Regulation

Joe Egerton, director of lobby group Justice in Financial Services, asks whether IFAs can still derail the RDR after the recent parliamentary debate.

The FSA is contacting more than 49,000 people to warn them they could be targeted by boiler room share fraudsters.

One third of IFAs are already prepared for RDR compared to just a fifth last year, according to the latest Defaqto research.

The FSA has banned a stockbroker from working in financial services following his role in a scheme that set out to ramp up the share price of a technology company.

The rules on giving advice would need to be eased up if the FSA pushes for a rumoured tightening of product regulation, says Legal & General's (L&G) executive director of savings.

An MP at the centre of this week's maiden parliamentary debate on the RDR has hinted advisers should not expect changes to the FSA's adviser charging rules, but says the regulator could "soften" its qualification requirements.

Modest investors who may be priced out of holistic financial advice post-2012 will need less of it anyway as they become auto-enroled into pension schemes, investment manager Vanguard says.

Axa Wealth says RDR does "appear" to be a threat - but thinks there are huge opportunities for those who accept it is an immovable object.

Harriett Baldwin, one of the MPs who called this week's Commons debate on the RDR, has asked Treasury financial secretary Mark Hoban to expand on comments linking higher qualifications to adviser competency.

With the RDR only two years away, we know adviser firms up and down the country are taking a good hard look at their businesses.