qualifications

Trevor Matthews, CEO of Standard Life Assurance and newly appointed deputy president of the CII, says chartered status is a good level to aim at for the IFA industry.

New statistics released today show 150,000 consumers a year demand IFA qualifications to be above those required by law.

JPMorgan Asset Management has launched a free training school which offers advisers the chance to gain qualifications recognised by the Institute of Financial Planning.

For the vast majority of IFAs who have been offering sound advice to clients for years, the news from the RDR that a higher standard of adviser qualifications and professionalism is needed will have come as a shock.

Setting the standard for fully independent IFAs "too high" and "too quickly" will dramatically reduce the number of IFAs, says David Seaton, director of consultancy at Rowanmoor Pensions.

The Retail Distribution Review could "raise the bar" of adviser qualifications, and restrict the choice available in an attempt to create a comparable standard across the country.

The Investment Management Association has teamed up with the Securities and Investment Institute to offer a voluntary, stand alone investment qualification.

A vocational qualification for administrators of Self Invested Personal Pensions (Sipps) and Small Self Administered Schemes (Ssas) has been launched by the Pensions Management Institute.

IFA firm Towry Law has announced it expects all 200 wealth advisers to have achieved the Chartered Insurance Institute's Diploma in Financial Planning as a minimum benchmark qualification by the end of 2008.

In my blog last month I tried to brew up a storm with my suggestion that neither the public nor the regulator understood the difference between independent financial advice and independent financial sales.