Advisely Partner
Advisely PartnerI am really looking forward to doing this AMA. I am sure that people have lots of questions on DBFO and CSLR and would want to find out how they will actually work. Please give me your questions.
Hi Phil, what are you views with regards to Records of Advice (ROAs) going forward. If the SOAs are going to be reduced down to a much smaller document, will ROAs go completely or will they still exist? They are another document that takes up time and adds little (no) value to the Adviser / Client relationship.
Advisely PartnerThanks Craig. That has not been a focus of the consultation so far, where most of the interest has been on what will happen with Statements of Advice. I assume that RoAs will be retained in some form, given that there is less in an RoA and it can be delivered verbally in many cases, without the need to provide a copy of the RoA to clients (although Licensees may mandate this). Verbal provision of advice, or at least no mandated written version, is more in line with the original Michelle Levy QAR recommendation and has strong merits.
The Government thinks that something needs to be given to a client when advice is provided, and thus they are talking about reducing what needs to be provided, rather than eliminate it. Wherever we land in terms of what needs to be in an advice document, I certainly hope that they will also look at what needs to be provided in the case of further advice, where advice has previously been provided. Hopefully improvements can be made in this area as well.
