Graham Bentley: Investment adviser or financial planner?

When I fell into this business in the mid-1970s, chaps loosely described as brokers had arrays of pigeonholes stocked full of application forms for the multitude of Scottish (and occasional English) life assurance companies, each of which was a passport to financial satisfaction and peace of mind for the common man - or not.  Most clients were rather wealthier company directors and the self-employed. Despite the key word being retirement, financial advice often amounted to the promotion of pensions as a tax-dodge - a means by which senior businesspeople could avoid the eye-watering tax r...