Are we ‘small firms’ really doomed? Is the regulator plotting our demise by default? The argument is that the rules, particularly the most recent ‘Consumer Duty’ set, are designed for the big players with big compliance departments and plenty of time and money to produce the endless paperwork they require. How can we minnows keep up? And wouldn’t the FCA prefer to send loads of people in to go over the books of a few big boys than to try to visit every Tom, Dick and other Back-Bedroom-Based one man band adviser. The counter, however, is that they perhaps know we small boys are, with only very-occasional exceptions, not the problem; and they can actually rely on us to get on with it and do the decent thing. It’s actually much easier, as has been many-times proven, for bad apples to hide in the middle of large barrels.
“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.
