So we’re up and running in 2013. The Retail Distribution Review (RDR) is here, the world didn’t end as people had interpreted from the Mayan prophecy, and so far markets have been behaving themselves.

Worryingly the European Central Bank (ECB) has proclaimed a return to ‘normalisation’ across markets and investors thus far are in a buoyant mood as equity prices rise and valuations swell by billions. Drinking glasses, it seems, are half full – a stark contrast to the bleak view of events that preceded the Christmas period.

Strong market performance is exactly what the advice community needs this year. That and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) adopting as pragmatic an approach in administering the new regulatory regime as it can. In an ideal world for advisers, something akin to the tweaked and pragmatic actions of those behind the Basel III directive at the start of the year, when regulators softened the blow to the banking sector by broadening the assets the latter can hold and be deemed ‘sufficiently’ liquid and extending the timeframe for adherence until 2019.

Banking industry matters aside, this study is about advice and funds management.

Advisers as a collective are changing in many ways in order to adjust to the brave new world under RDR.

However, for approximately one in five advisers, post-RDR life will be business as usual. Apart from the onerous paperwork and prospective visits from regulators to check if all is well, for this one-fifth of the adviser market, life continues as before.

It is the middle and bottom of the ‘pear’ where the primary changes and challenges will be made and presented.

The biggest creeping change across the industry will be the growing shift towards outsourcing, as advisers turn inwards to focus on the ‘bread and butter’ of what clients are paying them for – advice.

Naturally this is coming from a low base as only 4% and 27% of advisers currently (fully or partially), respectively, outsource the investment process to a discretionary fund manager (DFM), while the lion’s share of advisers do not use paraplanners.

This will change, starting this year. By the end of 2013, approximately 6% and 32% will fully or partly outsource the investment process to a DFM, while almost 3,000 additional advisers will start utilising the services of a paraplanner (a split of in-house and third party firm usage).

In what is a snowballing trend, as outsourcing increases, the cost of delivering these services should fall both from an investment perspective (DFMs) and administration point of view (paraplanning). This should then accelerate demand even further as it makes even less sense for advisers to be doing this in-house.

At an industry level, we could begin seeing strategic acquisitions by large asset management firms of both small- and medium-sized DFMs and also third-party paraplanning firms.

We can expect to see the influence in ‘investment solution’ decision making by advisers reduce over time – starting with the near 3,000 who will move to a partial DFM outsourced relationship by the end of 2013. займы на карту займ на кошелёкзайм без фото с паспортомбыстрый займ в спб