Matt Timmins, joint-managing director of Simplybiz Group, predicts the implications of the Financial Advice Market Review will be as far reaching as those of the Retail Distribution Review.
Back in October, the Financial Conduct Authority and HM Treasury launched an input paper giving advisers until 22 December to explain what puts them off offering advice.
Mr Timmins said he is fairly optimistic that the Financial Advice Market Review will seek to address the cost of regulation for advisers.
He pointed out this was much needed as advisers suffered a double regulatory whammy in 2015; in addition to a growth in requirements, there was also a growth in regulatory costs.
In fact, Mr Timmins said some advisers saw their Financial Services Compensation Scheme levy increase by as much as 60 per cent, due to an industry-wide escalation in both the number and the amount paid out, mainly on Sipp complaints.
On the plus side, Mr Timmins said the industry will soon know what some of the ramifications resulting from the Financial Advice Market Review are, as HM Treasury has promised to announce some of its findings in the 2016 Budget.
But Mr Timmins said the downside is that the implications of FAMR for the adviser community look set to be as far reaching as those of the Retail Distribution Review.
He said: “I can’t imagine that anyone doesn’t agree that improving consumer access to financial advice is a positive outcome; I’m just concerned about how much more disruption we can sustain.
“The Simplybiz Group was also not convinced that the questions in the FAMR research were enough to create a whole picture of what the adviser market looked like in the post-RDR world, with regard to providing advice to the mass market.”
Earlier this month, Mr Timmins ran a survey to explore the current position and views of advisers, the results of which were fed back to HM Treasury.
However, he said the two biggest headlines from his perspective are that, firstly, advisers are being forced to spend less time with lower income clients and, secondly, over three quarters believe that this could only be solved by the introduction of a simplified advice regime.
Looking forward to 2016, Mr Timmins said another potentially high-impact consultation conducted during the fourth quarter of this year was the Pension Tax Relief Review, with the results again due to hit in 2016’s Budget.
Although the consultation period for this review is now over, Mr Timmins said Simplybiz did enter a response to HM Treasury back in September backing the government’s objective of offering clear simple and transparent initiatives to savers to encourage them to accumulate enough during their working lives to meet their aspirations for a sufficient standard of living in retirement.
Mr Timmins said Simplybiz also agreed the current system of tax relief is expensive and wasteful of government revenue.
However, he said the solutions outlined in the government’s proposal were wholly suitable.
emma.hughes@ft.com
