Adviser Alliance recruiting for RDR war

Adviser Alliance, the organisation set up to fight regulatory change including the RDR, is now recruiting new members to challenge the FSA.

In particular, it is challenging the lack of a 15-year longstop provision, qualification requirements and the ending of provider commissions.

The not-for-profit organisation now accepts membership applications after what it describes as "an extended gestation period due to ill health and teething troubles" with its website.

Derek Gair of GDC Associates and a key member of Adviser Alliance hopes membership will now swell.

"Since the problems with the website have been resolved, we have had a phenomenal response in terms of emails from advisers and we hope this now transpires into membership numbers," he says.

The organisation says increasing membership will generate vital funding enabling it to mount legal challenges against what it sees as damaging regulation.

Adviser Alliance was established in 2009 to protect freedom of choice for UK consumers and rally against the RDR which it thinks will be detrimental to both the mass market and advisers.

It maintains it has not been set up as an alternative to the Association of Independent Financial Advisers (AIFA), but Gair sees clear ground between the bodies.

He says the two organisations share the same principles and goals but Adviser Alliance will better represent the views of the IFA community.

"The vast majority of advisers will not benefit from the RDR and this view has not been put forward strongly enough," he says.

"My problem with AIFA is the organisation does a lot of talking but little doing," he says. "From my standpoint, AIFA is not representing IFAs forcefully enough.

"There is a massive groundswell of opinion that advisers want to fight the RDR and if AIFA is not prepared to take up the fight then we need another body to fight these regulations."

He adds Adviser Alliance is not in competition with AIFA and has no targets in terms of membership numbers but simply wants to "make a difference" to those it represents.

"When all is said and done we are all IFAs and all we want is a body, whether AIFA or Adviser Alliance, which represents the broadest possible view."

To join Adviser Alliance, click here