What Next For DB Pensions Advisors?

The FCA has a working definition of a 'perfect storm' for a financial services business:

"An expanding commercial opportunity, entrepreneurial industry sector, high value investments available and low levels of consumer knowledge."

This statement is the perfect description of the specialist pension transfer advice sector which is under strong market and economic pressure and is facing a skills shortage among advisors.

The FCA is broadcasting its regulatory initiatives and findings not to enhance its own reputational standing but as a shot across the bows to this sector. Its expectations of the standard in advice processes, and firms' monitoring and oversight of those processes, are becoming ever more demanding. The most recently published findings from the FCA's review of 22 DB firms mean that this issue's RAG status will have shifted from amber to red. The FCA is likely to crystallise its expectations of firms in a 'Dear CEO' letter on this point, possibly