You may have seen our Financial Services Director, Kelman Chambers, recently featured in Zurich’s Advice Matters magazine where two of his loyal clients discuss how Kelman’s advice has put them on the road to a prosperous retirement.

Now, Zurich has asked Kelman to discuss what would happen if he were King for a day…

“Enhancing the routes into financial services is something I feel strongly about. Gone are the days of the banks, direct sales or home services routes, so if I were King I’d ensure we all do our bit to attract younger recruits. We’ve taken on a couple of apprentices in the past two years and have plans to continue doing so.

I’d stabilise the changes in regulation and like to see it policed more effectively, instead of constantly updating the ample systems already in place. Each time there’s an accident we shouldn’t decrease the speed limit, but focus on catching the criminals who are speeding. Pension scammers are ignoring regulation and making more rules isn’t going to make them sit up and listen. Let’s focus on catching the bad guys.

There are a lot of mixed messages and jargon in our profession. Each and every step of the advice process should be clear and straightforward for the client, but a report that adequately ticks all of the regulatory boxes can end up being 60 pages long. A lot of information clients need may be hidden from plain view, so advisers need to be shown a simple way of covering simple way of covering all angles without overwhelming the client.

Finally, I’d like to make people more aware of their own responsibility when investing. There may be financial advisers and others out there who will happily take advantage, so clients need to understand the terms and conditions before signing on the dotted line and, assuming they do, take responsibility for their actions.

There are unfortunate case out there, but there are also plenty of ambulance chasers who leave good advisers jumping through hoops to prove their innocence.

There seem to be a lot of spurious claims floating around and as long as wrongful complaints can be made with impunity, honest firms will continue to bear the strain.

Click here to view the article on Zurich Advice Matters magazine.