Aeons ago, our FSA levies used to fund a small department which produced financial capability materials.
They created the Money Made Clear programme, where trained individuals visited companies to deliver presentations to employees on personal finance basics: savings, budgeting, debt, wills, Isas and pensions, with tailored content on the employer’s pension scheme and the benefits of joining it, where relevant.
You probably never knew you paid for it, but it did not need a separate levy as the costs were an order of magnitude smaller than the current gravy train that is the Money Advice Service.
When they separated the financial capability function into what is now the Mas, I suggested that they should not alienate advisers by asking them to pay a second time for what some were already doing.
Instead, those already committed to evidenced pro bono work, through Money Made Clear, Citizens’ Advice or other debt advice charities, should get a discount to reflect a ‘donation in kind’ of their time to financial education and guidance.
Other IFAs who did not engage in such activities could make the financial contribution through the levy.
The policy wonks think you should pay because you will benefit from income generated by new businessWe know that the Treasury and the FCA are divorced from commercial reality and have no idea how to create and implement shiny new policies.
But one thing you must understand when you respond to the consultation paper — and if you are as outraged as all the trade papers and blogs suggest, then respond you must.
The policy wonks think you should pay because you will benefit from income generated by new business. You will meet lots of people; some of them will need advice and those who do will pay you fees.
The policy wonks think you should pay because they see you being handed a marketing opportunity on a plate, which serves to prove how drastically they misunderstand the post-RDR landscape, adviser businesses, client segmentation and simple capacity issues.
You may be one of the ‘minimum fee firms’ who will not be charged for the guidance guarantee. You may care very little about who pays, as long as it is not you. But every one of you should still respond to the consultation, by 22 September, to tell these bureaucrats what is not wrong with the plan.
If we do not, then as with many other things in the adviser world, we will only have ourselves to blame for the outcome.
Gill Cardy is network development director of ValidPath
