Ian Muirhead: The barriers between the professions are breaking down fast

The pace of change within the professions is accelerating. The traditional business model was based on hand-crafted advice delivered on a one-to-one basis with clients, by professionals working in partnership with each other and resulting in documentation. At the heart of the proposition was the notion that the time of the adviser is of central value - in other words, that the time of the professional is the scarce resource for which clients pay. In recent years, clients have been rebelling against open-ended hourly fees and insisting on fixed fees, though these have often been subjec...