Last Updated on 24, March 2014
UK is moving towards fee-only advice and banning commissions. I have mentioned this in my numerious blog such as these:
Comment on "Conflict of interest between bank and customer"
Insurance should not be "sold"
The article appear in Telegraph UK can be viewed here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/3518909/End-of-free-financial-advice.html
This is great news for UK. I have mentioned many many times that there is no such thing as free advice. Very few people beleived me and is willing to pay (at times knowingly) $10000 or $50000 in commissions but refuse to pay just $2000 in fee. Why? I believe that there is no way the industry can self-regulate and move to a fee-paying model unless regulator steps in. As the demand in the market for fee-paying advice is low and the demand for commission-based advice remains high, it will take an external force to move towards a fee-paying industry. Occassionally I'll receive emails from others saying that I am crazy and unrealistic in expecting people to pay for advice. I refuse to entertain such discouraging email. Once or twice a month, I receive fee-paying cases. Some FA firms also do fee-paying cases. It is just that the demand is very low. I hope MAS can take their rightful leadership role to ban commissions altogether.
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