Last Thursday I had the pleasure of attending the Professional Adviser awards at the Park Lane Hilton. The event was well attended, especially considering the difficult times we are living through.

As always the food was fantastic, the entertainment (a lady with a Monkey!) was good and the networking opportunities invaluable. The focus of the night however were of course the awards themselves. These were many and varied but I thought it worth mentioning a few that stood out from a technology perspective.

The first award worth mentioning was the award for Best Software Provider. Shortlisted for this award were 1st The Exchange, IntelliFlo, Prestwood and CCL. While I have written much about Prestwood and their software Truth in the past this was always going to be a battle between the two giants of the IFA Software market, IntelliFlo and 1st The Exchange. The battle has been going on for some years and feels a bit like the best soap opera awards at National Television Awards where the winners oscillate between Eastenders and Corrie. This year the honours at the Professional Adviser awards went to IntelliFlo, with 1st The Exchange getting an honourable mention.

IntelliFlo has made big strides in the last couple of years and grown their user base considerably. As one of the first IFA software solutions to embrace the world of SaaS (Software as a Solution) and still the leading SaaS world, their award is well deserved.

The award for best Online Tool was another battle involving IntelliFlo and 1st Software. This time however they were both pipped to the post by MorningStar. I have always found the Morningstar team professional and helpful and their application is gaining some major traction in the market at the moment. Other online tools consider were the TCF Centre from FinQS, a nice customer surveying tool, Trustnet and tools from Scottish Widows, AEGON and Skandia.

The award for best data provider saw 1st The Exchange go up against Assureweb, Morningstar, Trustnet and Lipper. This time 1st The Exchange came out winners with Assureweb getting an honourable mention. AT8 are just completing our annual survey of the portal market and while we continue to be impressed with the progress Assureweb are making, it is clear that Exweb from 1st The Exchange still leads this market providing the widest coverage of products and dominating in terms of market share.

AT8 have Infoblogs (factsheets) on Assureweb, Exweb, IntelliFlo, 1st The Exchange are available in or library section.

• FSA has restated that the 2012 deadline for the full implementation of RDR remains
• Some had hoped that more time would be given, especially to achieve the QCF level 4 qualification standard
• Some felt that the potential change of Govt would see RDR dropped or delayed – this is considered highly unlikely

• The proposal for an ‘Independent’ Professional Standards Board’ separate from the FSA has been changed to one that is to be a ‘subsidiary’ of the FSA
• CII and others argue that this limitation of ‘independence’ will reduce the intended increase in public confidence

• Alternative study routes to achieve QCF 4 are now being considered
• In CP09/18, there was talk of an ‘Oral’ route
• May consider ‘coursework’ or ‘practical assessment’, but it is subject to meeting a number of listed criteria, it
must satisfy the qualifications regulator and is still unclear and likely to remain so until the end of Q1 2010

• An ‘independent’ assessment of Competence may be required for advisers who are not a member of a Recognised Professional Body (RPB)
• Will we see a growth in Recognised Professional Bodies (RPBs)?
• RPBs will need to satisfy themselves that its members are competent
• Need to be careful of advisers trying to exploit any standards arbitrage between RPBs

• The FSA has published a list of ‘no regrets’ qualifications
• Still not agreed the ‘benchmark’ qualification but expect this mid 2010
• ‘Gap filling’ between the current qualification and the ‘benchmark’ qualification will be required to be completed before 2012

• FSA acknowledges that ‘consumer awareness’ is likely to see an increase in customer complaints
• Improved financial awareness should reduce ‘ignorant satisfaction’ with inappropriate advice
• TCF and regular customer review assessments should be carried out to identify and address individual or systemic issues early

• Protection business is confirmed as being allowed to operate with commission based remuneration
• ‘Pure protection’ with no investment element
• Need to be careful that ‘specialism’ doesn’t disadvantage advice in other need areas
• Although still seeking feedback, the FSA seems inclined to require the same Professional standards to be applied to Protection Advisers (QCF Level 4)
• The FSA also feels that ‘Adviser labelling’ (‘Independent’ and ‘Restricted’, should also apply to Protection)
• Protection commission needs to be disclosed

• GPP advice will be subject to ‘Consultancy Charging’ previously referred to as ‘Arranger Charging’
• The ‘Consultancy Charge’ is intended to be agreed with the employer for setting up and managing the scheme and it may be paid for by the employer or deducted from the employees GPP funds in a manner and amount agreed by the employer that is disclosed to the employee – ‘Adviser Charging’ may also apply where personal investment advice is given to individual employees
• HMRC will regard ‘reasonable’ (market cost) Consultancy Charging as ‘Scheme Administration members payment’ and not unauthorised deduction incurring tax charges
• A consequence/concern could be for employers to offset the ‘Consultancy Charge’ against the funding level and so reduce the amount going towards pension benefits
• FSA has said that it will not allow factoring by Product Providers in respect of GPPs
• There was a concern that Providers and Advisers could exploit a loophole by selecting ‘Occupational Pensions’ (not covered by FSA regulation) instead of GPPs in order to obtain commission via what is a similar benefit vehicle (differences in benefit and tax treatment were more pronounced prior to Pensions act). The FSA has said that it will seek to ban commission payment on the underlying investments to avoid this being a risk
• GPP product providers estimated between £1m and £10m of costs associated with changing their products to comply with the proposed regime
• FSA has said that it wants to stop commission for ‘Basic Advice’ linked to Stakeholder GPPs

#socialmediafs is the Twitter hash tag given to the first day of a conference run by Philip Calvert of IFALife.

Having had an horrific journey through snow and ice yesterday, it was pleasing to see my efforts being rewarded by it turning out to be a really interesting day, with many and varied expert speakers, ranging from IFA firms to Google UK. The theme of the event revolved around the growth of social media and the potential for financial services firm to embrace it effectively. The audience comprised one-man band IFAs, product providers and solution providers – an eclectic mix!

The presenters and topics for the day were:

Alan Stevens, the Media Coach
Successful online PR strategies for IFAs and financial brands

Jaime Steele, North Financial Management
How to build a successful Social Media and online strategy within a financial planning practice

Nicola Webber, Digital Director at The Gate
How to build a Financial Services brand with Social Media

Thomas Power, Chairman of Ecademy
Know me, like me, follow me – Why Social Media matters in Financial Services

Mike Linskey, Director of Fincision Financial Services Business Consultancy
How the internet will drive the future of financial advice. The ‘perfect storm’ creating a golden age for distributors, manufacturers and early adopters

Lee Provoost, Technology Strategy at Headshift
Social Customer Self Service in the Financial Services sector

Nick Bamford, Chief Executive of Informed Choice
Is an online execution service the big opportunity IFAs have been waiting for?

Robert Pink, Financial Services at Google UK
Marketing through a Digital Lens – using the Internet to target and communicate with your customers

What struck me was how receptive the less knowledgeable businesses were to the new (to them) concepts – there were people making copious notes.

So what did I take away from the sessions?

Well – it has become vital to have a digital marketing strategy – an integrated strategy that encompasses the conventional and the digital, that projects the image, values and proposition of your particular business. Social media is emerging as a vital part of prospect or client contact – for some organisations, as we have discussed in previous blogs, it can augment knowledge of your product or service by direct contact with your target market, both good and bad.

Will it go away? Most certainly not – with Google adding realtime content into their natural search algorithms, live, relevant information is going to be even more important; that means businesses generating engaging and compelling content as a natural part of their output. Not doing it means missing out – not getting the attention of an audience who are using social media sites more than watching television, even those who were thought to be out of the ‘internet generation’, who are incidentally, one of the biggest growth categories of services like Twitter.

So get planning now – actively research your options – it is important!