RDR

The RDR will force many adviser firms into a programme of business change. Fiona Tait, business development manager at Scottish Life, looks at how some firms have already turned it to their advantage.

Maria Merricks looks at how the RDR's qualification requirements will impact the adviser community.

Adviser Alliance will lobby the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) to take up the anti-RDR cause on competition grounds.

How will advisers alter their service propositions in a post-RDR world?

The cost to advisers of obtaining a mandatory ‘statement of professional standing' (SPS) certificate and completing their qualification gap-fill requirements by 1 January 2013 could hit £595 each, the FSA estimates.

Professional bodies accredited by the FSA to check advisers' qualifications and CPD will not have the power to regulate individuals, the watchdog says.

The industry has backed FSA proposals to establish an internal model to monitor professional standards rather than set up a new statutory body.

Advisers who hold higher minimum qualifications will be more competent and less likely to make mistakes resulting in the recommendation of unsuitable products, the FSA says today.

The FSA has published the final list of authorised qualifications retail investment advisers can take to ensure they meet RDR requirements before 1 January 2013.

The FSA says it could transfer responsibility for monitoring professional standards to individual firms - providing the industry can persuade the regulator of the merits of such hands-off regulation.