Home Equity Loan
Financial Adviser
The job of a Financial Adviser is to offer financial advice. The term is
typically (but not exclusively) used in the UK.
Please note the spelling financial adviser (common in Britain) is adopted above
financial advisor (common in the US) for the purposes of this article.
Most Financial Advisers receive their remuneration by commission payments on the
contracts they arrange or through charging a fee for their services.
Advice or Sales
Before Financial Advisers there were insurance salesman. The transition from
salesman to adviser is a subtle one and can be an exercise in semantics.
Essentially a salesman sells where as an adviser advises. To try and make the
point here is an example:
Mr Smith is single, rich and lives on his own. He is worried about dying. If Mr
Smith sees a salesman he may be sold a life assurance contact. If he sees an
adviser he may be told he does not need any life assurance as he has no
liabilities and payment on death may compound his inheritance tax problem.
Multiple Titles
Financial Advisers have be known by many names! It is a seemingly endless task
for marketing departments to come up with new titles to add a subtle spin:
e.g. personal consultants, account adviser, financial planner, personal
financial planning consultant, individual finance manager etc...
Many titles are role specific. Other entries give more detail.
(a)
Independent Financial Adviser
(b)
Investment Adviser
(c)
Financial planner
(d)
Certified financial planner
(e)
Pension adviser
Independent
Under UK polaristion rules the concept of the Independent Financial Adviser or
IFA was born.
To be independent of any insurer or other third party interest ensures the
client receives unbiased advise.
The non-independent advisers are therefore company representatives, thus showing
where their priorities lie.
Since 1st December 2004 the Financial Services Authority has introduced a new
classification of multi-tied adviser who may represent more than one company.