One of the largest UK IFA networks, Sesame, has recently announced that it is removing all of its member financial adviser firms’ independent status. All financial advisory firms that operate under the Sesame umbrella will now be offering their clients restricted advice.
You may recall the financial advice industry underwent some significant changes at the start of this year and amongst these was the discarding of several adviser service descriptions such as “Whole of Market”, “Tied” and “Multi-Tied” which only served to confuse customers.
Now you are either “Independent” or “Restricted”.
At Swindells Financial Planning we are ‘independent financial advisers’. In practice, this means that…
- We are not ‘tied’ to one product-provider, or even a small group of providers;
- When clients come to us with files full of legacy investments, pensions and insurance that they need advice on, we can comment objectively on the whole lot;
- We represent our clients, not companies on behalf of whom we might ‘sell stuff’;
- Our advice is not ‘restricted’ in terms of the range of regulated providers or products that we may access on clients behalf;
- We can build investment solutions for our clients without accepting compromises in terms of quality and competitive terms;
- Our clients do not have to remain in uncompetitive or failing financial arrangements;
- If client are dissatisfied with current arrangements, it is rare that we cannot improve their circumstances after having undertaken some careful independent research;
- We start with the bigger picture of a clients circumstances, goals and preferences, and only when we have understood that picture, identify precisely the right financial products to achieve their objectives;
At Swindells Financial Planning we believe that a client’s financial health is too important for us to consciously restrict access to a limited range of products that might not actually be the most suitable choices for them.
For this reason, we are proud to be part of what is now becoming an elite community of truly independent financial advisers in the UK, as we believe that our clients deserve better than a restricted solution. What sort of advice would you want?
