ScotLife wants regulator to emphasise value of advice
Share
Scottish Life has urged the Government and the regulator to communicate the value of financial advice to consumers.
Speaking to Money Marketing at the Labour conference, head of intermediary division John Deane said: “There is a role for the Government and the regulator to clearly say, there is value in terms of a financial healthcheck and explain to people the value of advice and the process used in financial planning.
“I accept that not everybody can afford to see an IFA but we must get the message across that financial planning is important.”
Deane added that financial education is becoming even more vital because the state will not fund retirement in future.
He said: “We are moving away from state provision but we have not improved financial literacy. We have to make sure people come out of the education system with financial understanding and capability. Part of an IFA’s job is to educate clients and they are doing that but we have to get more people engaged.”
If you enjoyed this article, sign up here to receive daily email updates from Money Marketing and Follow @_moneymarketing
Readers' comments (1)
Julian Stevens | 4 Oct 2010 11:25 am
A worthy aspiration, though difficult to see how it might make any impact on what appears to be a concerted campaign to allow the banks (who don't advise) an easy ride at the expense of the increasingly hard-pressed IFA sector. People seeking financial planning advice will find a sorely diminished number of advisers available to them, with many of those who do remain being forced to charge fees that many people don't see why they should pay.
On that front, the replacement of commission with explicit adviser charging will hopefully, in the fullness of time, dispel the myth that commission based advice is somehow free. But unless the banks are forced to operate in accordance with exactly the same rules as IFA's, they will continue to enjoy an unfair advantage, especially those which peddle their own wares with apparently no commission at all. Perhaps a good place to start redressing this imbalance is to outlaw banks offering "free" financial advice, on the simple premise that, as commercial organisations, the very notion of offering anything free cannot be anything other than a misrepresentation of the true picture.
Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment