The industry media regularly publishes stories in which an absence of ethical behaviour is apparent. However, about those situations where a financial adviser is instructed by a client, but cannot act on that instruction without breaching an ethical standard? This article, proudly sponsored by GSFM, will examine this issue in line with the Code of Ethics. If you stop and think about it, would you consider yourself to be ethical? [...]

The Financial Planners and Advisers Code of Ethics 2019 (Code of Ethics) is a set of standards and core values designed to encourage higher standards of behaviour and professionalism from financial advisers and licensees. This article, proudly sponsored by GSFM, examines that Code and how it serves to support professionalism and ethical practices. The Code of Ethics was developed by the Financial Adviser Standards and Ethics Authority (FASEA) as part of its [...]

The opportunity One of the more notable aspects of the recent and substantial decline in adviser numbers has been the disproportionately large reduction in risk specialists. Investment Trends data[1] from the end of 2019 showed the proportion of advisers classed as risk specialists (for whom life insurance accounts for 50% or more of all revenues) had decreased from 34% to just 15%. Recent research[2], shown in Figure 1 below, suggests [...]

It’s easy to take a ‘glass half empty’ perspective when surveying the current landscape of financial advice; Increasing cost pressures, falling adviser numbers, a regulatory tsunami that politicians on both sides agree has been overdone. And of course, the ones ultimately paying the price for all this disruption are consumers, who are seeing the accessibility of quality finance advice reduce all the time. But it’s not all doom and gloom [...]