National adviser Foster Denovo Group has appointed David Currie as chairman to replace industry veteran Keith Carby as the group readies an expansion strategy which will be partly based on mergers and acquisitions.

Cardano, the investment and risk specialist, has recruited Cédric Bucher, former head of Architas UK funds, as the new co-head of its DC business.

Investment ratings and research provider FE has launched FE Analytics+ Investment Planner - an investment tool designed to help advisers assess clients’ attitude to risk, select suitable investment options and summarise the investment advice process in ‘client-friendly’ reports.

The acquisitive Embark Services Group, which has taken over platform and Sipp firms, reported pre-tax losses widening last year from £1.46m to £2.36m.

Rapidly expanding Financial Planning and wealth management firm AFH has bought Duchy Wealth Management of Truro, Cornwall, for a maximum price of £630,000.

A leading firm of consultants has warned that many financial services firms are unprepared for new HMRC anti-tax evasion fines due to come into effect from 1 October.

PA Consulting Group says firms need to act now to implement a “framework” that will enabling the monitoring of tax evasion risk to mitigate potential problems. The company says the new legislation introduces an entirely new offence whereby corporations can be held responsible if any employee or agent acting on their behalf facilitates tax evasion in any way – and it has a global scope.

PA says this represents a “steep change” from the range of previous tax evasion offences and is a significant additional burden for firms. According to the company, recent surveys by industry bodies suggest that less than 40% of financial services institutions have considered the regulations which come with the risk of significant fines.

There is also no ‘grace’ period as HMRC will be enforcing the new rules from the 1 October and is traditionally less open to dialogue than the regulatory bodies, it says.

Firms are obliged to have a framework in place to monitor and mitigate the risks and the government guidelines recommend that firms broadly use their Financial Crime frameworks as a starting point.

The risk is notably bigger for insurers and those financial services providers that have a lot of intermediated business, those who work through IFAs, brokers and other advisers, in particular. They are more likely to have agents operating on their behalf in a position to help facilitate tax evasion by customers, says PA Consulting. Managing the risk created by these intermediaries will be a substantial change for financial providers compared to the previous environment.

Richard Grint, financial services expert at PA Consulting Group, said: “Tax evasion has been a low priority for companies, but this needs to change and fast. The nature of this sort of change means that it tends to get de-prioritised to the bare minimum, and the teams working on it tend not to be high performing and therefore aren’t able to influence those around them to get their work moved up the priority queue.

“This needs to change. If companies do not reorganise their priorities and enforce these regulations, then they will be facing significant fines.”

Sipp and platform provider AJ Bell has urged the Chancellor to avoid slashing pension tax relief in the Budget after speculation that the Treasury will need to cut pensions relief to make up for shortfalls in revenue and to curtail the rising cost of pre and post-retirement tax benefits.

Standard Life says it has made “significant enhancements” to its recently-acquired Elevate platform including a new business process and improved functionality aimed at cutting down on the time taken to use the service.

Foster Denovo co-founder Keith Carby is to resign from the company he helped set up in 2005 to make way for fresh blood.

Auto-enrolment has helped drive total membership of occupational pension schemes in the UK to a record 39.2 million in 2016, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics.