Third of advisers offer fee option in mystery shop

Almost a third of adviser firms in the FSA's latest mystery shopping exercise failed to offer custom...

Almost a third of adviser firms in the FSA's latest mystery shopping exercise failed to offer customers an option of paying by fee, despite claiming to be independent. Under depolarisation the fee option is mandatory if advisers are to call themselves independent. The exercise, which looked at a sample 50 companies of various sizes, found only half of those involved clearly explained their menu or the cost of their services and many also explained the effects of commission poorly, according to the regulator. "In some cases, it was suggested commission is paid directly by the provider and...