FSA brings Mifid advisers and wealth managers under remuneration code

And in plain English, this means what?

The FSA mumbles on about not using jargon whenever possible but this is all that eems to come out of Canary Wharf.

So what does this mean exactly? What is "beyond"?

SO, waiting three years for a bonus will improve the advice and service I give my clients because....?? No, sorry, don't have an answer to that one!

Personally I can't see why this article is difficult to understand.

Public servant attitudes telling private sector how to run businesses, it's never worked. Are they having a laugh?

Why dont they just concentrate on learning enough about the Industry to correctly regulate it and stop interfering with all the peripheral stuff.

By bonus - does this include dividends?

I have no problem with this (or the article) As a hard-working small provincial firm we can only dream of these sorts of numbers. As for bonuses, are they not the preserve of bankers and regulators?

Presumably the FSA will apply the same principle to its own staff's bonuses in the spirit of open-ness and equality.

Love Duncan Carter's final comment.

Pious hope of course with these self-serving puppets.

I'm assuming this refers to large IFA/Banks and the small firms (the majority of IFAs) will not be be subject to these rules. i.e. as a 1-5 IFA/director firms run under a limited company the majority will probably be taking dividends and there will be no 'incentive' payments.

Beyond, remuneration strategies, 'RDR' and 'going forward' proposals, are more people taking out pensions and are more people buying the protection they need?

So much of the business is now concentrated on 'switching', 'transfering' etc., leaving people in much the same state as they were, but with a different company's name on their policy document.

The focus of the FSA should be, to ensure that consumers have adequate financial planning. The FSA should not simply play 'parking warden', to see how many advisers they can 'catch' parking on 'double yellow lines'.

As they probably say in Canery Wharf-' are they have a larf' and what about they bonuses or even some of their over inflated salaries? - As Teri said why dont they learn more about what we do as IFAs and stop looking at the small stuff- in anger from Twickenham !!

Come on guys ~ we've all known for years that the FSA's response to any objections from those it regulates is "Do as we say, not as we do". So there's absolutely no chance of anyone at the FSA taking a dose of its own medicine. Financial probity and fiscal responsibility are modus operandi for other people to observe, but not us. We're the FSA, so none of that applies to how we run our own shabby ship.

"failure must not be rewarded"

Why does the FSA pay its staff bonuses?

So an employed adviser must forego part of his bonus for 3 years. The Director of the company that employs him/her can draw dividends based on the profits of this business written without having to defer his/her income. Will the FSA compensate the employed adviser if the company goes bust without paying them their deferred bonus? And will this prevent self employed advisers from writing as much business as possible to detriment of clients?

They are just hoping to stop firms from going under when they are under stress, resulting in claims on FSCS/govt bail outs and the like.

They want financial firms to be adequately capitalised, whether they are a bank, a stockbroker or an IFA. We will see this theme grow more legs over time in my opinion.

The FSA sees remuneration paid as capital not added to the balance sheet.

Will FSA staff have their bonuses deferred ? And will they still reward mediocrity and failure as they presently do ? I thought the lunatics were all in the asylum. I'm wrong - some escaped to the regulator ! There are huge problems in society and our world. When are we going to get real and divert some of the massive cost of over-regulation to issues that really matter ?

What is a bonus? If I have a contract that gives me a percentage of income I earn for the firm, is that a bonus? Why should that be deferred and how are sole proprietorships and partnerships supposed to provide 'other equivalent non-cash instruments' ? This has not be thought through by anybody who understands the issues.

Well... This article is just another reason why we should support the current gov. idea to SCRAP the FSA! Bring on the new boys!

Severance payments should reflect performance over time and 'failure must not be rewarded', the code states.

The FSA will be applying this to it's employees and not passing it to charities paid for by IFA's then?

I believe their bonus pot at the FSA was £21.6 million, I might be wrong. So is this now going to be deferred, surely this is good news as the levy to cover this will surely be deferred too. Mind you what did they do to achieve a bonus?

Back to the real world so say i have a £10,000 bonus i have to defer £4000 for 3yrs. So say that is a real part of my remuneration package could that result in me suffering financial hardship. I cannot see how or why a regulator should interfere to that extent over and above the interference to date.

This isnt regulation its fiscal control. Regulation is about ensuring that products are sold in a proper fashion and that advisers behave professionally. As for RDR and the move to fees this is yet another step outsifde what the majority of adviser believe regulation should be.

And still we sit back and accept it because we are small voices. Even the networks are small voices. Its about time the industry harnessed its collective might against the FSA' s finger in every pie approach.

United we could stand but divided as we are we are bound to fall.

How long will it take a smart lawyer to devise a scheme that gets round this? Will the rules apply to the regulators?

Sorry, this story is nonsense.

Firstly, FSA are proposing to extend the 'remuneration code' to 'CAD investment firms'. In English, most IFAs are NOT subject to CAD (because they are covered by the Article 3 MiFID exemption) There are a couple of exceptions e.g. if you're doing discretionary, but that's the size of it.

Secondly, FSA are proposing to distinguish 'code' from 'non-code' staff i.e. its only 'management' in asset/investment management firms who'd get affected. And then there's the small point about it not applying to divis in owner run businesses etc.

These FSA restrictions will NOT apply to most IFAs and the headline of this article appears to be over-stating things...

MIB -

Precisely echoes what Anon 666 said.

For intelligent people they really are adroit in shooting themselves in the foot.

I think there is a distinct lack of training and ability in Canary Towers. One of the most important skills these people should possess is communication - and that is very sadly lacking.

Sensitivity would also be a welcome attribute. Statements such as 'failure must not be rewarded' do rather show an amazing lack on nous and sensitivity.

'failure must not be rewarded', the code states.

despite that this will not apply to the vast majority of Advisers it does sound a bit rich coming from a FAILED REGULATOR!

As failure is not to be rewarded, when are the bonuses (golden handshakes and pensions) paid to failing bank bosses going to be repaid? How will the present government prevent such 'watertight' contracts from ever being written again? Not so, I think; after all where do many of our politicians go when they leave parliament?

Since when has remuneration come under the remit of the regulators? The FSA has 5 statutory objectives - market confidence, public awareness, financial stability, consumer protection & the reduction of financial crime. Have a look at this link for more info -

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pages/About/Aims/Statutory/index.shtml

This has nothing to do with any of these objectives so why put so much effort into Orwellian doublespeak? Are we going to have a repeat of the last Government's antics in the next 2 years - i.e. creating a raft of communications, rule changes, enforcements etc for the sake of it as they know they will not be in existence come the end of 2012?

I love the Industry I have been in it for 15 years. Now have the Diploma and working towards Chartered. It's not easy revising, keeping up to date with regulation changes (not normally for the better), marketing, making appointments, doing recommendations, reviewing clients investments and objectives, trying to pay FEES, FEES more FEES. All I want to do is give professional advice to clients that I value and they value me, with a personal touch, earn a good living with a view to eventually retire comfortably knowing I have benfited my clients and myself. Is that selfish? Is it unreasonable to have ambition coupled with integrity, professionalism and hard work? Someone explain to me what is gradually happening to us because I am starting to get very confused and I like to think that with 18 years military service leaving as a Warrent Officer, a Degree and a few Diploma I am not that stupid or am I?

That's a very good question.....................all answers in writing to..........!!!!!

LOB!

How is a deferred bonus taxed? Is it effectively an interest free loan to HMRC by either the employee or the employer?

Strange. The FSA, that is, and yes we are bit MIFFED. Regulation already takes away any human spare capacity, so now the FSA wants to control and limit IFAs income and profitability. If the FSA is going to control the top end, will it not equally bail IFAs out (like the banks) if they make losses of say 40% or more??? Or is it just happy to bankrupt IFAs both now and in their retirement through the removal of long stops, denial of human rights and justice ?

The 1963 film The Running Man starring Arnold Schwarzennegger is a vision all IFAs should all now be afraid of…

"By 2019, the global economy has collapsed and American society has become a totalitarian police state, censoring all cultural activity. The government pacifies the populace by broadcasting a number of game shows in which convicted criminals fight for their lives."

IFAs have become 'The Running Man" except IFAs would add...

"The Totalitarian police state was introduced following research into how the UK modelled the FSA in its tried and tested system of repression of IFAs in the UK from FSMA 2000 onwards"

The FSA model will only stop when it has conformist robots or computers to do the work of IFAs. This is the only IFA model that works and will fit into their vision of a perfect regulators dream.

Qualified advisers are not the issue. Total control of a human IFA is their goal as they cannot understand IFAs have real lives, feelings, a family to support etc.

The FSA have no regard or understanding for how an IFA attempts to run their lives. An IFA is after all a human creation, who lives and breathes air, bleeds if the cell is penetrated,. and has a free thinking brain to move arms, legs and a conscious mind to understand how decisions made by the out of control FSA are incompatible with how a human can operate on a day to day basis.

IFAs shift paperwork and use computers to comply, they press buttons on PCs to back up and record data to be used as the audit trail by the all powerful FSA and lawyers for their benefit. They fool to deceive, operating under the mask of protection of the consumer, forcibly paid for by IFAs to uphold the FSA’s own corrupt system.

The FSA has never commissioned a report into how their non stop ‘takeover’ of human IFA lives affects the person to carry out their daily lives. The UK has now truly turned Britain into a big brother state. Now the FSA has started to use its stealth policy making processes to control IFA income. The ‘Strange’ article i.e. above story is clearly the masked pilot for this.

FSA wants to monitor IFA's every minutiae detail, deny IFAs human rights, control each IFA’s finances, and ultimately in future to programme their feelings. You cant say the FSA dont offer IFAs a choice. A Hobson's choice.

Conform or Cease to be an IFA. If you cease to be an IFA you will regain your freedom and rights and be free from tyranny and oppression of the FSA.Upon ceasing as an IFA, then you can start to deal with your personal affairs, neglected thanks to unnecessary FSA red tape, you can start to see your children, deal with family or your aging parents affairs as they face later life crisis. Your IFA skills will serve you and your family well when seeking state benefit or another career, albeit you have no supporting income until you find something else. Sadly the FSA can come back to bite you at age 75 if you have missold in 2005, to ruin your life and deprive the local authority of funding to meet your nursing home and long term care fees. Sadly your clients will be all the worse off. Probably you understood their affairs or put in place provision for them. Now they are bereaved or their lives affected.

FSA do not need humans. FSA only require human IFAs for one thing. Like financial leeches they suck the human IFAs dry of their money, so they (the FSA) can thrive and survive. The FSA take on board the message so many IFAs have given literally them to ‘go forth and multiply’ but they use this only to swell their numbers. We need Arnold Schwarzenneger to come back one more time this time as the Terminator. Target: remove FSA and the repression it stands for-no further consultation necessary.

The FSA don’t yet have the power to control the human IFA’s mind. Further FSA funding is necessary to develop enforcement drugs specially to dose up the IFA community post 2012. FSA work on the basis that IFAs are not human 'cells', who bleed, have bodily functions, have children, grandchildren and lives outside spending 24 hours in financial services.

FSA stands for total power, total control, totally transparent – its totalitarianism in everything they do and stand for and how they are constituted.

Unless FSA power is checked, UK society will be the embodiment of the ultimate total police state within a100 years. People will remember where FSA roots began and in what decade and century…Fast forward to the year 2110 when an all powerful computer now with human feelings is asked a question. Computer, when did this sad state of affairs all begin?? Computer says, “planet earth, year 2000, coordinates, London UK…affirmative.”

Many IFAs will empathise with the film Terry Gilliams 1983 film ‘Brazil’ and will begin to see comparisons with the FSA. Is this just a bad dream for IFAs or do we need Tuttle and other members of the resistance to break down the FSA’s Information Retrieval system - calling Robert de Niro/ Tuttle...

“Tuttle and other members of the resistance break in to the Ministry. The resistance shoots Jack, rescues Sam, and blows up the Ministry building as they flee. Sam and Tuttle run off together, but Tuttle disappears amid a mass of scraps of paper from the destroyed Ministry.”

For the moment it looks like IFAs have no escape from an out of control FSA or CPMA, a totalitarian tool in the hands of whatever the ‘government of the day.’ E & O.E.

Quote from CP "The CP will also be of interest for other FSA-authorised firms, as the scope of the Code will probably extend in future to other firms via other Directives."

What does that mean?