1,400 Advisers still to start RDR studies
Aifa research suggests as many as 1,400 advisers who intend to stay in the market after the RDR have not yet started the qualification process.
The figure is based on NMG research, commissioned by Aifa, of 313 advisers from March this year.
Aifa has set out the final deadlines that advisers who are yet to begin studying must meet to achieve Aifa’s diploma in investment planning in time for the December 31 deadline.
They must apply to take the written exam by June 1 and sit the first exam before August 31. The last date to resit exams to meet the RDR deadline is November 2.
The diploma, which has been developed with the Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland and BPP Learning Media, is set at QCF level five.
Aifa policy director Chris Hannant (pictured) says: “It is incredible that some advisers have not yet started to study for their qualification. Time is short for those who still want to use to the diploma to achieve RDR compliance before the deadline.”
The Institute of Financial Services, part of the ifs School of Finance, says it has seen “a surge” of advisers who had planned to leave the market next year but have changed their mind. It has set up a hotline for advisers to talk through their options and the timescales they need to meet to be qualified in time.
Clear IFA director Howard Bullock says: “It is astounding that so many advisers have not even started yet. They will have an intense period of study ahead and it is highly likely that their business and their clients may suffer as a result.”
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Readers' comments (19)
If they haven't started no way they can qualify, they are leaving!
These figures are not astounding, it`s just that the reality of the number of advisors who are preparing to leave the indistry because it is no longer worth the carrot has not dawned on the media, the FSA and everyone else. The general public will find out in a year or two.
An interesting statistic from the RCRO 2012 is that around 50% of advisers already have a suitable qualification, the figure in RCRO 2011 was 54%. Obviously with rounding this isn't really a decrease - but its not an improvement either!
Qualifying from a standing start now isn't impossible 9well not quite) but it is a challenge.
How can this possibly be right? Mr Cicutti says they have all stopped complaining and started their studies. And if Mr Cicutti says so......
Regardless what these ne'er do wells at the FSA do to get rid of ethical long established transaction based iFAs, I will choose when I leave this industry and why. I am not going to be put out of business by inadequate regulators who could not organise a drunken do in a brewery.
Only 1,400?
Oh, it is a survey of 313 advisers. Hardly representative is it?
Hugh Jeego - what you mean is the public will "SUFFER" in a year or two. What the monkies at the FSA don't realise, people can hardly afford to feed and clothe their children, what chance you got to get them to pay for advice.
Sadly this isnt a surprise, as a profession we constantly talk about wishing to be viewed as having the same professional standing as accountants etc however seem to have limited desire to put the work in necessary to justify this.
Personally I feel the dumbing down of the exam process from the original proposition has done the industry no favours and if we really want to be taken seriously the process and exams should be rather more onerous than it currently is.
As for the advisers who are incapable or cant be bothered to get over the relatively "low" hurdle that level 4 qualifications provide I think their exit from the industry can only be beneficial to those of us who have taken the trouble to get properly qualified.
So clients don't pay for advice already????
simon dickerson @ 1.14pm
Yes I agree, the exams should be set in a challenging language such as Welsh. That would sort the men out from the boys.
Interestingly I started out in law and the solicitor's finals were just as boring as FS exams. Worryingly, the best students didn't make the best lawyers in the real world which probably explains why many Chartered practitioners earn the same as legal secretaries.