The stock markets clearly do not see financial adviser firms in a positive light at present, and doubts about the RDR and firms’ capability to keep their businesses going has meant that share prices have been adversely affected.

Lighthouse has seen its share price plunge from 30p five years ago to 2p after its announcement.

But Lighthouse is not the only firm that has been affected. Hargreaves Lansdown, one of the most successful IFA businesses, has seen its share price fall also since the middle of last year, despite a strong track record in producing profits.

The poor stock market sentiment must certainly deter other firms from thinking of listing. This raises the problem of where financial advisers keen to expand are going to get their financing from. If the banks are not lending, and the stock markets are no longer an option, then choices are remarkably few.

Perhaps it will take another couple of years of RDR to take effect, and for financial advisers to settle into the new regime before the markets will look favourably on them as investments.