You buy a car from someone who claims to be a qualified mechanic but isn’t. The breaks fail and it crashes. Would you expect to be compensated by other, proper mechanics? If a supposed master builder builds you an extension which falls down, and you find he actually rides a horse and wears a 10-gallon hat, would you expect all the other builders in the country to club together and rebuild it for you? I think not. But if someone who’s not a financial adviser advises you to buy something dodgy, that’s exactly, it seems, what those of us who actually are financial advisers will have to do.
“Worry for profession as young adviser numbers plummet”
There are around 31,000 advisers currently authorised by the FCA to give advice. Of these only around 6% are under 30 and 84% of all advisers are male. There are 209,000 solicitors, 7,000 young ones enter the profession each year and 52% of all solicitors are now female.
