The Association of Professional Financial Advisers (APFA) is reporting a continued fall in adviser profits, hitting their lowest levels since 2010.
Director General of Chris Hannant (APFA) told IFA Magazine: “It has now been four years since the dramatic changes to the market that followed the Retail Distribution Review and the number of advisers has remained steady, although still below pre-RDR levels. While turnover has increased in recent years, pre-tax profits have continued to fall to their lowest levels since 2010. Retained profits in the advice market increased since 2015 to £127m, but this remains less than 3% of revenues.”
Hannant was commenting on the publication of the APFA’s latest report in its annual series which sets out to provide a comprehensive overview of the UK financial adviser market and its main trends.
Hannant added: “It is in everyone’s interests to have a thriving and profitable advice market as only then will new firms be encouraged to enter the market and existing firms have the capacity to invest. Although we welcomed the aims of the Financial Advice Market Review (FAMR), we believe that it missed the opportunity for the urgent and radical change that is necessary to reduce the unfair regulatory burden on advisers. The next government must use the 2019 Review of FAMR to undertake deeper root-and-branch reform on the issues of the balance of the liabilities advisers face and the cost and complexity of regulation.”
The APFA report is available here.
