Sants says simple scheme will keep access to advice
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FSA chief executive Hector Sants says the regulator is keen to ensure the RDR does not block access to financial advice.
At the Association of British Insurers’ biennial conference in London last week, RGA product development actuary Greg Becker said: “I support the RDR but can see an unintended consequence will be that large sectors of the population stop being serviced by traditional IFAs. What is being done to ensure these people will have access to some form of advice or guidance, other than the work being done by the Money Advice Service and its financial healthcheck?”
Sants said: “We are very conscious of the point the question has raised, which is we want to make sure we have not excluded people from advice they were previously able to get. A key element of making sure that does not happen is the delivery of an effective simplified advice regime.”
Sants added the development of simplified advice should be a joint partnership between the regulator and the industry.
He said: “We have recently recognised that in order to play our full part in this partnership of delivering effective simplified advice that more help and more clarity from the regulatory perspective would be useful.”
The FSA is expected to publish a simplified advice consultation over the summer to address what Sants called “utterly understandable concerns” on the RDR and the impact it will have on access to advice.
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