bonds

Intermediaries accounted for more than 80% of gross retail business in the investment sector, as total funds under management rose to £411bn in January, while net ISA sales fell by more than 70%.

I was looking at some HM Revenue and Customs figures recently and they quite surprised me. They were forecasting that the annual receipts for capital gains tax for 2006-2007 would be over £4bn. This compared to £3.5bn for inheritance tax.

IFAs should ignore concerns about the headline inflation rate when making fixed interest investment recommendations as this has little impact on bond yields and returns, says Fidelity.

Latest analysis of bond rates paid by NS&I suggests the executive agency is still trailing the private sector despite increasing its rates in response to last month's interest rate hike.

The third annual joint Association of Investment Companies/IFA Promotion poll of around 200 fund managers and IFAs has found the industry looking generally positive about prospects next year, albeit with some differences.

The Way Group has launched an offshore bond which is designed to provide a different approach to risk profiling.

A lack of communication about the funding status of defined benefit schemes could have the potential to lead to a "financial scandal".

National Savings & Investments has increased the rates it pays out, in line with the 0.25% increase announced recently by the Bank of England.

Growth of Standard Life's sales has been heavily dominated this year by the pension reforms of A-Day, according to the life insurer's latest business figures.

Ian Frost is moving from BlackRock to Investec Asset Management to become a global fixed income portfolio manager while Aegon Asset Management has also announced a series of new arrivals to its fixed income team.