Scary stuff
THE deVere Group styles itself the world's largest independent financial adviser.
To prove it, the group has come up with the largest savings target ever devised in the history of finance.
It has warned, in all seriousness, that the average 30-year-old worker should be putting aside £824 a month if he or she wants to retire at 65 with the recommended level of pension income.
Oh, and if you put it off by a single month, that goes up to £887. It's based on retiring at 65 on three-quarters of an average £26,500 salary.
It would be funny if it wasn't so scary.
Vetted appointment?
IT'S never nice to lose a top fund manager from Edinburgh to London, but worse when the predator wears its English credentials on its sleeve.
Aviva told us that Euan Munro, whom it has poached from Standard Life to become chief executive of its investment business, took his diploma at a university called Herriot-Watt.
Do they think it specialises in veterinary medicine?
Diary hiccup
ALWAYS keeping your wits about you must be a challenge when working for a drinks company. So perhaps it is understandable that spirits giant Diageo this week invited journalists to a press conference on July 32nd. Hic.
Easy ride
MARTIN Gilbert's last annual meeting as chairman of FirstGroup after 27 years passed off without bouquets – or brickbats.
When the chairman tried to move to the main business of the meeting after only three questions from the floor, he was stopped by a flurry of hands from shareholders.
But as The Bottom Line waited breathlessly for Mr Gilbert to be grilled over the £600 million rights issue and the 60% fall in the share price since May 20, the most pressing concern for those at the Aberdeen conference centre appeared to be the reduction in frequency on the Bridge of Don bus route, giving the chairman a remarkably easy ride.
Hot ticket
THE RBS and HBOS saga seems to be never ending but there appears little let up in the thirst for knowledge about why these venerable financial institutions collapsed.
News reached us that a talk by journalists Ian Fraser, writer of Shredded about RBS, and Ray Perman, author of Hubris: How HBOS wrecked the best bank in Britain, has sold out. We can't imagine Fred Goodwin or Andy Hornby will be among those trying to get a last-minute ticket.
BT's human touch
OUTGOING BT boss Ian Livingston admitted at the company's recent AGM he hates call centres where you have to press numerous buttons to reach a human being.
As a result BT is introducing more voice recognition systems.
We can only hope Mr Livingston has made allowances for the Scottish accent. If not, customers across the country could endure a fate highlighted in a routine by comedian Kevin Bridges, where he cannot book cinema tickets because the voice recognition software doesn't understand what he is saying.
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