The FSA's proposal to split the adviser market based on qualifications has raised new questions about the future of the IFA industry and, in the view of one IFA, dragged up an old one from the distant past.
Perhaps the most pungent of the new set concerns what would happen to IFA numbers should advisers be forced to either take yet more exams, or be forced to ‘downgrade’ to what the regulator has termed a ‘Primary’ adviser. The FSA proposed in the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) the consumer sector might be better served if a new breed of adviser – the ‘Primary’ adviser – joined the current crop, which would be split into Professional Financial Planners (PFPs) and General Financial Advisers. Each IFA would be given a title depending on his or her qualifications; Primary advisers would nee...
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