Inducements: Why small DA firms are in the FCA's sights too

INDUCEMENTS

Carmen Reichman
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Small firms did not fall within the scope of the FCA's crackdown on provider 'inducements'. But that doesn't mean they're completely out of harm's way...

There is evidence, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) says, that some marketing, services or training deals between providers and advisory firms represent commission by another name. Though it came as little surpise to some, the regulator said it had detected widespread breaches of its conflict of interest rules among the 80 agreements it reviewed between life insurers and advisers. According to the regulator, the deals represented attempts to secure distribution and went against the spirit of the Retail Distribution Review (RDR), which sought to remove such bias. Small firms ...

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