Middle class woes threaten cost of advice

For the last few years, the financial services industry has spent an inordinate amount of time moaning about everything from onerous regulatory pressures that fail to prevent systemic crises through to dreadful investment returns.

Yet my suspicion is we are missing the biggest single challenge – the remorseless decline of the great British middle class. This demise hugely matters for the industry as this group represents the core market for personal financial products. Every week seems to bring yet more bad news. Last week, it was the turn of research firm Markit to confirm through its Monthly Household Finance index what we all know about consumer sentiment. According to Markit, household finances have fallen to their lowest level in over two years – the report highlighted job security had deteriorated and mo...