With the implementation of the Retail Distribution Review, commission payments to financial advisers are now banned. Does that make you more likely to seek out independent advice?
The revolution has arrived, with financial advisers now banned from receiving commission from the providers of any products they recommend to their customers.
The regulators have moved to ban such payments in an attempt to clean up the financial advice industry and to ensure that people like you and me, who may seek out some financial advice from a professional, get the best, unbiased guidance. The thinking goes that we will no longer be steered towards a specific product simply because the adviser will pocket more cash in higher commissions when we take it out.
The changes mean that we will have to pay for the advice we receive up front though, rather than the previous model where many advisers offered their advice free, relying on the commission.
You can find out more about these changes in How to transform your finances in 2013, while How much does financial advice really cost? is also worth a read.
So have these changes made you more or less likely to get financial advice this year? Does the removal of commission make you more likely to trust an adviser’s judgement? Or will having to pay for their insight up front put you off speaking to them in the first place?