The Retail Distribution Review (RDR), a pending general election, continued post-financial crisis fall-out and depleted consumer trust levels are all combining to reshape the landscape within which Britain’s financial advisers work.

This year is set to be a watershed year for the UK financial services industry. The recommendations from the RDR are taking shape in a post-general election environment, while there are also existing challenges of rebuilding trust among clients and consumers as the dust settles on the financial woes of the past two years.

With this in mind, CoreData Research has undertaken an extensive review of the industry’s financial intermediary market to better understand the present and likely future composition of the advice market.

This study is the largest ever in the UK to focus specifically on understanding the behaviour of financial advisers.

Importantly the project is being undertaken at a critical juncture for the financial services sector. In fact, with so much change apparent in the industry the timing of the study is ideal.

The primary aim of the study is to produce an industry leading assessment of the whole UK advice market. It aims to provide manufacturers with insight as to what they can expect over the next three years from advisers by incorporating all the internal and most of the external factors that influence planner behaviour and actions.

A sample of more than 1,500 British financial advisers has been randomly selected to participate in this study and provide in-depth information in relation to a broad collection of advice related matters and issues.

In addition, a series of attitudinal assessments will be made in light of advisers answering specific behavioural questions.

In all, nowhere will change be as pronounced as what is likely to occur in Britain this year.

The US, with its clearer and predominantly tied-agent structure, is unlikely to morph notably this year.

Meanwhile, this is also likely to be the case in the markets of Commonwealth countries such as Australia, Canada, and South Africa, where the IFA non-IFA markets are clearer cut.

In Australia, there have been reviews but the outcomes are unlikely to change the Big Four bank-dominated structure of the industry and are only likely to tinker with other areas, such as fees versus commissions, and better transparency and disclosure.

However, this is not the case in Britain where there is real fear that once the dust settles on RDR, which has an inherent mandate to strip the notion of IFA from advisers unless they are offering true-all-of-market products, there will be very few identifiable IFAs left at all.

A shame for an industry that may be shot down before it has the chance to grow.

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