qualifications

The FSA says the cost of assessing qualification requirements - mainly stemming from plans to publish a qualification list - amounts to £60,000 each year.

The Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment (CISI) is launching an alternative assessment option for existing advisers from August.

Tenet is launching an entry-route foundation degree, giving budding IFAs the opportunity to begin working as advisers whilst studying for the qualification.

Sesame Bankhall Group has launched an online qualifications tool to help members map out an examination route to be RDR-ready.

A swathe of new RDR exams have left advisers "confused" and "crossing their fingers" their current qualifications will still be valid after 2012.

Tenet is linking with the IFP to offer advisers who already hold certain qualifications a way of achieving QCF Level 6 without having to sit a formal exam.

This week we speak to the founder of South-Shields based paraplanning company The Paraplanning House.

Are IFAs becoming too dependant on paraplanners, or not enough? Professional Adviser's features editor Joanna Faith looks at the evolving role of the paraplanner.

Fresh concerns over advisers' minimum qualifications surfaced this week after the trade body for IFAs launched its own exam option at a level above that proposed in the RDR.

So it appears advisers yet to reach the RDR's minimum qualification requirement (the equivalent of QCF Level 4, or, in equally confusing terms, about the same as the first year of an Honours degree) can be assessed via case studies and coursework, instead...