Adviser labels are 'irrelevant' - Kellard

The chief executive of AXA Winterthur Wealth Management says it is the quality of advice - independent or tied - which will benefit consumers, adding if tied and multi-tied advisers are qualified to the same level as independent practitioners, "then it's advice". He adds the RDR proposals, in their current form, will fail to achieve the FSA's key objective of widening access to professional advice in the UK. "Calling IFAs 'advisers' and single-tied and multi-tied distributors 'sales people' would have been no more than playing with words and wouldn't have delivered benefits to consumers...