Qualifications Guide
WOULD YOU KNOW YOUR ASFA FROM YOUR MAQ?
Call 0800 085 3250 or visit www.unbiased.co.uk for IFA Promotions free Guide to IFA Qualifications
Find local, professional IFAs with key qualifications at www.unbiased.co.uk
As the number and range of financial products on the market continues to proliferate and state help is pared back further, access to sound financial advice is becoming increasingly vital. To ensure consumers can find and identify local independent financial advisers with the most relevant mix of qualifications for their individual needs, IFA Promotion has today added the ability to search and select by additional qualifications to its freephone hotline and website service. To support this substantial development, IFA Promotion has produced a free Guide to IFA Qualifications, informing consumers about the various additional qualifications over and above the compulsory exams that IFAs can take and what they mean in practice.
The guide, supported by six financial examining bodies, details 17 major incremental exams advisers can take, over and above minimum requirements, from pensions planning to mortgage advice. The guide includes useful background information on what to look out for and how this relates to peoples financial circumstances. It also suggests a list of questions to ask your adviser and explains how to get hold of an IFA with the professional qualifications that suit your needs.
David Elms, Chief Executive of IFA Promotion, comments, Whilst all IFAs should have a good grasp of general financial planning through the compulsory Financial Planning Certificate exams, many people will, rightly, set stock by what additional training and qualifications an adviser may have under his or her belt of particular relevance to their individual planning needs.
Its vital that consumers have access to professional, local independent financial advice, and this additional information and choice can only help people find the help they need.
- more -
For a free copy of the guide, together with details of four local independent financial advisers who can talk through your options in detail, call the IFA Promotion consumer hotline on 0800 085 3250 or visit www.unbiased.co.uk
- e n d s -
For further information, please contact: | ||
David Elms | or | Shellie Wells/Liz Willder |
CEO |
| Lansons Communications |
Independent Financial Adviser Promotion |
| Tel: 020 7294 3677 |
Tel: 020 7833 3131 |
|
|
*Research conducted by BMRB during November 2001.
Notes to Editors
1. Independent Financial Adviser Promotion
Independent Financial Adviser Promotion Ltd. was established in 1989 to promote the value and accessibility of independent financial advice to the public. It represents nearly 10,000 firms of independent financial advisers across the UK and is sponsored by 28 leading financial institutions.
IFA Promotions central belief is:
Consumers have a right to financial advice that is independent of the providers of financial products - i.e. independent financial advice.
Furthermore independent financial advice should be:
Affordable. The option to take independent financial advice should be available, by right, to all - not just the wealthiest in society.
Convenient. IFAs should be available in the location of the consumers choice, wherever they live in the UK.
Transparent. It must be clearly transparent to consumers who is able to offer independent financial advice and who is not.
2. Independent Financial Adviser Promotions sponsors
AXA Sun Life | Prudential |
Barclays Global Investors Funds | Scottish Equitable Plc |
BUPA | Scottish Life |
Canada Life | Scottish Mutual Assurance Plc |
Clerical Medical Investment Group | Scottish Provident Institution |
Dresdner RCM Funds (UK) Ltd. | Scottish Widows Plc |
Eagle Star | Selestia |
Family Assurance Friendly Society Ltd | Standard Life Assurance Company |
Friends Provident | Swiss Life (UK) Plc |
INVESCO Fund Managers Ltd | The Skandia Group of Companies |
Legal & General | Tunbridge Wells Equitable Friendly Society |
National Mutual | Winterthur Life UK Ltd |
National Savings | Zurich Life Assurance Company |
Norwich Union Life |
|
NPI |
|