IFAs - after 31 December 2012 will you be an IFA or an RA

bigfreddiel

come the new year - 1 jan 2013 to be an ifa you will need to be qualified and be able to offer advice across the full range of the finance area.

if you can't you will be termed as a "restricted avisor"

so to all those ifas out there what will you be?

you've only 5 months to decide.....

fj

bigfreddiel

wales100 wrote: »

I believe the number of true IFAs will dramatically decrease next year

i believe you may be correct, and I believe all the major banks now no longer offer any advice.

fj

Aegis

bigfreddiel wrote: »

come the new year - 1 jan 2013 to be an ifa you will need to be qualified and be able to offer advice across the full range of the finance area.

if you can't you will be termed as a "restricted avisor"

so to all those ifas out there what will you be?

you've only 5 months to decide.....

fj

The decision will already have been made by the majority of firms. It's not something that could simply be decided on a whim at the end of this year - a great deal of planning will be required to maintain independence into next year even if the adviser is already genuinely independent.

For the record, I have no intention of being restricted.

wales100 wrote: »

I believe the number of true IFAs will dramatically decrease next year

I have to disagree. Those advisers who are currently truly independent will almost certainly remain so. I imagine that most of the IFAs who choose to become restricted will do so because they are to all intents and purposes already restricted in their offering. A few will be caught up in the changing regulations and may not have the time or money to meet the compliance requirements to stay independent even though they would like to, but I'm predicting that the majority of restricted advisers will be part of a large salesforce of some description.

I may be completely wrong, but this certainly seems to be my early impression.

bigfreddiel wrote: »

i believe you may be correct, and I believe all the major banks now no longer offer any advice.

fj

Bank salesforces have nothing to do with independence - they've only ever been termed independent because the FSA was ineffectual at calling them what they were - tied or multi-tied at best.

Rollinghome

Aegis wrote: »

Bank salesforces have nothing to do with independence - they've only ever been termed independent because the FSA was ineffectual at calling them what they were - tied or multi-tied at best.

Until recently the majority of people calling themselves "Independent Financial Advisers" arguably have been nothing of the sort when they have been entirely dependent on sales commission from the product providers for selling their products.

Paul Lewis of BBC MoneyBox has been more outspoken than most and has suggested that the name was entirely misleading, especially as IFAs normally cover only a limited area of finance, and suggested to the FSA that a more appropriate term would be "Commission Driven Sales Staff’. http://www.web40571.clarahost.co.uk/archive/talks/20110621_Skeptics.htm

He's far less optimistic than I am about RDR. Obviously we will still have many of the same old career salesmen in the industry, most of them ex-insurance salesmen and the like, for some years to come but hopefully their bias post-RDR will be towards the selling of their services rather than those products that benefit them with sales commission.

Already we're not seeing IFAs on this forum attacking products that pay minimal commission such as index trackers in the way they did a year or so ago. Which suggests that as the industry comes to terms with the requirements of RDR next year we're slowly going in the right direction to clean up the industry.

bigfreddiel

Aegis wrote: »

For the record, I have no intention of being restricted

Bank salesforces have nothing to do with independence

well done - you have all the qualificatios so go for it is my advice

yes, i agree banks have never been independent, but my point was they're not offering any advice now - i know - i paid in a large cheque the other day and no offer to see their advisor - in the past just paying the odd pb win would warrent the question!

cheers

fj