“Authorised and regulated by the FCA”. You would think that meant something. Something tangible (a licence) about what we do and how we conduct ourselves; about the areas of advice we operate in.
We might work in a world of ‘light touch’ regulation, but in reality the arbiters of what we can and cannot do, of what we can and cannot advise on are the PI insurers.
It is the PI insurers that are the drivers of what an appointed representative can and can not do, not the networks. They only offer the path of least resistance to the underwriters of PI insurance.
If you consider the more esoteric offerings around EIS and VCTs, if you want to use these for (legitimate) tax-planning purposes, make sure you have the right PI cover.
How about at retirement advice for members of DB schemes? Not an occupational transfer according to the regulator. But it is occupational transfer according to the PI insurers. So you see, it does not matter what the regulator says; it is what the PI insurers say that makes them the real gatekeepers of the industry.
Philip D Stevenson
Chartered Financial Planner
ARK Financial Planning
Stalybridge
Cheshire
