A great opinion piece from Jeff Prestridge in FTAdviser last week. We have snipped together many of the key themes, but would recommend readers view the full article (the relevant link is provided at the bottom of this post):
“After much debate, argument and head scratching, the Retail Distribution Review will be enforced and the financial advice landscape will be a better place for it. Well, that is what we are being led to believe. Commissions will be replaced by fees, transparency, integrity and honesty will prevail and the general public will never have to doubt an adviser again.”
“Maybe we will get to this financial advice land of milk and honey but if industry experts are to be believed, it will not be without its big casualties – on both sides of the fence.”
“Surveys still suggest that up to 30 per cent of financial advisers could give up the ghost before the RDR is finally embedded into the regulatory framework. Some advisers cannot see a viable business future post-RDR, others are in fear of taking exams after a long and distinguished career, while some will see the review as the final straw in a long line of final straws that have included onerous compensation levies and the outrageous castigating of advisers in the Arch Cru scandal by the FSA.”
“To date, the game changer that is the RDR has rarely escaped the pages of the financial trade papers. Past editions of Financial Adviser have covered assiduously the consequences and implications of the review – and rightly so.”
“Yet the RDR has not really been an issue for national newspapers. Why? Because personal finance journalists like me prefer to write about things that the public can act upon immediately rather than about matters that are on a distant horizon. “
“My take on the Retail Distribution Review is simple. It is a secondary issue. “
“But what is key is that in the months to come, everyone who has a vested interest in maintaining a vibrant financial advice industry should shout about it from the rooftops. “
“Marvellously, unbiased.co.uk has set the ball rolling on this with the launch of its Value of Advice campaign, a campaign backed by Standard Life and which will continue until the introduction of the RDR at the end of the year.”
“What we need now is for others to follow in unbiased.co.uk’s wake. “
Source: FTAdvisor. Read full article here.
