Advisers generally don’t like exams – was the take home message of a historical debate in the UK Parliament on Monday night.

The debate on financial advice in the House of Commons late into the evening at the beginning of the week turned out to be a one sided affair as MPs under pressure from adviser constituents questioned the merits of certain aspects of the Retail Distribution Review (RDR).

More than 30 MPs took to the floor with approximately 80 in attendance despite the late kick off, yet the only apparent Devil’s Advocate present – Financial Secretary to the Treasury Mark Hoban – was reluctant to enter into debate and instead merely recited a nine minute prepared statement as to why RDR will proceed in its current format.

This resulted in a series of soap box statements by the various MPs – one fears under pressure from adviser constituents.

The MPs seemed to centre on the notion of grandfathering and whether the elder statesmen of the IFA community should be required to sit the various RDR exams, considering their already extensive experience.

The next morning, the explosion of industry chatter through the various news boards suggest that the whole event is likely to have fallen on deaf ears with a sense the Financial Services Authority (FSA) is unlikely to heed any of the issues raised by the MPs who spoke.

The fear among some, but not all IFAs (some are championing the whole concept of RDR) is that the new changes to the industry that are due to commence in earnest on January 1, 2012 will force potentially thousands of advisers to leave the industry.

The debate in the House of Commons heard the now consensus estimate reiterated – derived from a CoreData Research study in March 2010 – that up to 3,000 advisers could leave the industry as a result of RDR.

The following are some of the quirkier comments on news website IFAOnline:

1. I have to say this is the best TV I have seen in months. Who shall we vote out first?
2. Am planning to switch to EastEnders for more realistic and lifelike viewing.
3. Can you get me a shirt with: “I nearly topped myself during the RDR debate”