ISAs & PEPs news

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14 March, 2007

As ISA season is fully upon us and the new tax year is looming, even more people are searching for a knowledgeable IFA who can advise them on the best plan of action, as well as the best financial products, for the year ahead.

In response to this, unbiased.co.uk have implemented weekly checks on their 16,600 registered IFAs at over 9,000 different organisations, which ensures that they are fully authorised by the FSA.

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This reassuring news is in addition to the 100 per cent audit carried out by the site each year which ensures that all listed IFAs meet strict membership criteria. This means that the firms must: offer whole of market independent advice; have an investment IFA based at the branch; and offer a fees options for each product area listed in their top eight.

The new weekly check ensures that the IFAs are registered with the FSA (a mandatory requirement if they want to practice), that they are active within the field and that they are working at the same firm through which they are registered at the FSA.

Any listed member who fails these checks is immediately removed from unbiased.co.uk’s database so users know that the information they are receiving is the most up to date and comprehensive that they can get.

Chief executive of unbiased.co.uk, David Elms, says: “We have been working hard to make a number of changes to maintain the hygiene factor of the database and overall search experience. We believe we are the only source of 100 per cent genuine IFAs as even the FSA does not have this information.

“We also ask IFAs for information on which incremental qualifications/designations they hold and this is also verified with the corresponding awarding bodies. We hope to make even more changes to this part of the database in the coming months.”

Elms also goes on to point out an possible future move which is very interesting indeed from the point of view of the consumer: “Unbiased.co.uk has recently approached the FSA asking them to consider data capturing IFAs payment methods – either ‘fees or commission’ or ‘fees only’, and to make this selection criteria available to consumers looking for local IFAs”

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