Positive Solutions eyes private bank link-ups

Positive Solutions is set to pair advisers with lawyers and accountants to give them access to more clients and says it may look to do the same with small private banks and foreign exchange dealers.

More than 250 advisers have signed up to the national IFA's Positive Partnerships scheme, which trains them to make the most of introducer arrangements.

The company has signed deals with three large law and accountancy firms, including network giant 2020, to work with it as introducers, but CEO Jim Reeve says it will not be stopping there.

Speaking exclusively to Professional Adviser (see this week's Adviser Focus, page 16), Reeve says: "The next stage is to look at similar areas such as small private banks that don't have a financial planning service and foreign exchange dealers whose clients want financial planning."

CEO Jim Reeve says successful advisers will be able to bump up their earnings by as much as £50,000 per year, adding he expects the scheme to boost recruitment at the firm.

Reeve says the introducer will take anything up to 20% of advisers' related fees and/or commission with 10% going to Positive Partnerships. The remainder, he says, will go to the adviser.

"There is a real lack of understanding in the adviser community about how to build proper introducer relationships," he says. "These will be brand new clients for the adviser."

Reeve says the benefit for partner firms, besides the income generated for the introducer, is that Positive Solutions is effectively "giving them their own IFA".

The scheme follows fresh guidance issued to solicitors by the Solicitors' Regulation Authority (SRA) last month, stating they must only refer clients to independent practitioners for investment advice.

But some advisers are sceptical over the role of the introducer in generating new business leads.

Harry Katz, principal at north London adviser Norwest Consultants, says: "They are getting paid for doing nothing more than making a recommendation.

"If I was the customer I would wonder if I was being recommended to the best adviser, or the one providing the biggest kick-back. It is just not TCF."