IFSRA
Some thoughts:
IFSRA should take wide soundings on priorities, particularly from broad organisations.
AAM is a great site but unrepresentative of what's really going down on the ground. Half our contributors are already highly informed industry players, and the other half are the on line, and usually already highly informed consumers. These are hugely unrepresentative of most Irish consumers.
The total is still very tiny, representing a very narrow range. Most AAM people come on to get answers, and not to tell their stories about being ripped off. This isn't a criticism, just a statement of fact. All AAM ideas are worthwhile for IFSRA, but represent added value for informed consumers. Because of his campaigning background,Brendan should be a must on the Consumer Panel.
But IFSRA will be more fully informed by talking to the ODCA, Ombudsman Schemes, MABS, CAI, reading Tyson, Brady, Kerby, Power, Williams, and listening to interviews with people ringing Marion, Joe, Pat etc. The notion that financial planning can be simplified, streamlined, or compressed into a supermarket basket process is a failed dogma, that has cost the on line industry billions , and that has confounded Stakeholders Pensions, CAT standards, Kitemarks, SaverMarks, and will confound the PRSA initiative. That doesn't make the effort worthwhile, but the idea of educating Joe and Josephine Soap to a point where they can become DIY financial consumers is just not workable.
Any attempt by IFSRA to outshout the combined marketing and sales voice of the veritable army of financial sales people isn't going to happen either. The Revenue vs Tax Advisors, a generation old war is a similar example. Few Irish people bother reading personal finance articles. The hits are fashion, sport, politics, and gossip. Finance comes way way way down.
The hard facts are that most people are too busy coping with their lives already without wanting to get a degree in finance, or even a competence test. IFSRA should focus on a Consumer Charter in BIG BOLD Print in every sales area, ad, and illustration. It should work with industry in improving ethics, education, and standards using a carrot and big stick. It should equalise codes of conduct across all channels, especially banks and DSF's.
It should listen very very carefully to advice from its consumer panel, and it should be seen quickly to openly tackle festering sores like the INBS, Refinance Advertising, and Misleading Historical Performance Data etc. It should encourage new forces like competition, and especially like a Social Lending programme to rescue people from money lenders that the Credit Unions can't yet help. It should have a MABS person on the board representing the most vunerable.