Anyone Listening

I'd like to ask if anyone at the FSA or involved in setting up the new regulatory system, watched that program last week? Because there was no mention of the Ombudsman or FSA at all...where is TCF in all this??!!! Which came out & told people their advice to the public.. is to steer clear of the bank advisers altogether..but will people listen?!!!...Nothing will change for the banks post RDR. They will carry on as normal selling their products to an unsuspecting public, who will never know the difference between restricted & independent advice at all. They don't even ask a customer about their estate value. So they sell them investment bonds & never mention writing them in Trust or anything. Yet one bank still advertises Financial Planning Advice..from the friendly adviser who comes to your home..bla bla bla...

Posted by: Julie

Banks' poor advice

I was standing in the queue at my local Barclays branch and overheard the counter clerk ask the lady customer in front if she would like to discuss life assurance with one of their advisers. 'It will only take 10 minutes' she assured her. So there we had at the very first statement the misleading of a customer about something that, if done properly, takes some hours(fact finding,reviewing existing arrangements, considering alternatives, making the application, etc).

Posted by: Orlando Furioso

How about this

9 yeras ago, after having a large redundancy cheque hit my account, I was invited in to see the banks financial adviser. I went along to see what would happen. I had a 30 minute slot. His opening words were ...have you ever heard of a with-profits bond? Even though I nearly fell out of my seat I sat through a 5 minute explanation of how he was going to relieve me of a large proportion of my wedge. Forget terms of business, business card, fact find any of that. I decided to put him out of his misery and say I was setting up as an ifa....but he wouldn't let go. He kept trying to get my wedge off me. 9 years on it sounds like nothing has changed. Thank God we've got the FSA to stop all these banking excesses or we would be in a right mess....

Posted by: Phil Stevenson

Bancassurance

I worked as an advisor for a major bank for 3 years until the end of 2008. When I look back now at the way I was made to work it's shocking. The model was a one hour appointment - from meeting the client, through factfinding; risk analysis; product selection; recommendation; key features disclosure; right through to completing the application. No consideration was given to anything other than sales figures. And that's just the advice process, before we've even started on the high-cost, poor performance products. After 18 months as an IFA I can't believe the difference between what I do now and what I did then. I thought I was doing the right thing - I had an immaculate compliance records and did exactly what I was told. It's probably very relevant that I now earn around half what I did at the bank (and no longer have a company car, discounted mortgage etc). Still, I sleep much better.

Posted by: IFA

Bancassurance 2

I, like IFA, worked for three major Bancassurers over a period of 20 years and have only recently been released from captivity into the world of true, holistic financial planning. In all that time, 12 years as a consultant, I sold less than 10 investments because having fully explained risk and reward to the bank customers, they didn't understand the principles and clearly preferred the relative security of the bank, and their deposit based accounts. The Banks treat TCF with disdain and pay lip service to the FSA. They also treat their 'consultants' with total disregard, forcing them to consistently have 15 appointments each week. The easiest lead identification is from 'the large balance list', hence the majority of leads are deposit customers referred to them 'to get a better rate of interest on your account'. It is production line selling, and until the FSA, government and the public recognise this, and cease this immoral trade, the stream of complaints will continue indefinitely. A previous comment suggested that banks be banned from providing investment advice - the sooner the better. Maybe RDR, with all the pros and cons, might just achieve this. If it does, then it will have been a success for that reason alone.

Posted by: Proud to be an IFA