Many an experiment in financial services and elsewhere has proven that cost is not actually the issue. Low-charging stakeholder pensions did nothing to increase savings to retirement. They had, in fact, the opposite effect, as companies and advisers had little incentive to market and sell them. Most of the cheapo-online-DIY investment platforms are losing money and both the banks and big insurance companies no longer advise as the profits aren’t there anymore. It’s having and realising they have a need which will make the unadvised seek advice. And when they do, they’re happy, in my experience, to pay for a good service.
“Letter of authority: Why now is the right time for change”
This may sound like a non-issue from outside the world-of-financial-advice bubble. It is the bain, however, of the daily working lives of many of us, particularly of those paid by we advisers to do the dirty work of dealing with the many providers with whom we have to work.