There are always rotten apples though, and if you have an incentive scheme that rewards sales then that will always encourage them to make bad choices.
Plus there is the danger with rot that it spreads to more healthy parts of a business.
SJP has ended its overseas incentives, acknowledging they are inappropriate in the modern day.
The Pru has also ended its overseas incentives for salespeople.
For the general public these types of holidays are distasteful, particularly when their money is paying for it.
Chase de Vere and other companies that cling onto this relic must scrap theirs too.
It is not about them – it is about the clients.
A great step for transparency
Heavens, a Financial Conduct Authority initiative that I love.
The new value assessments that funds are being forced to put out are a thing of beauty.
So far only Rathbones, Vanguard and Hargreaves Lansdown have published, but they have been startling in their admission that some of the unit trusts have been very poor indeed.
It is a remarkable step forward for transparency, as they are also written in very simple, plain English.
What a shame then that they are hugely difficult to find on websites, though I do hear that Vanguard is going provide a link in the company’s next letter to savers.
What a great start.
Time to play fair
My dad has insurance with Sainsbury’s underwritten by LV.
He searched for a new quote on a comparison website; the cheapest was £200 less than he pays now, with – you guessed it – LV.
These shoddy pricing practices are really tiresome.
When will the general insurance industry learn to start playing fair by customers?
James Coney is money editor of The Times and The Sunday Times
This article has been amended to remove a reference to advisers earning more than FTSE 100 chief executives, and to clarify that league tables sent to advisers show the money they generate for the company, not their salaries.
