National IFA chief calls for end to advice 'middle ground'

Carmen Reichman
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Chris Smallwood, the chief executive of Openwork-owned national IFA 2plan, has called on the regulator to crack down on what he said were 'misleading' terms used by some restricted advice firms to describe their services.

Consumers could suffer unless the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) fails to ban terms such as 'restricted universal' or 'restricted whole of market', Smallwood said. The FCA has previously suggested firms should be careful which terms they use. "We do not have a 'whole of market restricted' for consumers," FCA technical specialist Rory Percival said in November last year. "We have independent or restricted." The Retail Distribution Review outlined a new definition of independent advice and brought advisers previously operating in the old 'tied' or 'multi-tied' space under a 'restrict...

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