'IFAs' most likely to give bad advice

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One in four Britons say they have received poor financial advice and the source most quoted is IFAs.

According to an omnibus survey of 125,000 people conducted by YouGov in July, of those who received bad advice, at least 32% of these saw an IFA, and 28% went to high street banks while the remainder had received bad advice from family and friends, colleagues, accountants and lawyers, as well as brokers. That said, the research does not make any distinction between categories of financial adviser and all are labelled as IFA in the survey, as it is argued consumers do not know the difference between independent, whole-of-market and multi-tied advisers. When asked “what problems were ther...

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