The Personal Finance Society is looking to gather evidence of the value of advice to challenge the Financial Conduct Authority’s perceptions.
The regulator’s Consumer Investment Data Review states an increase in transactional advice rather than ongoing advice is the best way to ensure investors take risks with part of their wealth to improve their financial resilience.
The FCA came to this conclusion based on consumer research suggesting many were unaware how much they were paying for advice and assessed its value by looking at the performance of their investments (which is distinct from the charges they are paying to have been placed in them).
The Personal Finance Society is calling upon financial planning professionals to share the value of ongoing advice delivered to their clients so this can be presented as evidence to the FCA of why they should rethink their approach.
Personal Finance Society members are being asked to share examples of the value of ongoing advice given to their clients by emailing pfsadvice@thepfs.org or by tagging the Personal Finance Society’s social media channels and adding the hashtag #pfsvalueofadvice.
Matthew Connell, director of policy and public affairs of the Personal Finance Society, said: “The FCA has shown that it believes that advice is an important element in achieving good outcomes for consumers, but it has also expressed scepticism around the extent to which consumers should rely on ongoing advice.
“The key to winning this argument is to create evidence of a population of clients who not only benefit from the undoubted advantages of ongoing advice, but who can articulate those advantages in the context of the fees that they are paying for advice.”
