When choosing a financial adviser, it’s important to understand what type of service you are getting. Financial advisers offer ‘independent’ or ‘restricted’ advice. Find out what this means and how they charge for their services.
Financial advisers – Independent versus Restricted advice
Professional financial advisers fall into two categories – independent and restricted. It’s important to understand the difference – it can have a big impact on the type and range of advice you’ll get.
Independent financial advisers
To be able to call themselves independent, financial advisers must:
• Be able to offer advice on the full range of investment products (see below) – and from the full range of providers in the market.
• Make a fair and comprehensive analysis of the relevant products available and recommend a suitable one for you in the light of your circumstances and needs.
• Be free form any influence that could stop them reccomending the best product for you.
Investment products include:
• Stock market based investments where the return on your money isn’t guaranteed – eg unit trusts, OEICs and other managed funds
• Life policies
• Pensions
• Annuities
If you’re looking for general advice about your financial situation, an independent adviser would probably be best for you as they will have access to the full range of products across the market.
Restricted financial advisers
A restricted financial adviser is one who:
• Only recommends certain types of investment product, and/or
• Only recommends products from a limited number of providers
In practice, this means they may:
• Specialise in a particular type of product (for example, pensions or ethical investments), or
• Cover a wider range of product types but only recommend products from a limited number of providers, or
• Offer a limited number of product types from a limited number of providers.
Restricted firms cannot use the word ‘independent’ to describe the advice they offer, that’s WHY hemisphere Financial offer the very best of choices by flying the non restrictive role
Make sure your financial adviser is FCA registered, Whether offering an independent or restricted service, anyone recommending investments must be registered with the Financial Conduct Authority, and must be approved to offer advice – not just to offer information.
If you use a financial adviser who is not approved by the FCA, you won’t have any right to compensation if you lose money because of bad advice they give you. That’s why we are fully registered as Independent Financial Advisors with an FCA registration of 647062.
You can always find us listed on the FCA database as fully registered individuals.
Speak to a Chartered Independent Hemisphere Financial Ltd Adviser today