Sifa will not apply for FSA accreditation
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The representative body for solicitor IFAs, Sifa, says it has no plans to apply for accreditation to award statements of professional standing.
Last week the FSA announced that advisers must hold a statement of professional standing, which will give independent verification that they are meeting new professional standards under the RDR. The FSA will accredit bodies to supply the statements.
Sifa says it has no ambition to become an accredited body and member firms will be able to decide which SPS provider they align with.
Sifa compliance director Ian Cockerill says: “In the final analysis one cannot help wondering whether all of the soul-searching over professionalism will have achieved anything more than a different method of verifying CPD, an additional expense, and a further step away from the original intention of distinguishing between professional IFAs and salesoriented advisers whose ethics are compromised by conflict of interest.”
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