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FT adviser seeking interviewees on RDR

ended 28. December 2022

A journalist at FTAdviser is looking to interview and photograph 5-10 advisers about their experiences of RDR. You can be a mortgage and/or financial adviser but you should have some experience with RDR, i.e. you either worked through it or came to the industry shortly after it. Ideally, you'll be based in London or willing to travel to London so the journalist can snap you in person. The interviews will take place in mid-January. Tell us briefly about your experience and she'll be in touch.

3 responses from the Newspage community

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Wes Wilkes
CEO at IronMarket Wealth
I was made redundant from a large bank as a result of RDR. It forced my hand to follow in my father's footsteps and finally start my own business (he passed away a year later) and see what I could make of it.
I became Directly Authorised within a year, and obtained discretionary management permissions within three years to become what I see as a true Wealth Manager. We are 10 years old next year, now with a group of companies with former colleagues in the business, and as clients.
It's the best thing that ever happened to me, my family and, I'd like to think, my clients.
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Tim Mottram
Financial Planner at Grey Parrot Financial Planning
I've been a financial adviser for 25 years and, throughout that time, have run my own businesses. The main impact that RDR had on me was a requirement to undertake additional qualifications, which was a good thing. However, the change in how clients pay for advice was semantic at best. Overnight commissions were labelled advice fees, and little changed. Until 2 years ago, I ran a business under a restricted advice network and used a percentage-based charging structure. I exited that business and have since started another one, and after research, I decided that the new business would operate on a fixed fee basis. On reflection, knowing what I know now, RDR should have gone further and banned percentage-based charges for investment advice. Most issues with misselling can be traced back to financial incentives in one way or another.
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David Robinson
Co-Founder at Wildcat Law
RDR was career-defining for me. I was part of the leadership team for Aviva looking after Partnerships with Building Societies. Our advisers worked out of often very small local Building Society branches. The model was never especially profitable for the Building Societies but it often enabled them to keep local branches open. I drafted one of the option papers regarding RDR only to see it rejected in favour of shutting the arm. It was a horrible time seeing a very successful model forced to close, especially as the average client was never going to be able to benefit from post-RDR advice. Instead, they fell into the advice gap as they could not afford to pay for advice fees upfront. Dealing with the redundancies caused me to take a year out of the industry before joining Coutts, dealing with completely different clients.