How to find a decent IFA - or best not to?

Malthusian

The business of qualification and / or regulation interests me. I'm not clear exactly which functions are regulated and what, if any, formal qualification a person has to hold to perform them.

Briefly - anyone who wants to advise retail clients on regulated financial products must be authorised and regulated by the FCA. Giving unauthorised advice is illegal and people have been jailed for it. To obtain authorisation advisers must have at least a relevant level 4 qualification from a body like the Chartered Insurance Institute. Many advisers will hold higher qualifications as Aegis mentions.

If that happened now, and they hadn't paid up after a couple of letters, which regulator would I complain to? Would it be the FOS like a banking dispute?

Correct.

If so, presumably that would just address my losses and not the IFA's fitness to practice?

If the IFA is in fact not fit to practice you can ask the FCA to investigate, and if they find sufficient evidence they will fine him and/or ban him from the industry. However nothing you've said casts any doubt on the IFA's fitness to practice.

Undervalued

Malthusian wrote: »

Briefly - anyone who wants to advise retail clients on regulated financial products must be authorised and regulated by the FCA. Giving unauthorised advice is illegal and people have been jailed for it. To obtain authorisation advisers must have at least a relevant level 4 qualification from a body like the Chartered Insurance Institute. Many advisers will hold higher qualifications as Aegis mentions.

Correct.

If the IFA is in fact not fit to practice you can ask the FCA to investigate, and if they find sufficient evidence they will fine him and/or ban him from the industry. However nothing you've said casts any doubt on the IFA's fitness to practice.

Thanks.

Obviously the problem was about ten years ago and in any case they made good my losses.

But for interest.....

What are "regulated financial products" ? Shares, unit trusts, OICS etc or is it more complex than that ? And when does "advice" begin and end ?

TheTracker

bowlhead99 wrote: »

I doubt when Lionel Messi goes for his next job interview they will ask him how many football diplomas he got since his A levels.

No, but they'd be highly interested in his fee and in establishing whether his abilities minus fees will be advantageous for the club.

I remember the exchange BR refers to, and it did come across to me that dh felt access to all that information was some evidence he could choose better funds than the average, but it wasn't explicit enough for me to comment at the time and it may have been my perception. A shame the thread has gone. Of course we know from studies that finance professionals are no better at investing than the rest of us.