Welcome to AKG

AKG has produced an independent report for an intermediary audience, including financial advisers, planners and paraplanners, on the potential relevance and suitability of direct lending as an investment asset for the sophisticated retail investor amongst a wider consideration of alternative asset classes.

The report was sponsored by investment management firms Triple Point and Foresight Group, who offer solutions in the direct lending investment market, along with regulatory consultancy Bovill and law firm Shakespeare Martineau, as report partners. It was underpinned by quantitative consumer and financial adviser market research insight instructed by AKG and carried out via online survey.

AKG looks across the market at a wide range of provider types and was asked to consider what part direct lending / private debt investment might be able to play in the evolving UK intermediary market as the search for yield continued against the post-financial crisis market with increasingly uncertain fixed interest and equity markets, with long term low interest rates and rising inflation.

Research showed a clear willingness by private investors to consider investment outside the traditional equity or cash-based solutions, albeit largely outside of the advice process currently. The report explores the potential opportunities for financial advisers to meet their clients’ continued search for yield and reduced volatility, alongside the challenges and hurdles for providers and advisers in making access to such solutions available.

4 October 2018

Despite the fact that AKG has been assessing financial services companies and producing ratings for these companies for over 20 years we understand the importance of continuing to underline the approach taken by AKG when carrying out our assessment work.

We have prepared a short animation on the subject, which can played below.

With this animation, and with time of the essence for intermediary businesses, we wanted to produce something short and snappy which cuts to the core of AKG’s approach. One of the main considerations being that these ratings are designed specifically for intermediary usage, to support such exercises as product/proposition research and due diligence, and another being the underlying customer focus and perspective on financial strength and sustainability of financial services companies.

We hope that you find the animation useful and please do let us know if you have any questions for the AKG team.

31 July 2018

We are delighted to announce the publication of AKG’s 2018 Pension Freedoms Paper, Grasping the nettle: Working together to achieve better retirement outcomes. Download your complimentary copy at akg.co.uk/downloads.

Without exception, the pension freedoms changes caught people by surprise. The changes have also coincided with a wider period of regulatory and political change and challenge. So, what we have seen initially is three years of adjustment to the new freedoms with further work to be done in 2018/19 and beyond.

As someone that carries out assessment of a broad range of companies across the financial services industry, including the monitoring of evolving business strategies, AKG has been in a great position to watch the post-pension freedoms market unfold. We have always felt that pension freedoms presented both challenge and opportunity for a broad range of market players and stakeholders.

Some of the key objectives for this AKG paper are as follows:

• to build on the successful framework established with our original publication in this area
• to discuss the direction of travel in the market, including provider and solutions landscape
• to look at challenges and opportunities, old and new, for a range of market stakeholders and participants
• to illustrate through market research, the thoughts, behaviours, requirements etc. of consumers and advisers
• to be practical and do some myth-busting where possible
• to establish a discussion platform with our partners for the paper, and with other key market stakeholders, whereby relevant discussion and debate can be further progressed during 2018/19.

AKG felt once again that it was crucial to underpin thinking for the paper with original market research findings. Three separate, but complementary, research exercises have been carried out to meet this requirement and findings from each of these adviser and consumer studies are illustrated and discussed within the paper and will continue to inform associated debate and discussion moving forward.

AKG has worked with two official partners in the production of this white paper - Prudential and Standard Life. Both partners have been given the opportunity to provide their input and opinion on some of the key issues and themes established within the paper.

We hope that you enjoy reading the paper. If you have any queries about the content or would like to discuss the pension freedoms market with us in more detail please do get in touch.

30 May 2018