Advice gap over with-profits policies

Nearly two thirds of financial advisers believe that their peers fail to talk “at least occasionally” to clients about their with-profits policies, according to a Mori poll commissioned by the FSA, even though there are currently 32 million such policies in force in the UK. Just over half of the sample of 601 advisers thought that financial advisers as a whole are averse to advising on existing with-profits policies. IFAs may be in breach of Principle 6 (TCF) if they have an ongoing advice relationship with a client or offer full advice to a new client and do not review any with-profits policies held, says the FSA.