“Is time up for the self-employed adviser?”

Oct 9, 2024 | Financial Services

An independent (financial adviser’s) view

The enduring business model in the world of financial advice has been that of firms, both large and small, facilitating the services of self-employed advisers who find and then look after their clients. This goes back to the origin story of many of us, the Abbey Lifes, Prudentials and Allied Dunbars (kids etc.) who recruited, trained (for a couple of weeks) and unleashed those of all backgrounds to sell their pensions, life insurance and investments. Many of us are still in the business, and many clients have pensions and life insurance they would not otherwise have thanks, I’d contend, to us. However, things have changed, more so in the last few years than the previous 30 or more. There are far fewer advisers than clients needing advisers, and the emphasis, again for firms of all sizes, is on the looking after and selection rather than seeking of clients. So, yes, I’d agree that employed and qualified advisers doing a good job without sales pressure will become the norm; and not just because the tax man might say so.

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“HMRC: ‘digitalising tax process could close gap’”

“HMRC: ‘digitalising tax process could close gap’”

You, like a majority of both taxpayers and accountants, may have been sweating and cursing over a keyboard last week to submit a last-minute tax return. Many by the end of that accursed process will have been shouting ‘bring back paper!’, a vain and pointless hope, I’m afraid.