Park Row lost 100 IFAs in 'challenging' '07

Royal Liver, which acquired Park Row in 2003, says regulatory reviews including the FSA’s RDR and the “ever increasing” cost of compliance contributed to its decision to reduce Park Row’s regional locations from 24 to seven. While Royal Liver says this move was to provide an “emphasis on business quality”, the number of registered advisers also fell from 372 to 279. It adds this, in turn, led to a reduction in turnover from commission income “although average productivity per adviser was able to be sustained and in some cases improved”. Operating losses at Park Row increased by 38%, from...