Responding to the FSA’s Financial Risk Outlook 2009, AIFA supports the acknowledgement in the report of the value the professional advice community provides. However, AIFA has questioned the assertion that trust in IFAs is now an issue for the profession and has called on the FSA to encourage members of the public to seek advice to better manage their budgeting and long term financial planning.
Commenting, Chris Cummings, director general, AIFA, said: "It is pleasing to see the FSA acknowledge the important role IFAs play in helping people meet their financial needs.
"IFA firms have not escaped the financial turmoil brought on by the banking crisis. We have actively sought to help members diversify their businesses while continuing to invest in their people and their firms. We support the view that advisers must be competent to advise in any new areas. To facilitate this development we ran a series of business diversification workshops in autumn 2008 to help equip members with the knowledge and skills to do so professionally.
"However, we seriously question the assertion in the report that there are low levels of consumer trust in the IFA profession. We challenge FSA to provide solid irrefutable evidence to support this opinion. Independent academic research demonstrates that IFAs are the most trusted out of all Financial Services Institutions (FSIs). In addition further research published in the report ‘Consumer Trust' showed that 98% of consumers who already have an IFA state that it is their IFA who they trust most to offer financial advice. The FSA is again behind the times.
"In the current climate access to independent advice is more important than ever for consumers. FSA should be doing all it can to increase access to this advice. We look forward to continuing our discussions about the implementation of the Retail Distribution Review to ensure a favourable outcome for consumers."
