At the risk of sounding facetious, an independent financial adviser is a person who gives independent suggestions about financial matters. In fact, stating the rather obvious in this way put an important stress on the three vital components of the independent financial adviser's role. Independent The independence of the adviser is crucial. When an independent financial adviser is consulted, it is very important know that he or she does not have any vested interest and can not be influenced in any way by selling an individual company's products. Independence means that the client can expect the adviser to act completely impartially, entirely in the client's best interests, and not since there is an established dependent relationship between the adviser and something particular supplier. The significance of this independence can't be stressed enough. The adviser needs to be licensed by and is regulated by the Financial Services Authority, and independence is something that is central to such recognition. The client's faith and trust in the adviser stems largely from the latter's independence. Financial An independent financial adviser will need expert professional knowledge of a huge range of financial loans and services. Because it has one of the most highly developed financial services industries on the globe, the sheer selection of products available on the British market means that knowledge and professionalism should be of the best order. Due to the sheer selection of subjects with which an independent financial adviser must be familiar, there exists a correspondingly wide variety of qualifications available to individual advisers. For example, the adviser may have professional qualifications awarded by the Chartered Financial Analysts (CFA) Institute, the Chartered Insurance Institute (CII), the Institute of Financial Planning (IFP), the non-public Finance Society (PFS), the Pensions Management Institute (PMI, the Securities and Investment Institute (SII), or others. More helpful hints , however, the adviser knows that his is really a constantly changing market, with new products and services emerging all the time. He or she can make it his or her business to stay completely abreast of these trends. Adviser As an adviser, the 3rd and vital element of the independent financial adviser's role harks back again to the first of their qualities, independence. The financial advice given must be best advice when recommending any service or product. That is to say, the advice should be the advice that's genuinely in the client's best interest. It is as though the adviser had stepped into the client's shoes and was giving advice entirely from the client's perspective. In this way, the client could be assured that the advice is truly independent, objective and impartial advice that will fulfill the interests that the client himself or herself has identified. Summary It is surprising the amount of meaning can be packed into the three words that describe the role of the independent financial adviser. But as the above brief, thumb-nail sketchy has shown, each of the three words encapsulates a simple and vital part of this professional's job. Each word describes the obligations that the adviser has towards each of his clients, in order that the clients, for his or her part, can rest absolutely assured they receive genuinely independent, well-informed and expert financial advice that will aid their own best interests.
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