Majority of advisers unprepared for FOFA

Aleks Vickovich

- Tuesday, 26 Feb 2013 0 comments

Yes

An ifa straw poll has indicated that a majority of respondents are not sufficiently prepared for the changes brought by the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) reforms.

In response to the question, ‘how prepared is your business for FOFA?’ almost half of respondents (44 per cent) to the ifa straw poll said they were “working on it, but more needs to be done.”

A further 15.5 per cent of the 116 respondents indicated that they were “not prepared at all,” while 10.3 per cent were “not sure.” Only 30.2 per cent indicated they were “very prepared.”

Commenting on the poll results, Financial Planning Association (FPA) chief executive Mark Rantall told ifa the results may reflect that some advisers are hesitant to act before the final regulatory guidance is issued.

“The findings are not surprising, given that the guidance on code approvals conflicted remunerations and is yet to come,” he said.

“There are some residual issues around opt-ins and fee disclosure statements that the whole industry is still grappling with,” he added.

At the same time, Rantall said the poll results were not reflective of the results for FPA members. Internal FPA research suggests 70 per cent of its membership believes it will be ready, he said.

For the almost 70 per cent of respondents that are not sufficiently prepared, the FPA chief offered a friendly warning.

“It is definitely not too late but - particularly those that have not started to move away from commission-based structures – it’s time to get a move on.”