a Sift Media publication

Is this the new approach to financial services?

Posted by Robert Bray in Financial reporting on Tue, 23/06/2009 - 11:32

IFAs used to focus on selling products and had their own interests in mind, rather than the clients’.
IFAs were deterred from building long-term relationships with clients by up front commission.
Many IFAs have weaned themselves away from this approach by becoming financial planners.
UK WRAPS has emerged as an alternative allowing IFAs to provide better service to clients.

Historically accountants have eschewed IFAs. I suspect this is rooted in the natural misalignment existing between a knowledge based, service profession and what was excessively a product based, sales industry. In simple terms, the financial services industry has historically focused on selling products that they had manufactured with their own interests in mind, rather than finding out what clients needed and manufacturing that instead.

Before looking at significant changes, it’s necessary to understand where IFAs were and why.

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