Vertical integration is a bit like Communism. An investment or pension company having its own salesforce, in theory, should have similar benefits to those of the people owning the means of production, better organised, controlled, economies of scale. The reality is the opposite, bloated bureaucracies, managers managing managers, empty soviet supermarket shelves, and workers on the fiddle. Another full circle approacheth, I fear.
“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.
