Despite this we are starting to see an increase in advisors
leaving the market. There are undoubtedly many reasons for this such as
mergers, retirements and unfortunately business failures, however when we looked at the Central Banks Annual report published in April we were surprised at number of revocations in 2012 versus the number of new authorisations.
2012
|
No of Retail Intermediaries( including authorised
advisors, multi-agency intermediaries, mortgage intermediaries)
|
3238
|
|
No of Retail Intermediaries- Authorisations
|
253
|
|
No of Retail Intermediaries Revocations
|
797
|
The report also highlighted that of the 797 revoked
licences, 191 related to tied insurance intermediaries.
At the start of this year there were 1: 1389
advisors per head of ROI population. Interestingly when you compare
this to the UK market and CF30 Authorised Advisors the figure is 1:2265.
Despite this figure over 1100 UK advisors left the market in the last 18
months, RDR has been cited as the biggest influencing factor.
The US is seeing a similar trend in that the advice market
is contracting at -2.3% per annum.
Unfortunately we don’t have a crystal ball but It’s
reasonable to project that numbers in Ireland will continue to contract particularly
if we adopt a version of the UKs regulatory framework. It is also
reasonable to predict that those those who opt to stay in the market will
have to adapt to a changing industry but the question id like to pose to the
readers of our blog is .. “ Do you think that the Irish public will benefit
from less advice in the market?”
Hi Michael,
ReplyDeleteInteresting piece - thanks for posting.
I'd see an opportunity in the figures. If the number of advisors is shrinking, then that means less competition for those who stay.
Undoubtedly the challenges will continue: compliance, uncertainty over pensions legislation, recessionary times to name but a few. But I think there's a great opportunity for those advisors who choose to stay the course.
My hope would be that the snake-oil salesmen will find it too difficult to remain compliant so those who are left will be the professionals, which will be no harm for our industry as a whole.