The risky business of IFAs

You would think intermediaries have enough to worry about for the future. Where will Europe's periphery go? What about RDR? Should they outsource allocation? The list goes on.

It seems they have added ‘worrying about the past’ to this list and worrying in particular about the credit crisis. By doing this, they are fretting more than their own clients. A study commissioned by Goldman Sachs Asset Management interviewed 300 investors and their intermediaries across Europe, and found 61% of UK advisers felt the crunch had made their clients’ non-financial goals more difficult to achieve, or had put all their goals at risk. Ask the clients themselves and only 52% agree. On the Continent, 95% of advisers concurred, compared to two-thirds of clients. There is a...