It also leaves the question: who will help those advisers now?
Who will provide any run-off or PI cover to enable them to continue working?
Will there be a period where these advisers are again left stranded, unable to serve their customers without falling foul of the regulations?
Will there be repeated (and unfair) allegations over things such as phoenixing as ex-network IFAs seek to start afresh? It's happened before.
How many will see this as the final straw, and not bother to get approved status, as happened with Honister?
It's hard enough to encourage people to take independent financial advice, given the advice gap caused by the RDR.
With more advisers deciding they have had enough of being held hostage by the fortunes of networks or nationals or vertically integrated companies, will more strike out on their own, or simply throw in the towel?
All these questions will no doubt be debated and answered over the coming weeks, but FT Adviser would love to speak with you if you were an ex-Honister, and are now ex-Tenet, so do drop me a line.
simoney.kyriakou@ft.com
