Financial Marketing

I have been pondering this for a few days now since attending a seminar recently on business development post RDR, and today's announcement that AIFA (association of independent financial advisers) is to drop the independent part and welcome all non-bank advisers to their ranks has brought me to the point that I decided to articulate my view here.

We have taken our eyes off the ball!

Over the last few years I think the "independent sector" within UK financial services has really forgotten about what is arguably the most important part of our business - client acquisition!

Unfortunately I think with this blog post I bring bad tidings.

I think it has been well documented that many IFAs do not intend to continue with their business post RDR. Instead for the majority the plan seems to be to build up as much trail or renewal commission within the business with the intention of building up its value with the ultimate aim of a profitable sale just before RDR hits.

With the logic of the pre-RDR world that a business is valued based upon its level of renewal or passive income and the FSAs assurances that any trail arrangements put in place before the RDR curtain falls would be regarded as historic and in some way protected.

This logic still stands up if your intention is not to retire but rather continue with the growth of the business however it falls down if you plan to retire! The FSA have indicate that in the post RDR world that every new client must agree their remuneration with their adviser and that on a transfer of Agency, trail will not be automatically transferred on to the new adviser who must instead put together a remuneration agreement with his new client.

If the above seems a little unclear let's try and talk it through with a few worked examples.