Co-op: It was exit advice altogether or spend £50m

The organisation said RDR reforms plus rising regulatory costs left it with the option to invest millions or acquire an advisory business. Instead, last week it announced that, following a strategic review of its life and savings business, it would be withdrawing its field-based advisory team with the loss of some 500 advisers and 670 roles in total. Most of the company’s 497 tied advisers worked out of Co-op branches or those of Britannia, the building society with which the Co-op merged two years ago. The remaining intermediaries were classified as ‘home-based’. “The truth is we ...