Sorry, I'm Going to Groan..about a £60m bill

1966: Carry on Cowboy - Gerald Thomas

Financial Planning carries with it some really rather daft issues. As a firm of regulated financial planners, we are subject to the rules of the FSA and the laws of the land. Unfortunately some "advisers" decide to  break these, but then these people would probably rip off anyone. Others might simply be careless or reckless with investments. You may recall that some months ago I blogged about MF Global - well yesterday the sting was delivered to yours truly. Investment advisers have been handed an extra bill of £60m from the FSCS as yet another "interim levy" to cover the  collapse of this company. The FSCS have been inundated with claims, so far £27m this year as a result of MF Global.

Why am I moaning? well frankly MF Global are not financial planners. They are or rather were, stockbrokers. This is yet another case of an organisation classified by the powers that be as an IFA firm, when the practical day to day reality is completely different. My slice of the £60m bill will be heading over to my office at some point over the next couple of weeks - I can scarcely contain my excitement! I don't want to bother you with the mechanics of the financial services industry, but changes (RDR) are coming from January which mainly means that advisers have to be qualified and charge fees rather than commission (finally catching up with us... since 1999) as a result it is estimated that 25% of the current advisers will retire. This results in fewer firms and therefore larger bills for this sort of thing - which ultimately will end up... well where do you imagine? Sadly I do not believe for a moment that the new rules will prevent cowboys from being cowboys and the system seems to be very broken from my perspective. The punishment for bad advice ultimately ends up with good advisers paying for it, which is a bill inevitably shared by clients.