Our regulator’s latest initiative is to reduce the amount of regulation. It’s become apparent that their previous big initiative, ‘consumer duty’, has made many look at the work they do and clients they look after, and decide that to do the job properly they have to look after less and perhaps charge more for complying with all the detailed compliance the rules require. And so what’s become known as ‘the advice gap’ widens, as fewer of those who need advice can afford or will be offered it. The danger is that trying to reduce regulation will have a similar effect to the many attempts to simplify tax and pensions, adding extra sections to the rule books to vary previous sections which will now work differently. All the many compliance consultants who populate our business will end up with more, rather than less work and noone (and it should be the clients who matter most here) ends up any better off. Let’s hope not.
“The journey towards hyper-personalisation in financial advice”
No, me neither. ‘Hyper Personalisation’ sounds like the financial advice equivalent of, not just a tailored suit, but made to measure shoes, shirt, socks and underwear.
