Informed Choice managing director Martin Bamford was featured in the Independent on Sunday today, talking about trust and confidence in financial advisers.
The article reported new research from Prudential which found that 19% of those soon to be retired avoided independent financial advisers, instead seeking advice from friends, family or the Internet.
Martin pointed out that choosing a suitable retirement option is about much more than getting the best annuity rate:
“Even an extra £1,000 a year adds up to a considerable amount of money over 20 years or more of retirement,” he says. “Price comparison and best-buy tables are great for the basic annuity figures, but they ignore the suitability for each individual.”
The article went on to explain what is being done to restore trust in financial advisers.
The new rules being introduced in 2012 as a result of the Retail Distribution Review mean that advisers will no longer receive commission for selling financial products and will be required to hold much higher level professional qualifications.
Providing the expert view in the article, Martin said:
“There is still a massive misunderstanding as to what we do. There’s a hangover from the days as being seen as nothing but financial salesmen,” he says.
“We’re not seen in this way in Australia nor the US, where IFAs are treated much more as partners to be trusted, in the same way as accountants or solicitors,” he says.
“We still have a lot of work to do to reach that level of public perception. We are heading in the right direction and the momentum is with us to put things right.”
You can read the article in full here.
