Neil Cunningham, director and general manager of MyTouchstone, part of Equifax, said: “With RDR now less than 9 months away, it is surprising that nearly 90% of the 4,600 IFAs we surveyed are still relying on commission for more than 25% of their income.
“The figure for Q4 2011 is very marginally lower than we saw in Q3 last year. But it’s still pretty high at 88.1%.”
The UK average hourly fee in Q4 2011 was £148.46, with some wide regional variations.
Perhaps not surprisingly the South appears to be where the highest fees per hour are currently being charged. The Isle of Man tops the MyTouchstone chart at £225 per hour, closely followed by London WC at £217.86 and London EC at £205.25. At the other end of the scale, probably reflecting local market conditions, the bottom 10 fee chargers are all in the North with Lerwick recording the lowest hourly fee at £75.
Cunningham added: “We are wondering if, certainly in respect of commission charging versus fees, it is simply the case that IFAs are making the most of the higher earning opportunities currently available to them.
“It will be interesting to see how the picture changes as we look at our figures through 2012.”
