What is an Independent Financial Adviser

At the risk of sounding facetious, an independent financial adviser is someone who gives independent advice on financial matters. In fact, stating the rather obvious in this way put an important stress on the three vital the different parts of the independent financial adviser's role.

Independent

The independence of the adviser is crucial. When an unbiased financial adviser is consulted, it is very important know that she or he does not have any vested interest and will not be influenced in any way by selling an individual company's products. Independence implies that the client can get the adviser to act completely impartially, entirely in the client's best interests, and not because there is an established dependent relationship between the adviser and something particular supplier. The importance of this independence can't be stressed enough. The adviser must be licensed by and is regulated by the Financial Services Authority, and independence is something that is central to such recognition. The client's faith and rely upon the adviser stems largely from the latter's independence.

Financial

An unbiased financial adviser will need expert professional knowledge of a huge range of financial products and services. Since it has the most highly developed financial services industries on the planet, the sheer range of products available on the British market implies that knowledge and professionalism must be of the highest order.

Because of https://thecardassociation.com of subjects with which an independent financial adviser must be familiar, there is a correspondingly wide variety of qualifications available to individual advisers. For example, the adviser may have professional qualifications awarded by the Chartered Financial Analysts (CFA) Institute, the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII), the Institute of Financial Planning (IFP), the Personal Finance Society (PFS), the Pensions Management Institute (PMI, the Securities and Investment Institute (SII), or others. Above all, however, the adviser knows that his is really a constantly changing market, with new products and services emerging constantly. He or she can make it his / her business to remain completely up to date with these trends.

Adviser

As an adviser, the 3rd and vital component of the independent financial adviser's role harks back to the first of his or her qualities, independence. The financial advice given must be "best advice" when recommending any service or product. That is to say, the advice must be the advice that is genuinely in the client's best interest. It is as though the adviser had stepped into the client's shoes and was giving advice entirely from the client's perspective. In this manner, the client can be assured that the advice is actually independent, objective and impartial advice which will satisfy the interests that your client himself or herself has identified.

Summary

It is surprising just how much meaning could be packed into the three words that describe the role of the independent financial adviser. But as the above brief, thumb-nail sketchy shows, each of the three words encapsulates a fundamental and vital part of this professional's job. Each word describes the obligations that the adviser has towards each of his clients, so that the clients, for their part, can rest absolutely assured that they receive genuinely independent, well-informed and expert financial advice that will aid their own best interests.

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Pub: 14 May 2024 09:34 UTC
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