Perspective News

Julie Hepworth, group regulatory manager at Perspective Financial Group, reveals her six step plan to get your business RDR-ready by the December 2012 deadline.

As the clock struck midnight on 31 December 2011, no doubt most of you will have raised a glass, sung a verse of ‘Auld Lang Syne’ and perhaps made a New Year’s resolution or two.

I learnt a long time ago to only make resolutions that I had every intention of keeping so as not to feel disappointed later in year.

This year however is different. Putting the traditional dieting, drinking less, stopping smoking and taking more exercise to one side for a moment (not my own resolutions I hasten to add), the real, over-arching business focused-resolution has to be on, ‘What do I need to do differently to ensure that I hit the ground running on the 1 January 2013?’

By the time you read this we will already be motoring into 2012 and therefore we have less than 12 months to provide answers to that particular question. In order to ensure a positive response, here are a few of my ideas for RDR resolutions in case you haven’t already made yours:

The plan

1 Set a deadline

Firstly, set a deadline date of October 2012 for all advisers to have completed any remaining Diploma exams, plus completed their gap filling and to apply for their SPS. While the FSA has confirmed that it will allow some flexibility in that firms will have 60 days from 31 December 2012 to be granted independent verification, wouldn’t it be better to have all adviser’s RDR compliant by the first day of next year?

2 Commission

Monitor your firm’s progression with the move away from commission. Set yourself an increasing monthly adviser charging goal in terms of a percentage of new business revenue. This will give your advisers time to gain confidence with the transition in readiness for 2013.

3 Clients

It’s time to fine tune your Client Service Proposition. Listen to feedback from clients about what you already have in place, how it can be improved and make sure you act upon it. Now is the time to get it absolutely right and embed it into your daily routine and client conversations.

Ensure you have the right people in the right place to deliver your Client Service Proposition as efficiently as possible.

Make as many of your clients aware of your Client Service Proposition and seek their formal consent to delivering it, in order to ensure your existing renewal income streams are protected.

4 Independent?

Decide whether you are going to offer an independent or restricted advice service. If you opt for restricted and you use the term ‘independent’ in your firm name, leave yourself enough time to rebrand. If you opt for independent, identify where your development areas are in respect of the ‘Retail Investment Product’ (RIP) definition and leave yourself enough time to ensure you are competent to consider all RIPs by 1 January 2013.

5 Process

Make sure you have a tried and tested, robust, repeatable advice process firmly embedded in your business. Attempting to implement this in January 2013 will only distract you from the other significant changes that will be happening. Aim to get this perfected early on in 2012 and give yourself enough time to make any partnering and outsourcing decisions.

6 Back office

Get your back-office data in order. The final rules on data collation come into effect on 31 December 2012 and you will have to submit your first report for the new data requirements at the end of your first full reporting period after this date.

Act now

You should already be working on much of the above however, if you are not, it’s time to resolve to do so. There is time available to be able to achieve all your RDR goals and targets.

Now is definitely not the time to put off until tomorrow what could be done today.