Poor results for equity release advisors

A recent study into the skills and knowledge possessed by equity released advisors has produced poor results according to a recent report, with many of the advisors that were tested showing a lack of knowledge and offering poor quality advice to the rising number of people that have expressed interest in equity release programmes. Read more

Tags: Knowledge, offering, benchmarks, equity release, Independent Financial Adviser

Financial education in schools needs to be practical, say experts

A “purely theoretical financial education” in schools is not enough to assist students as they need practical experience of making decisions about their money, one financial expert has claimed.

Educational charity pfeg said that students at university need to be trained in balancing a budget in class so they can work out how to balance their finances.

Alastair Mathews, director of policy for pfeg, said: “Some students have already learned something about personal finance in their business and economics work – and yet they still don’t have a clue how to manage their credit card.”

The firm added that a theoretical financial education on its own “is not a lot of help” but any subject in the curriculum could be adapted and used to teach children how to use their money.

In the Future Leaders Survey 07-08, conducted by environmental charity Forum for the Future, universities association Ucas and insurers Friends Provident, 81 per cent of respondents (taken this year’s prospective university students) claimed to be ‘very’ or ‘quite’ good an managing money.

Tags: prospective university students, balancing, Knowledge, Provident, personal finance, Alastair Mathews

More financial education needed says CCCS

Britons need to be better educated on their financial management, an expert has warned.

According to Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) spokesperson James Ketchell, many people lack sufficient knowledge when it comes to using credit and assessing whether they can afford it.

Commenting that there needs to be more financial education among young people, he highlighted the difference between managing credit in comparison to a student loan, which provides cheap credit and is automatically deducted out of a borrower’s wage packet.

Mr Ketchell said that it is currently very easy for people in employment to be offered to take on more credit, adding: ” As prices have gone up and wages have stagnated and mortgages have gone up, people have to use a bit more common sense in their financial dealings.”

His warnings come after Credit Action recently stated its assertion that young people in Britain, amidst rising figures of debt saddled by today’s graduates, have been “educated into debt but not about debt”.

Tags: difference, borrower's wage packet, wages, Britain, personal finance, Knowledge, packet, action