Taking the reins

The circumstances surrounding Chris Cummings' ascendancy to director-general of the Association of Independent Financial Advisers (AIFA) were hardly ideal. Drafted in to replace David Severn who stood down for health reasons after just three months in the job, Cummings has taken the reigns of an organisation undergoing an identity crisis. Depolarisation has changed the status of what constitutes an independent financial adviser (IFA) creating headaches for AIFA. Intermediaries who were considered IFAs under the old regime have now been reclassified as either whole of market advisers, mult...