RDR blues and the financial transfer window

CONTRARIAN INVESTOR

A couple of weekends back, in my Financial Times column, I noted Towry Law's teensy weensy transfer problem.

The gist of this slightly depressing saga is that in-specie transfers are a real mess. Towry’s takeover of Edward Jones – by all accounts a much-admired business by its clients – has apparently prompted hundreds of incoming customers to request an in-specie transfer out. With straightforward liquidations, this can be accomplished within a matter of hours if not days, but problems obviously ramp up when you are trying to deal with customers boasting a myriad of different funds as well as a sack load of listed stocks within their portfolio. The combined effect seems to be overwhelming the ...