By Harriett Baldwin, PPC for West Worcestershire
The Financial Services Authority is currently consulting on something called the Retail Distribution Review (RDR). The consultation closes on October 30th 2009, so if you are one of Britain’s many Independent Financial Advisers or the customer of an IFA, please consider writing in here.
As Britain shifts back towards a culture of savings, we are all going to need to rely more and more on good, independent financial advice. As more and more people find themselves responsible for their own pensions, we are going to need more and more good independent financial advice.
Against this backdrop, the Financial Services Authority has launched this consultation on new rules to set standards for investment advice. The worthy aim is to raise standards and trust for savers in the advice they are given.
However, many people are worried that the new standards are going to be so demanding and expensive for the industry that they are actually going to put small IFAs out of business and raise costs for all consumers. The winners in this review could be the banks and large investors.
I recently met with a group of Worcestershire IFAs, together with my colleagues Mark Garnier, PPC for Wyre Forest and Robin Walker, PPC for Worcester. Small IFA businesses are very concerned for two good reasons.
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