financial intermediaries
How far can investors rely on their
Independent Financial Advisers
for innovative strategies on wealth creation?
The Informed Executive considers the role played by Independent Financial Advisers in helping
investors secure the most appropriate financial services and solutions to safeguard their future.
Having established the case for long-term financial planning in the opening features
of this section, the question remains not so much one of where to invest for the
future, but how to select investments that have the greatest chance of achieving the
required results. With the delivery of financial advice strictly regulated in the UK, if
you seek and accept such advice, you should feel safe that any investment product
recommended will be ‘fit for purpose’ and the best value that the adviser can offer.
The key there is the phrase “ . . . that the ad- With the mis-selling scandals hopefully a
viser can offer”. The nature of the financial thing of the past, you can be fairly confident
services marketplace today means that many that your bank’s financial services team will have
of those considered competent to provide ‘ticked all the FSA boxes’ en route to selling you
regulated advice have a restricted portfolio of the most appropriate solution available to
products at their disposal. them. It may not be the best performing product
The financial services teams within the of its kind in the marketplace, but you might
High Street banks and high profile insurance consider such a trade-off worthwhile for the
companies probably make up the largest pro- convenience factor.
portion of these ‘restricted’ advisers; a cat-
egory which numbers 25,000 out of a total of
60,000 individuals with Financial Services
Researching financial products
Authority (FSA) approval. Working, however, on the principle that busi-
As the line of least resistance when you are ness pressures may be for the short term, but
being pressured on so many other fronts in decisions on pensions and other long term in-
your business, as at present, you may decide vestments will affect the quality of your own
that a call to your High Street bank will be the life far into the future, it is worth committing
easiest way to sort out a pension plan, life time and resources now to research the finan-
insurance or a personal protection package. cial products which stand the best chance of
The products that bank staff can offer are achieving your goals.
unquestionably solid, if undramatic in their But the optimal solution is unlikely to be
performance. Most are drawn from the portfo- found by running a finger down the yields col-
lios of the life assurance and pensions com- umn of comparison tables in the Sunday pa-
panies which the banks have acquired since pers. Any decision has to be taken in the light
the demutualisation of these institutions in of your financial circumstances taken as a
the past decade. whole. Reliable financial advice is essential:
Decisions on pensions and other long term investments will affect the quality of your own life far into the
future, so it is worth researching the financial products which stand the best chance of achieving your goals.
44
The Informed Executive
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