AIFA needs money. Your money. It won't admit that so I'm telling you instead. New director general Stephen Gay has ambitious plans for the organisation - really he does - but AIFA is in somewhat of a financial straitjacket.
It is accused of failing to represent the interests of the wider IFA community but, without the cash it needs, it is limited in what it can do to turn that perception around. So it was both a brave and necessary call this week to reveal the organisation would begin accepting ‘restricted' advisers - those who offer advice on a limited range of products or providers - as members. Necessary because the organisation would in no way benefit from limiting itself to a group of practitioners (IFAs) whose number will inevitably shrink after 2012. Brave because it risks alienating the very b...
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