The origin of the saying ‘united we stand, divided we fall' is variously attributed to Aesop's fable of the Four Oxen and the Lion; John Dickinson's revolutionary war song The Liberty Song, first published in the Boston Gazette in 1768 or, more commonly, one of America's founding fathers Patrick Henry in March 1799 in his last public speech.
Whatever its provenance, it is a powerful statement and one the IFA community could do with adopting as its motto - particularly when dealing with life offices. At the moment I believe the adviser community would benefit greater from a united stance on the issue of agency agreements. Collectively we could bring about real change and put an end to adviser firms being threatened with agency closure. For adviser firms relying on agency agreements to ensure they meet whole of market criteria the ramifications of recent life office moves to close, or threaten to close, the agency are extre...
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