What makes a good mortgage advisor?

dunstonh

Yes, I have read about the new RDR and its turning my hair grey. I cannot believe this. It means the advisers working without a bank setup will have to study up and become chartered which means no more free advice in my books as far as I can see. Well, this means I will have to continue studying after I have my Cefa and do the advanced and then look at the route to become chartered.

I have spoken with 5 other advisers about what they think and three of them will call it a day if the changes come in as they don't want to go chartered but don't want to go down the simple route either. One inconsistent response is that the proposals do nothing for most consumers, many will be worse off as and the only winners are the banks.

I can see many adviser in their 50s calling it a day. Maybe stay as long as they can under the "general" adviser tag but then finish. New recruits are going to have a mountain to climb if they want to go beyond the simple advice option. And lets face it, there isn't going to be any money in the simple advice route.

SteveSilva

So the consumer will have no choice but either go to a bank, (with products only of its own to offer) or use highly qualified brokers, who will charge high fees to cover their costs?
How does this benefit anyone but the large banks, and not at all the consumer?


Can you provide a link for more info?

dunstonh

the links are slow but moneymarketing and citywire have a lot of coverage. Any site dealing with advisers will have it as big coverage as its going to decimate the number of advisers and have an impact on every single adviser out there.

http://www.moneymarketing.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?frm=pnrtd6&h=mm_srch_h&f=mm_srch_f&maxhits=25&body_sort=ALL&title_sort=ALL=&body=rdr

Heres a link to the topics

UK007BullDog

www.fsa.gov.uk

http://www.moneymarketing.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=144814

http://www.moneymarketing.co.uk/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=144834&d=340&h=341&f=342

Enjoy!

SteveSilva

So when you Chartered do you mean Chartered what exactly, what qualifications and experience is needed to become Chartered?

Thanks for the link

UK007BullDog

Which means "we" bank advisers will get hopefully paid more and be valued more as there are not that many to go round.

Also I had some 50 year olds in my cemap classes so oldies can still learn. What other choices have they got unless they merge with other small firms and study up! Early retirement? Only for those with big full bank accounts.

SteveSilva

Can you guys tell us about your careers how you started, how long it took to build your experience. Working for banks or brokers what are the ups and downs?

dunstonh

Bank advisers are likely to become obsolete in their current form as the simple advice role will be less skilled than current advisers. It will be a flow chart style of advice with a simplified product range somewhere just above the stakeholder range.

The banks will be able to get more bank clerks using that style of advice and therefore use lower paid staff than they do currently. Simplified products will also be budget products so there will not be the scope to pay advisers what they are currently on.

Many advisers, IFA or tied wont want to downgrade their advice to simple. Yet wont be able to upgrade to professional as their employer wont offer that option or feel that they dont want to spend the next 5 years training for further qualifications.

My personal view is that some will upgrade, many will retire and many will go mortgage only. It is estimated that nearly 2/3rds of IFAs would be financially better off going mortgage only anyway now, let alone under the proposed changes. There is little point an adviser going through the cost of exams and training over 5 years if they get less than 10-20% of their business from investment classification transactions.

UK007BullDog

From the CII website:

Q1. What does an individual have to do to be eligible for the title?

A. To be awarded Chartered Financial Planner status, an individual will have to:

* Carry on business as a provider of financial planning advice to individuals or corporate entities
* Have five years' experience in the industry (not necessarily postqualification) of a kind satisfactory to the Institute
* Be a member of the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII)
* Gain CII approved financial qualifications equivalent to first degree level
* Follow the CII's Code of Ethics and Conduct
* Be able to demonstrate at least three years of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and commit to an ongoing programme of continuing professional development.

Q2. Which CII approved financial qualifications are suitable?

A. An individual will need to hold the Financial Planning Certificate (or equivalent) and a minimum of 290 qualification credits which must include:

Six Advanced Financial Planning Certificate level units; or from 2007, completion of the Advanced Diploma in Financial Planning

homer_j_3

SteveSilva wrote: »

Can you guys tell us about your careers how you started, how long it took to build your experience. Working for banks or brokers what are the ups and downs?

I personally am 11 years into my training and I learn new things everyday. I have worked in various capacities from back office to advising as a financial adviser and now mortgage adviser.

Whilst Dunston and the other advisers are talking about this review, I personally am just watching whats going on. There is a lot of speculation and nothing for certain at the moment as I can see.

If you want to become a good adviser, you need to have the ability to talk to people, the ability to listen, the ability to process a lot of information and make sense of it all. You need to be able to explain things in a clear and concise way. You need to be able to be confident in the advice that you give and have the skill to be able to translate your qualifications into the real world.

I have said many times that passing the test is only the very first step on what is a long journey.

We have a fast track trainee where I work and he is very very intelligent. He passed all of his exams with distinction (or whatever the top level is now).

Watching him in the real world, it is showing that he has jumped in the deep end without the ability to swim or armbands.

- He failed to ask for valuation cheque as he thought they took it out of their bank somehow.

- He recorded a fixed rate in the fact find but recommended a capped rate - and said "its like a fixed so it should be OK"

- He did a sign up for a colleague to help him through the "sign off for competency" and failed to complete the fact find to see if there had been any significant changes.

- He then asked the adviser who had no input into the sale to why he hadn't recommended critical illness.

This to me confirms that he has read a book, learnt the answers and if the question is worded slightly different, he cannot answer it. He cannot apply high level theory to low level specific situations.

The job is tough for anyone new and I have received commentary from newly qualified advisers on here for being negative - I just see it as real world.

Your best route would be into a bank or building society where you will get a good grounding. Even if its not advising straight away, you can always study in your own time and get a feel for the world that we operate in. You will get a lot of support and valuable resources to help you get a good understanding of a regulated environment.