Why the industry needs to change

Customer service is the key to the future, says Richard Craven, managing director of The Money Portal, and central to this is how advisers are paid commission

There has to be post-depolarisation, post-Sandler, a savage postmortem on cost variables in our industry. Occasionally, I find the pious attitude of many of my IFA colleagues quite unnerving. The fact we, as a sector, are paid renewal and trail commissions in advance and treat them as a God-given right does not bode well as the squeeze is placed on fund houses, with particular reference to their retail books. There are few variables in terms of pricing with which they can play. Given that IFAs represent 30% of the total annual management charge (AMC) in respect of most retail funds, it i...