RDR - it's no laughing matter

The key soundbite from last week's Retail Distribution Review that caught the eye of many parts of the media and industry commentators was the supposed ‘outlawing' of commission under the new agreement.

Commission has been latched onto as an issue of what may be wrong with the industry virtually from the original ‘A’ Day in April 1988 and there has never been any satisfactory conclusion to the date and there is nothing with RDR that will change this situation. There is nothing wrong per se with commission as a payment option for financial advice – what may be wrong is the level of that commission and the transparency mechanism for making the investor aware of that commission. The commission for selling unit trust-based business has been coming down for years, in truth since the adven...