2002

What else happened in this year?

In finance…

Annual UK Inflation: 1.69% CPI

Bank base rate: Remained at 6.000% from 10 February 2001

IHT threshold: £250,000

In the charts…

Will Young, winner of Pop Idol, topped the charts for 3 weeks and sold over 1.1 million copies in the first week of sale of “Anything is Possible/Evergreen”.

On the screen…

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers was released and grossed $926,047,111 worldwide. 

Around the world…

• February 28 – The ex-currencies of all euro-using nations cease to be legal tender in the European Union.
• November 25 – U.S. President George W. Bush signs the Homeland Security Act into law, establishing the Department of Homeland Security, in the largest U.S. government reorganization since the creation of the Department of Defense in 1947.

In the UK…

• 14 January – The end of the Foot and Mouth crisis is declared after 11 months.
• 30 March – Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, dies aged 101 at Royal Lodge, Windsor.
• 4 June – The Queen and The Duke of Edinburgh ride in the gold state coach from Buckingham Palace to St Paul’s Cathedral for a special service marking the Queen’s Golden Jubilee.

Applewood continued to grow and the firm was working with an ever-increasing number of clients.  The financial services industry was facing huge changes and this led to the introduction of our first standardised fee and planning service. This meant that our charges were consistent – ensuring that clients were treated fairly by not paying more or less than another client for the same service. This is something that is important to Equilibrium today and is part of our guiding principles. 

Key events

• A standardised 0.5% service fee was introduced 
• Model portfolios were introduced