The poll, conducted by RBS Intermediary Partners (RBS IP) amongst advisers at its recent Forum event in Sunderland discovered that 42% said that they had started writing business in this area, with 17% saying that they had moved into commercial finance and 15% saying that they have started conducting pensions business. These were followed by equity release at 10%, business protection at 9% and investments at 7%. The research also found that a quarter (25%) of intermediaries had written a shared equity scheme mortgage in the last six months.
The need to find new clients at 29% topped the list of the main concerns that advisers had about their businesses. Replacing lost income (26%) was the next main concern followed by managing the move to becoming fee-based (18%) and dealing with regulation (13%). However, more 7 in 10 (71%) said that they weren’t clear on how the Retail Distribution Review was going to affect their business.
