Contrarian: Beating the brokers at their own game

CONTRARIAN

What is the industry going to do about the growing legion of orphaned clients? Various studies I have seen suggest the final number ranges between a few million in 2013 up to as many as 16 million by the middle of the decade.

Obviously, the high street banks will be trying to figure out how to peddle (largely rubbish) products via restricted and simple advice, but even they might face some reputational ‘challenges’. Some advisers are trying to innovate and develop online-based models that allow a customer to be served for, say, £20 a month. Two challenges are immediately obvious – how do you tell a big enough group of people that you are only charging £20 a month, and how do you then make business numbers add up without sitting on a client list of millions of customers? Besides advisers and banks, there is...