Owners of small advisory firms do not know how the retail distribution review will affect their business, whether for good or ill, figures have shown.
According to a poll conducted by PanaceaAdviser in association with Financial Adviser, 583 financial advisers said they were extremely uncertain about prospects for their firms.
This represents 85 per cent of the 684 PanaceaAdviser community forum users who have responded to the poll. A further 11 per cent - 72 in total - said they felt confident, however, and were ready to seize the opportunities that RDR has brought in.
Only 4 per cent - 29 advisers - claimed to feel negative about prospects. This, according to Panacea Adviser chief executive Derek Bradley, could indicate that while there is a lot of worrying uncertainty in the marketplace, only a handful believe the RDR has been a definite turn for the worse.
Mr Bradley said: “Uncertainty is to be expected in many ways, from our research we know that so many advisers have yet to segment clients, are not sure about how to charge, are worried about increased regulatory costs, problems with PI, and the potential that any unforeseen FSCS levy call could turn out their office lights very easily.
“I guess for those that are not sure they would like to know why 10 per cent are confident. Perhaps that alien spacecraft has just landed to take them away?”
