Lemos says MAS is serving a sector that IFAs can't reach
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The Money Advice Service chairman Gerard Lemos has hit back at critics of the industry-funded service, claiming it is inconceivable that IFAs could reach its target market after the RDR.
The launch of the MAS in April, funded by a statutory industry levy, was met with concern from sections of the IFA community that it could result in a loss of business.
At the ABI biennial conference, Lemos said: “About half the UK population would benefit from free advice and that is the advice gap that we are aiming to fill. It seems to me inconceivable that independent financial advisers can reach that market after the RDR.”
Lemos said the MAS would allow providers to use the behavioural information it collects from users to aid product development. He said: “We know we owe the industry a debt of gratitude for the levy. We will have, over time, millions of users and the best metrics available on customer behaviour. We hope to use that information to work with the industry on product development and innovation.”
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Readers' comments (7)
Sean | 1 Jul 2011 1:22 pm
“About half the UK population would benefit from free advice and that is the advice gap that we are aiming to fill. It seems to me inconceivable that independent financial advisers can reach that market after the RDR.”
Just checked the FSA register and I cant see that MAS is authorised to give advice?
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Anonymous | 1 Jul 2011 2:19 pm
He said: “We know we owe the industry a debt of gratitude for the levy"
He makes it sound like we had a choice when in fact it is akin to digging your own grave.
the thousands of people who will lose their jobs at Christmas 2012 will crash the mas website with pleas for help.the few who are left can pay for it.
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Anonymous | 1 Jul 2011 2:27 pm
It's not free advice, it has been paid for after all.
Do turkeys subsidise the slaughterhouses come christmas time?
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kevin murphy | 1 Jul 2011 2:34 pm
So how many staff will MAS need if "about half the UK population" take up this service - and who is going to pay for it then? Even if only a tiny fraction wanted further info/guidance and rang the helpline, the cost would be enormous.
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Anonymous | 1 Jul 2011 2:39 pm
Maybe they should rename it Carlsberg?
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CONFFA | 1 Jul 2011 2:45 pm
"It seems to me inconceivable that independent financial advisers can reach that market after the RDR" - seems someone (the FSA?) has told him there won't be enough IFAs post 2012, but on the other hand Sants et al are saying the opposite.
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Julian Stevens | 4 Jul 2011 9:31 pm
On the one hand, Mr Lemos concedes that IFA's post-RDR will find it commercially unviable to try to service the financial rump-end of the populace, i.e. that if we try to do so we'll lose money.
Then, on the other, he says So you're all going to have to pay us to do it for you, whether you like it or not, even though the MAS isn't actually authorised to give advice and robustly disclaims responsibility for any advice that it does give. What if most "advice" from the MAS is to seek out an IFA, but all the IFA's approached say You can't afford our services because we're so over-burdened with regulatory levies, the latest of which are those extorted from us to fund the MAS?
In a nutshell ~ Heads we're shafted, tails we're screwed and it's hard to see how the consumer overall is going to benefit. One way or another, we have to pay, pay, pay and, if we refuse, the FSA will confiscate our livelihoods. What the hell is this country coming to?
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