Honister: the mass walk-out never happened

A forecasted exodus of The Money Portal (TMP) advisers following the business’ liquidation and sale to Honister Capital last year “never happened”, strategy director Alan Easter says.

Despite the loss of almost 100 advisers since the deal with Honister was secured last June, their number still tops 1,390.

"The mass walk-out some predicted has not happened," strategy and business development director Easter says.

TMP had debts of £55m when it entered the pre-packaged administration sale to Honister, a private investment company backed by Monsoon founder Peter Simon, last summer.

As part of the deal, Honister acquired the shares of TMP's advisory businesses: Burns-Anderson, Sage and Willis Owen, as well as the principal assets of Bates Investment Services (now Honister Partners).

Last month, Honister posted operating profits of £1.5m for its first three months' trading - £1m from its advice businesses and £500,000 from direct-to-consumer proposition Willis Owen.

Of concern to Easter, however, is the number of advisers yet to reach the RDR's proposed QCF Level 4 minimum qualification level. Fewer than one in five have achieved it so far.

He says: "Are we as far along that line as we want to be? Probably not. But the truth is all we are interested in is ‘are they serious about getting qualified by 1 January 2013?

"Getting to Level 4 is part of the advisers' contracts, but the small print does sort of say: ‘If you want to'. We know what people are like; they do things at the last minute.

"That final exam on the final day of 2012 will be chaos, standing room only. The CII will have to open up the Guild Hall!"