Now now Keith....interesting subject and I am grateful to Reg for bringing it up and giving me a chance to boast.
Most complaints are against tied or multi-tied financial advisers (largely in banks) and where they are against independents most are regarding commission based advisers and concern transactional advice.
I am fee based having decided that the old style of financial advice had no future and 89% of my remuneration last year was related to delivering a service and performance.
I am proud to make my own complaints record as an IFA known - none, neither upheld or not upheld.
The major problem from which complaints arose most recently is regarding one product provider. Lehmans provided counter-party risk provision to a company called Key Data who were providing products offering guarantees. When Lehmans collapsed in 2008 Key Data could not deliver on their guarantees and a lot of people lost a lot of money. Key-Data went bust and many advisers who sold their products did so too. I was getting marketing material from KeyData weekly who were pushing these products hard to me and other advisers. I never did like those products, too complex for one thing and I did not trust the guarantees so I did not advise them. The result is that an additional FSA compensation levy was made against all advisers to cover scheme liabilities and that cost me several thousand pounds over the last 3 years. So I have more reason than most to disapprove of poor advice as I have had to pay out towards compensation to the clients who's advisers lacked my judgement.
I was right that there is no future in commission based transactional advice, that is being banned from the end of next year. There are big changes to independent advisers business models and a lot are giving up independence and going for a new simplified or restricted advice regime.
In 2004 I completed my change to a business model that forefills the new FSA requirements for independent advice, several years before the FSA decided on these new requirements... The other part of the change advisers have to make is regarding a higher level of exams and I have completed those too.
So thank you again Reg for raising this issue.
