Re: Independent Financial Advise - where ?
You are right, it shouldn't be true but it is and its not just opinion. IFSRA are finally waking up to the fact that the distinction between AA and Multi-Agency is non-workable. Not only is this evident from how the Irish advisory market operates in practice BECAUSE there is consumer resistence to paying commercial rate fees, but it is now coming in from the EU as well where the new breed is a firm that can alter its terms from tied, to multi, to pure fee only as the consumer wishes to consume.
For years posters on AAM have been banging on about why consumers should get "independent" advice without really understanding how consumers actually behave or putting a price on getting "independent" advice. Most consumers are not willing to pay commercial rates that must include cost recovery and profit from top qualified advisors which means paying thousands of euro. Consider travel, meeting, fact-finds, compliance, report and follow through all of which are required by Regulation and it runs into one thousand to two thosand Euro easily. Now add hourly rates ranging €200 to €300 per hour for phone calls, updates etc dealing with service enquiries and quickly it is seen that the "independent" propsition is a fiction for most consumers.
Time and time again this essential economic equation and subsequent consumer behaviour is lost to deaf ears on this site. The facts are that most consumers haven't the first clue about how investment works -why do most leave their money in the worst paying deposit accounts. When ordinary consumers want to "invest" they really want to have lots of time with an advisor. People aren't robots, they are not like the stereo-typical AAM regular poster with their smart view of finance and what they want is time. But lots of time costs lots of money and just like this post, the poster wants a service he or she is unlikely to want to pay fees for, the result being the selection of a commission bearing product from someone who is not independent.
In the laboratory conditions of AAM unreal hypothesis can be promulgated unchallenged, like that advice SHOULD be independent, SHOULD be impartial and SHOULD be more widely available - after all its all so easy. But if this were true people wouldn't go mortgage brokers, just pick the cheapest tracker rate or fixed rate from public lists. They would not leave tens of billions with the main banks but switch to N.Rock. The problem with the consensus view on AAM that consumers are being overcharged consequently is at best false and, at worst elitest.