What will be asset managers' role as advice gap widens?

The news the government and the FCA are to launch a major review into consumer access to financial advice has been widely welcomed.

However, as with so many such initiatives, the time to act surely should have been before, rather than after the event; in this case the introduction of pensions freedom, which immediately created an urgent advice need. This situation has been worsening for some years, even before the Chancellor announced the seismic pension changes in last year's Budget. Long before the final implementation of the Retail Distribution Review in 2012, advisers and industry commentators had warned that although the new regime would be largely beneficial for end consumers, an unwelcome by-product would b...