Profitability all wrapped up

Profitability is a fundamental issue for all businesses. It is, of course, a simple function of revenue minus costs, but there are several factors making this equation increasingly difficult for many financial advice firms to solve. On the revenue side, there has been downward pressure on commissions, due to the introduction of Stakeholder products and the increasing focus from the regulators, media and public on the cost of advice. The relatively subdued equity and bond markets in the five years that have passed since the bursting of the dot-com bubble have also not made it easy to make ...