional support we provide include our monthly focused technical articles below on the impacts of the Budget, and potential strategies to adjust the financial plans for your clients if suitable. We would encourage you to read them to make the most of the technical support available to you. This month’s articles include:
- Using gifts and loan trusts to manage inheritance tax in article 8.
- The efficient use of onshore and offshore bonds in article 9.
- The options available with ISAs on death and the ability for spouses to use the Additional Permitted Subscription in article 10.
Please call our direct technical line if you want to discuss any of these articles in more detail on (020) 7608 5330 or email technical_direct@integrafin.co.uk.
As we look forward into the year ahead, our strategic priorities continue to focus on personal service, digitalisation and integrations. We have same-day deposit matching and pension drawdown online on our horizon plus, of course, many more API integrations.
The year ahead also marks some significant anniversaries for us. Transact will reach its 25-year anniversary since the first portfolio was opened in March 2000. In those years we have built a financially strong business, and maintain capital and liquidity, based on a conservative approach. It also marks the 20-year anniversary since we first established IntegraLife International Limited (ILINT), the provider of our offshore bond wrapper. We were once the new kid on the block, but now are an experienced leader. Thank you for your support over those 25 years, we couldn’t have done it without you. And for the future, we plan to maintain our focus on delivering excellent customer service and innovation in a more connected platform and wealth management industry.
We are proud sponsors of Andy Hart’s Humans Under Management and it has been great to see so many Transact supporters attend these events. We are pleased to announce that Andy is offering a 20% discount to Transact users to the Humans Under Management Premium Service. This will allow you to access ready-made newsletters, essays, visuals, sketches, guides, adviser documents and videos tailored for advisers. You just need to use the code “Transact”. HUM Premium — Humans Under Management.
To learn more about Transact, join us at one of the many events we run throughout the year. We kicked off with our first 2025 breakfast event in Reading on 15 January, and we are running an online Connect event on 26 February. In this online event, open to all advisory professionals, you will hear from me, Tom Dunbar (Deputy CEO), Andrew Cullen-Jones (our new Chief Development Officer) and Brian Radbone (Technical Counsel). We will share registration and joining instructions over the next few weeks. If you prefer to meet in person, please join us at a breakfast or Connect event near you. The first in person Connect will take place on 7 May in Birmingham. A full list of events and joining instructions can be found here.
Finally, from me and everyone at Transact, we look forward to supporting you and your clients in 2025.
Kind regards,
Jonathan Gunby
Chief Executive Officer,
Integrated Financial Arrangements Limited (Transact)
1. Introduction
2. TOL Recent Enhancements
3. Transact 2025 Charge Reduction
4. Why Some Firms Integrate Directly With Transact
5. Transact & US Trading
6. Succession Planning Update
7. Transact – BlackRock MPS & Growth
8. A Study Of Gifting: Loan Trusts
9. The Name’s Bond: Are Investment Bonds The 007 Of Financial Planning?
10. ISAs – Treatment Of Accounts Following Death
11. Interest On Cash
12. Transact Events 2025