24 Nov FSA Warn Against UCIS Myths

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) have announced that the myths being spread around by providers unregulated collective investment schemes (UCIS) are completely without merit and advisers will not need to sell the UCIS product to be RDR compliant, despite what the providers are claiming. The stronger definition of independent that is being laid out in the RDR had led to some fears from some IFAs that they would lose their independence if they did not advise on UCIS but the FSA has claimed that this is not the case, stating that the products could be ruled out entirely without compromising the advisers independence. In a newsletter the FSA commented "A firm's independent status will not be impacted if they never sell these products because they deem them to be unsuitable for their clients, for example because they are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. "We have significant concerns over the sales we have seen of these products recently, for instance in our thematic review in 2010. We also hear of instances where providers of Ucis are telling advisers that they must sell Ucis in order to be RDR-compliant."