Less affluent will suffer from RDR - Howard

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A two-tier adviser market leaving less well-off consumers more vulnerable to poor advice is possible if proposals in the Retail Distribution Review are given the green light.

That is according to John Howard, chairman of the Financial Services Consumer Panel (FSCP), who was speaking at the FSA’s annual general meeting this morning. Howard says General Financial Advisers (GFAs) offering commission-based advise would be more likely to attract less affluent customers, whereas the more qualified Professional Financial Planners (PFPs), offering fee-based advice, would pull in richer consumers. Howard says this two-tier system would not benefit the consumer, even though the FSA’s Retail Distribution Review professes to have consumer interests at its core. The RD...

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