Money Advice Service: We help IFAs

Quangoland

What a load of TOSH. Lots of people do not realise that they require medical advice but doctors and nurses are not coughing up their hard earned salaries to pay a cash guzzling quango to point them in the right direction. Nor do they pay into a fund to compensate for all of the medical negligence, but that is another matter. Give us facts and figures if the MAS is indeed helping IFAs' anecdotal evidence proves nothing.

Posted by: Fleeced

On the fence

Naturally, I'm cynical about this. However, I just ran through the 'Health check' & it looks OK to me. It asks some good questions & highlights the areas that people should be concerned about. So, I don't really see anything wrong with it. Should lead to more people trying to sort themselves out, getting out of their depth & recognising that they need proper advice. I'd be interested to know what other advisers think & would you point clients or prospect to it????

Posted by: Barry Sears

Numbers please

I've looked previously at the MAS site and it's ok I think - more generic than I'd expected. This claim though needs evidence. Has any IFA so far had a client come to them giving MAS as the source?

Posted by: PP

WEAK ATTEMPT AT JUSTIFICATION

Personally, I have never met anybody that doesn’t ‘know whether they require advice’ or not, although Mr.Hobman appears to believe there are ‘millions’!!. Mr.Hobman also professes that the MAS is helping IFAs through ‘thousands of handoffs’ leading directly to IFAs websites. As this ‘free advice’ service is something I appear to have paid towards, in line with the FSAs ‘clear, fair and not misleading’ stance on communication, perhaps it would be a jolly good idea to come up with some actual statistics?. And, ss far as people not knowing ‘where to get advice’, is concerned, I had heard that a seemingly little-known organisation called the ‘Citizen’s Advice Bureau’ (or ‘CAB’ as it has become widely known) is still in existence, and indeed has been since World War 2 ended in 1939. As far as (Wikipedia) is concerned; ‘A Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) is one of a network of independent charities throughout the UK that give free, confidential information and advice to help people with their money, legal, consumer and other problems’. But no!. Let’s completely ignore 73 years of experience and instead come up with a completely identical service (take a look at the CAB website), spend millions on it, design a new logo, and create new jobs!. I also note that ‘the MAS recently detailed its ‘new role as a co-ordinator of debt advice’, something which will see its budget almost doubled £86.8m.’ Now, am I missing something, or is this also something the CAB have been doing? In all seriousness, would it not have been better (indeed, if they had to do anything at all) to simply raise the profile of the CAB?. Obviously not, much better to p*ss money against the wall, and keep people in jobs. This article was simply a weak attempt at trying to justify re-inventing the wheel. The best idea since stakeholder pensions!!

Posted by: Keith Jayne

An element of truth

There is some truth in what this guy says, I do some of the staff presentations for them on a voluntary basis and in general you can get people thinking about their finances and where they can save money but most people are simply lazy about money and while some may take the trouble themselves some others will get help from an IFA but most will just do nothing and keep on going as they are. The real role of this organisation should be pushing financial education in schools and universities as I see many people coming out of university with an excellent degree but they don't the first thing about their looking after their money. IFAs should get involved in doing the presnting for the MAS, it is good exposure and can make good contacts for the future with employers too.

Posted by: Darrell Monteith

Really?

Let's call his bluff and ask him who those IFAs are! There is NO self respecting IFA who would use their material in front of clients. I want the general public to be as financially well-educated as possible, but the MAS is not the vehicle to do it. And the cost of the MAS is totally out of sync with the benefit that it provides. It is more a Government tick box exercise as anything else, and the main beneficiaries appear to be the people running it. Now there's a surprise!

Posted by: Simon Booth

nothing in life is free

Darrell, you need your head looked. Why give free presentations, when the quangocrats are forcing you to fund this experiment, for which they pick up a handsome salary and non performance related bonus? Let them do it if they are so bleeding clever. At least then, they might actually earn a wage.

Posted by: LOL

They help IFAs??

After trying to call them to ask about their 'Help', I can confirm that they don't pick up their phone. Helpful!!

Posted by: Barry Sears