It’s important we can all access advice and products to meet our financial goals, and that these are clear and represent good value.

While there are some people who feel confident in their own abilities to make their own financial arrangements, for the majority of us financial advice plays a vital role in planning for the future.

Financial advice already takes a number of forms but these are likely to change over the next few years as the Financial Services Authority’s (FSA) Retail Distribution Review (the ‘Review’) takes shape (see our factsheet).

There are a number of drivers to the Review, including:

• a desire to keep improving the quality of the professional advice sector
• recognising the need to find alternative ways of making advice available to more customers, particularly modest earners
• supporting the development of a generic advice service, and
• evolving the way advisers are paid so that customers better understand the value of advice

Alongside the Review the FSA is also looking at the operation of wraps and platforms. These administrative platforms are becoming increasingly common in the UK and it is right for the regulator to think about how they’re used.

As a major manufacturer of financial products and the owners of a significant share of the advisory market, we fully support the aims of both of these reviews. For the Retail Distribution Review to be successful, all interested parties (providers, advisers, regulator, trade and professional bodies) will have to work together – and we intend to take an active part.