Regarding the reports that the FCA has admitted that the Retail Distribution Review (RDR) has made advice more expensive, I have been blowing the whistle on this for two years (The Heath Report et al).
There was nothing in the RDR that the market could not have delivered left to its own devices. Advisers were voluntarily improving their qualifications and many IFAs had been fee-only for years. This represented a premium service at a premium price
If those advisers promoted their approach to clients, the market would have moved their way without the jack boot of regulation. Similarly, transactional advisers would have been able to continue to offer access to their advice when they wanted it free at the time of need.
Last month, the FCA was tasked with responding to the Heath Report with any criticisms of it. It seems they are having trouble with this.
The wider issue is accountability. Unaccountable regulators are free to ignore advice from the industry and the Treasury Select Committee and destroy 25,000 jobs in their search for a perfect market. They are free to ignore the law of the land viz the Limitations Act, and that brings us long-stop issues.
Unless regulation is accountable, we can never plan our businesses and attract the levels of capital required or recruit the numbers of staff that a market regulated by being accountable would become.
That is why we did the Heath report and that is why we started Libertatem.
Garry Heath
Director general,
Libertatem,
Buckinghamshire
