Adviser’s annual bills from the regulator arrived this month and have left most of us open-mouthed. Mine’s up by 85%, others by more, and pretty much all is our contribution to the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Payouts to those who’ve lost money when dodgy advice firms go bust are funded by those who’ve haven’t given dodgy advice nor gone bust. Many would say that if the regulator were regulating properly, there would be nothing for which they’d need to compensate. And I’ve said many times that, were it illegal for regulated advisers to put clients into dodgy, unregulated investments, a big part of the problem would be solved. Anyway. See that brick wall over there…
“Britain has lost 435 financial advice firms since 2022”
Headline figures, there were over 200,000 financial advisers at the end of the ’90s, there are around 30,000 now and our numbers are continuing to reduce.